Charlotte Lester disappeared from Warwick a year ago. Her family fears the worst

WARWICK – The way Charlotte Lester's family tells it, the bubbly Warwick woman had found happiness in her mid-40s.

She was as free-spirited as the tidal waters that lapped at the shores of the city's Arnold's Neck neighborhood. Drifting through the community with her poodle, Lester had ample time to devote to her favorite pastimes.

Talking to people was one. Another was trying to live up to a motto she had adopted, according to Kathy Wilson, who has served as a spokeswoman for Lester's mother and siblings since her disappearance in May 2022.

The motto was "Twenty good deeds a day," Wilson says. "She would share anything she had with anybody. She was happy. She liked her life."

Lester, 44, gave money to homeless people, volunteered for clothing drives at local churches and fed the ducks on Apponaug Cove, Wilson says.

"Everybody loved her," Wilson says. "She was magnetic."

She was brown-eyed, slim and attractive. She sometimes wore wigs. She stayed local. Crow's Nest Restaurant was a favorite.

"She lived her life in a very small circumference," Wilson says.

Lester's presence in the area was robust. It helped to highlight her sudden, unexplained absence last spring when she and her poodle, Chloe, stopped visiting the ducks. Her family knew that something was very wrong, Wilson says.

Charlotte Lester went missing from Warwick a year ago

Lester was seen for the last time at about 10 p.m. on Monday, May 16, 2022, according to a Warwick police news release. Lester was seen in Apponaug's marina area, Wilson says. About two days later, Chloe was found abandoned near Belmont Park, off Elmwood Avenue.

Lester was reported missing to police on Thursday, May 19.

The truck she drove, a Toyota Tacoma, turned up in the parking lot at Kent Hospital the next week. Police search activity in the Arnold's Neck neighborhood drew attention to a home that Lester had frequented. The house was a place that factored into speculation about the mystery in local media, including social media.

So far, Warwick police investigators have not provided any definitive evidence pointing to Charlotte's demise, and they have not accused anyone of perpetrating any crime against her. Her body has not been recovered.

"We're still working on it," said Warwick police Detective Capt. John McAniff.

Wilson emphasizes that Lester's family is satisfied with how Warwick police have handled the situation so far. The investigation marshaled by the family's hired investigator is busy, she says.

"It's definitely not a cold case," Wilson says.

Missing for a year, Charlotte Lester's disappearance still isn't a 'cold case'

Lester's family believes she is no longer alive and was the victim of a crime, Wilson says.

The family believes Lester was at risk last spring as she happily lived her shoreline life. The suggestion raises obvious questions about her lifestyle and whether someone she interacted with, perhaps someone she knew or a complete stranger, posed a threat.

The private investigator on the case, Edward Pelletier, declined to comment. Neither McAniff nor Wilson would comment further on any theories or promising leads or the direction their investigations are headed in. They don't want to risk the work of investigators. They urge anyone with information to make contact.

'It was a life she chose'

Lester grew up in Massachusetts, attending Miss Hall's Academy in Pittsfield and Natick High School.

Later, she became a mother and had three children, says Wilson, who steers away from any discussion on the subject, saying the family wants to keep them out of the spotlight.

One aspect of Lester's freedom, which Wilson does acknowledge, involves her relationship with an older, married man. Previously, Wilson says, Lester had been in a romantic relationship with him.

This was no longer true in May of 2023, but the same man continued to provide Lester with her own residence, her transportation – a truck – and even her own budget for expenses, says Wilson.

Lester's family, Wilson says, firmly believes that the man had no involvement in her disappearance. She acknowledges his financial support was a basis for Lester's free-spirited pursuit of conversation and good deeds each day. But she says she will not criticize the arrangement.

"We're not focused on that," she says. "It was a life she chose."

The family will hold a vigil for Lester at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the waterfront park on Arnold's Neck.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Warwick's Charlotte Lester disappeared a year ago. Where the case stands