WATERBURY, Conn. — A woman has been offered a plea deal in the brutal murder of a Waterbury Schools paraprofessional in 2022, and the family of the victim is speaking out outside of court on Wednesday.
Kathy Daversa won’t let up about the type of daughter she raised.
“She was caring, loving, she was a paraprofessional, she worked with preschool students with special needs,” the Waterbury native and now Terryville resident said Wednesday outside of Superior Court in Waterbury, where a suspect in her daughter’s murder was offered a plea deal.
Shelley Stamp, 34, was found unresponsive in a pool of blood last October in her Newbury Street apartment.
“I never saw her get married. I never saw her have grandchildren,” Daversa said.
Heather Anderson appeared before Judge Joseph Schwartz Wednesday after being presented with a 30-year plea deal for murder. Schwartz continued the case to Nov. 29 to give Anderson and her public defender time to contemplate the matter.
Anderson and Shannon Gritzbach took Shelly’s money, shoes, and a container of spaghetti from her fridge, and used her credit cards at fast food restaurants and gas stations, police said. According to court documents, the two women were looking for a man in another unit when they allegedly entered Stamp’s apartment.
Gritzbach was later released on misdemeanor charges.
Anderson was charged with murder and home invasion.
Daversa said Stamp was killed for drug money and the family wants a maximum sentence of 36 years.
Anderson and her defense attorney are contemplating a plea deal of 30 years behind bars.
“For them to bring it down more, we’re pretty upset about it. She was strangled with her own jacket by this woman and it was brutal and my poor husband found her," Stamp’s sister, Laura Tajildieen, said.
“You want to offer 30 years for the life of an innocent woman coming home from her third job into her own home, her own sanctuary brutally murdered, strangled, hit in the head and left to die," Daversa said.
Stamp’s family told FOX61 they aren’t done pursuing murder charges against Gritzbach, saying they are working with police on evidence to prove she was also inside the home.
“I’m not stopping because not only justice for my daughter but something has to change,” Daversa said.
Samaia Hernandez is a reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at shernandez@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
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