Family of CT visiting nurse killed by sex offender fights on to protect healthcare workers

Hartford Courant – Monday, December 1, 2025
By Justin Muszynski

The wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a visiting nurse killed by a sex offender at a halfway house in Willimantic in 2023 has been resolved with a $2.25 million settlement, but her surviving family says they will continue fighting to ensure better protections are put in place for health care workers to help avoid a similar tragedy.

The settlement resolves the claim family members of Joyce Grayson brought against the state of Connecticut as well as litigation against her employer, Elara Caring, and others. New London-based attorney Kelly Reardon spoke at a news briefing on Monday at her law office where she said the “global resolution” closed the civil action against all the involved parties, which included Elara Holdings, LLC., BW NHHC Holdco, Inc., New England Home Care, Inc., The Connection, Inc., and the individual who owned the building where the halfway house was located.

Reardon said the agreement included other confidential terms she did not wish to disclose. She said it did not include an “admission of guilt” by any parties. From the start, Reardon said, Grayson’s family was primarily concerned about protecting health care workers and ensuring nothing like this ever happens again.

“That was one of the priorities,” Reardon said, adding that the family was “especially pleased” with the reception they received by the parties named in civil litigation and their willingness to listen and make better protections.

They have already met with the Grayson family and have more meetings planned to hear from them, Reardon said.

“The family is committed to making changes to protect health care workers in the workplace and ensure their safety,” Reardon said. “A lot has been done, but a lot more needs to be done.

“We know that Joyce’s legacy will be that, whenever anybody thinks about health care safety, they will know what she sacrificed, and they will know that more needs to be done in the future to protect people like her who dedicate their lives to helping the most vulnerable in our community.”

“Our hope is that all of the parties involved will continue to look at the policies and procedures to ensure a tragedy like this does not occur again,” Kaitlyn Grayson, Joyce’s daughter, said at the news briefing.

Joyce Grayson, a mother of six who worked as a nurse for 36 years, had gone to a halfway house to administer medication to Michael Reese on Oct. 28, 2023. Reese was living there while on probation after serving more than 14 years in prison for stabbing and sexually assaulting a woman in New Haven in 2006. He was released from prison in late 2020 and was sent back to detention two times for violating probation, according to state records.

Police responded to the halfway house after Joyce Grayson missed multiple appointments later in the day and found that she had been strangled. She was naked from the waist down except for her socks, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. An autopsy found that she had suffered blunt force injuries to her head, torso and extremities, the warrant affidavit said.

Investigators found that DNA discovered on Grayson’s body was highly likely to belong to Reese, according to the warrant affidavit. He was also found with some of her possessions on him as he was leaving the halfway house. He was initially arrested on larceny and drug paraphernalia charges before he was charged in Joyce Grayson’s killing.

After pleading guilty to murder, Reese in August was sentenced to 50 years in prison without the possibility of early release or parole.

“The thing that was most important to the Graysons was not what happened, but preventing it from happening again,” Reardon said.

“All of the parties have been extremely willing to consider whatever changes may have been needed to protect workers who are going out into the community like Joyce was,” Reardon said.

Kaitlyn Grayson, a social worker, said her mother raised all of her siblings to think about others and help those in need. She believes what happened to her mother could have easily happened to one of her two younger siblings, who also work in health care and had given Reese medications in the past, she said. Kaitlyn Grayson said she has no doubt her mother would be fighting for changes if she were alive today.

“My mom would be in this seat today, so that’s why I’m in this seat today and I’m representing my family because she would not have let this go and she would have pushed for change and continued to make sure that things happen to make sure this doesn’t happen ever again,” Kaitlyn Grayson said.

The impact of Joyce Grayson’s death has already led to legislative change, as a bill passed in 2024 added better protections for health care workers. It also requires the sharing of an individual’s background with workers making home visits.

“You never know what you’re walking into,” said Kaitlyn Grayson, who admitted that she considered walking away from social work after her mother’s death because of safety concerns.

The litigation came on the heels of a federal workplace safety investigation, led by the Occupational Safety and Health

Administration, which alleged in spring 2024 that Elara Caring failed to protect Joyce Grayson. The Texas-based company disputed the findings and said it planned to contest them.

“We are pleased that the health care worker safety bill was passed, but more legislative action is needed,” Kaitlyn Grayson said. “We will continue to advocate for change to carry on our mother’s legacy.”

Among those changes includes better services being available for individuals with mental health and substance abuse issues, she said. The entities providing care to these individuals need to be fully staffed to help ensure safety, and that can’t happen without the appropriate funding.

“That’s one of my major pushes right now,” Kaitlyn Grayson said.

According to Reardon, the family is also pushing to require more sharing of information among state agencies when workers make home visits with individuals who have mental health, substance abuse issues or a criminal history.

“What they can share and what they do share is very limited,” Reardon said. “And so one of the things that was discussed when we met with the state was efforts that they are trying to implement in the next few years in order to share information better among state agencies.”

After taking some time off following her mother’s death, Kaitlyn Grayson said she ultimately decided to go back to social work because that’s what her mother would have done. She said she was someone who always put the needs of others before hers.

Joyce Grayson was a nurse for the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for 26 years before serving as a visiting nurse for over a decade. According to her daughter, family car trips would often involve picking up hitchhikers. And around the holidays, Joyce Grayson was usually baking hundreds and hundreds of cookies to help anyone in need. She also took in more than 30 foster children and was honored with the state’s Foster Parent of the Year award in 2017.

“She was truly like an angel walking on earth,” Kaitlyn Grayson said. “She was a great, caring, loving person.”

The hole her death left in the family can never be filled, Kaitlyn Grayson said.

“I don’t think we’re ever gonna truly have closure,” she said. “I wake up every day and my mom’s not here. We just had Thanksgiving again without her. We have birthdays coming up, we have Christmas coming up, all of those major things.

“I don’t think any of us are gonna have that full closure,” Kaitlyn Grayson said.

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