By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

BURRILLVILLE — A man with a long criminal record has been charged with murdering Vicky L. Connolly, 33, in the woods of the Black Hut Management area in September 2007 following arraignment on a secret grand jury indictment before Superior Court Judge William J. Carnes on Wednesday.

 Michael A. Ducharme, 42, was arraigned on the charge of first degree murder after being brought from the Adult Correctional Institutions where he is serving an eight-year sentence for an unrelated crime, according to Michael Healey, a spokesman for Attorney General Patrick Lynch. The session was attended by Burrillville Police, Scott Erikson the state prosecutor from Lynch’s office and members of Connolly’s family.
Ducharme, whose last known address was at 235 Mount Pleasant View Road, Burrillville, lodged of a plea of not guilty to the charge and was scheduled for a determination of attorney hearing next week before being returned to the ACI, according to Healey. He was also ordered held without bail on the murder charge as a formality, Healey said.
 Connolly went missing from Woonsocket on Sept. 6, 2007, and her decomposed body was later found by hunters walking in the woods of the Black Hut State Management Area off Spring Lake Road on Nov. 9. An autopsy by the State Medical Examiner found Connolly’s body to have suffered multiple stab wounds.
 Guy Allison, Connolly’s step-father, said Wednesday her family was relieved to at least know police had identified a suspect in her killing.
 “We feel like maybe there is a solution to the case and maybe we can sleep better at night,” Allison said.
 Allison said Vicky’s mother, Barbara Allison and her stepbrother, Jeff Allison, attended the hearing. The Allisons had joined other family members, included Vicky’s brother, James Tomasso, and family friends in searching for her in Woonsocket and neighboring communities during the weeks she remained missing.
 After the discovery of her body, an investigation was opened by Burrillville Police and members of the Woonsocket Police Department and Allison credited Burrillville Det. Guy Riendeau for staying with the investigation even as time passed.
“He just never gave up,” Allison said of the detective’s work with other police agencies and the Attorney General’s Office. Vicky and her ex-husband had a son who is now 13, Allison said. Her son and his father have moved to Florida but had been home to visit Burrillville a few months ago, he said.
 After her daughter’s body had been found, Barbara Allison said she had last seen her daughter when picking her up from work at the Price Rite Store on Diamond Hill Road and taking her home to her apartment on Libbus Street.
 “She said “bye Mum, I love you,” Allison recalled her daughter as telling as she left the car. Vicky had been struggling to turn her life around after her divorce from her husband and suffering through a bad relationship she was reported to have ended, and problems with substance abuse, her mother said at the time.
 She went missing after heading out from her Woonsocket apartment to see friends late at night.
 The loss of her daughter rekindled pain Barbara Allison suffered after her sister, Dianne I. Goulet became a victim of murder in 1990. Marc H. Dumais was eventually convicted of killing her off Social Street on Nov. 9, 1990.
 Healey credited Burrillville Police with conducting a lengthy investigation that developed information “leading to this defendant and ultimately to this indictment.”
 “Burrillville Police deserve a lot of credit for the success of this investigation,” he said.
 Ducharme has a lengthy criminal record and previous convictions could result in his prosecution as a potential probation violator in addition to the murder charge, according to Healey.
 His most recent sentence resulted from pleas of nolo to a larceny over $500 charge and driving a vehicle without the consent of the owner that netted him a 10 year sentence with 8 years to serve and two years suspended, Healey said.
 He was in custody at the ACI at the time a grand jury reviewed the facts of the case and was brought into the Superior for the hearing at which the indictment alleging that he “murdered Vicki Connolly in Burrillville at some point between Sept. 7 and Sept. 16, 2007,” was unsealed.
 A status conference was also schedule for Aug. 5 and a pretrial conference for Sept. 2, Healey said.