PEABODY — Jessica Herrera's laugh was all her own.
It was loud and distinctive.
"Put it this way," her stepfather, Dennis Gonzales, said, "you always knew when she was around."
"When she burst into laughter," her mother, Paula Gonzales, said yesterday, "you could hear it for a mile."
But the sound that went hand in hand with what family members described as Herrera's bubbly personality was forever silenced over the weekend. Police say that Ashley Fernandes murdered Herrera in the Oak Street apartment they once shared.
The news stunned Herrera's former co-workers at Middleton Dental Care on Route 114.
"We're absolutely devastated here," Dr. Nicholas DiMauro said. "It's terrible."
Herrera was a dental assistant in Middleton from September 2007 until late January.
"She was very proud of the fact that she had gone to dental assistant's school after earning her GED," DiMauro said.
She was good at her job.
"She was very, very caring. She was excellent with patients," DiMauro said.
Herrera, 25, left the job and her Peabody apartment in January to get away from Fernandes. She went to live with her family in Harwich, on Cape Cod. The plan worked for a while.
"We were trying to keep her down here and keep her safe," Paula said.
She died just days before her April 10 birthday.
"We were going to do something to surprise her," Paula said.
Herrera grew up in Hyannis and moved to the North Shore halfway through high school. She married and had two sons — Antonio, 3, and Amani, 21 months — with Alvaro Herrera, her ex-husband. The kids are now staying with Alvaro Herrera's sister in Salem, Paula said.
"She loved her children," Paula said. DiMauro remembered Jessica Herrera talking about getting a Spider-Man toy for one of her sons before Christmas.
Herrera received domestic abuse counseling when she returned to Cape Cod.
"So many people tried to help her," Paula said. But it couldn't stop Herrera from eventually returning to Peabody.
Herrera was outgoing, always the life of the party, her mom said.
"She had that personality," Paula said. "You couldn't help but love her."
But her mom said that her daughter likely hid her problems behind her boisterousness.
Yellow police tape was still across the door to Herrera's old apartment in Peabody yesterday. Outside the door was a bouquet of white roses with a handwritten note, signed, "Love Gwen."
"Love you Jess," it said. "You'll be forever missed! Rest in Peace."
Help available
HAWC (Help for Abused Women and their Children) has a 24-hour hot line for victims of domestic violence that can be reached at 800-547-1649.
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