Victim of Windsor Locks Murder-Suicide Noted For Her Generosity

WINDSOR LOCKS/EAST WINDSOR, CT — The victim of a murder-suicide Friday evening inside a Windsor Locks home was featured in a Patch story just days before the tragedy, with a number of customers of her East Windsor small business praising her for her generosity and caring during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cindy Liquori, 55, of Suffield, was shot to death inside her mother's home around 6 p.m. Friday; her husband, John Liquori, 59, was also found dead of a gunshot wound in an apparent murder-suicide, according to police.

Cindy Liquori owned Cindy's Soap Cottage, a small shop which opened in 2015 in Windsor Locks. She moved the business to Pasco Commons in East Windsor in April 2017. Liquori made handmade artisan soaps, CBD topicals and tinctures, bath bombs, body luxuries, candles and much more.

In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, Liquori adapted to the needs of customers, producing high-quality masks and hand sanitizer.

"The last eight months have been very busy and stressful," Liquori told Patch in an interview two weeks before her death. "When the pandemic started, I wanted to ensure that my store was essential, so I hired about 15 people to make masks. To date, we have sold over 16,000 handmade local quality masks, which I'm very proud of. We worked our tails off to get them out quickly at a great price. We also sold over 8,000 bottles of hand sanitizer."

Liquori did not profit from the masks; she paid the people who sewed them nearly the entire retail sale price. "I didn’t care about the money," she said. "I just wanted to get them out to the public and I just wanted to ensure that I broke even."

When Patch solicited nominations from readers for an East Windsor Business of the Year, Cindy's Soap Cottage received several glowing testimonials:

• "Cindy's rose to the COVID challenge by changing her manufacturing from soap to hand sanitizer and also hired several local artisans to make face masks. During the beginning days of the pandemic, Cindy's provided much-needed hand sanitizer to other local businesses to make it more readily available to the public." - JoAnn MacDougald
• "Cindy's Soap Cottage has always been a quaint little soap shop that started in Windsor Locks; she quickly grew and moved her business to East Windsor in Pasco Commons. Since the pandemic, she has worked tirelessly making hand sanitizer; even with short supply of necessary ingredients, she made sure she got what was needed. She also had people she knew make facemasks. From custom to stock, these facemasks are handmade by people Cindy is related to or friends with. Cindy puts a lot of time and care into all her house-made products. Her customers come first, and she has always made sure they are satisfied." - Candi Motuzick

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