NORTHAMPTON — An Easthampton man who admitted leaving the body of his companion by the side of the road in Westford in 2019 after she overdosed in his car was sentenced to seven to eight years in state prison, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. 

Daniel Perras, 59, pleaded guilty last week in Middlesex Superior Court to destruction of evidence and improper disposal of a body.

According to the district attorney’s office, a resident walking his dog on Providence Road in Westford in February 2019 found a woman’s body down an embankment. The woman had no identification and police initially had no idea who she was, how she died or how she ended up on the side of the road.

The chief medical examiner’s office was able to identify the woman from her fingerprints as Melissa Mestre, 38, of Springfield, and determined that she died of an overdose.

Westford Police and Massachusetts State Police investigators soon identified Perras as a suspect, and learned that he and Mestre had met recently.

On Jan. 31, 2019, Perras had picked Mestre up at her home and they drove to the Haverhill area, where he met with someone to whom he sold a large quantity of heroin, according to prosecutors. Afterward, while driving back west, Perras realized that Mestre had died of a drug overdose.

Officials say he pulled off the highway onto Boston Road in Westford, drove past the fire station and wound up on a secluded area of Providence Road, where he dumped Mestre’s body down the embankment.

Perras left with Mestre’s belongings, including her purse and cellphone. He never alerted authorities to Mestre’s death or where he left her, the district attorney’s office said.

Investigators were able to track Perras along Route 2 to the French King Bridge in Erving, where prosecutors say he disposed of Mestre’s belongings before driving home.

Perras was sentenced to seven to eight years on the charge of destruction of evidence, and three years of probation for improper disposal of a body.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan condemned Perras’ actions in a statement when he was arraigned in October 2019.

“This defendant acted with complete disregard for Ms. Mestre’s well-being, traveling past a fire station where they could have received help, and then leaving her body on the side of the road,” Ryan said. “Furthermore, the defendant’s actions to conceal the crime resulted in a lengthy investigation that left Ms. Mestre’s family without answers for months.”

Perras, who has an extensive criminal record stretching back to the 1980s, was also originally charged with being a habitual criminal. He was facing charges in Northampton District Court of possession with intent to distribute a class A drug, and possession with intent to distribute a class D drug when he was charged in the Middlesex County case.

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