Police declined to comment to the Globe on the case, citing a court order that sealed the criminal proceedings.
One woman told news agency EFE that around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 20, she heard a man shouting for around 10 minutes “as if he were being killed.” Police were not able to locate the shouts at the time, and Gross’s body was not found until the next afternoon, with his belongings apparently stolen.
“What’s worse than saying, ‘He died, we’ve lost him,‘ somehow, is hearing how it happened,” said Susan Abbott, co-director of Our Lady of Good Voyage Shrine in the Seaport, where Gross often said Mass.
The preliminary investigation suggests Gross suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to Diario Sur. It is not clear whether he was accidentally killed during the robbery or whether his death was premeditated.
Gross, who also served as the chaplain at Phillips Academy Andover and other New England schools, was “preparing to embark on a cruise” when he died, according to the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus.
The order said it was “shocked and saddened” by Gross’s death, but declined to provide further details “until the full police investigation concludes.”
Gross entered the Society of Jesus after graduating from Boston College in 1966, according to Jesuits USA. He taught history, social sciences, and religion at BC High, and earned a master’s degree in history at the London School of Economics.
He spent nearly two decades as a chaplain at Philips Andover, the order said, and also served at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, Vanderbilt University, St. Thomas More School in Connecticut, Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio, and La Salle University in Philadelphia.
Gross returned to Massachusetts in 2019, residing at BC High and saying Mass at various venues, including the Maristhill Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Waltham and the seaport shrine.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Father Gross’s family, his brother Jesuits, and all those blessed by his ministry and friendship,” BC High said in a statement last week. ”We pray for his eternal peace and comfort for those mourning his loss.”
At the shrine, Gross was remembered as a thoughtful, charismatic man who was able to connect with worshipers of different backgrounds, from young professionals living in the Seaport to suburban families who have been attending services in the area for decades.
Rev. Richard Gross.Handout/Jesuits USA“80 years old, but the guy never lost his fastball,” Abbott said last week.
Jessica Nagle, who met Gross last year, said he was deceptively healthy and vibrant.
“I would have thought he was younger than he was,” she added.
He was also “not above mischief,” with an infectious laugh and a “twinkle in his eye,” Abbott said.
“If you’re 20- or 30-something, where do you want to be on the Fourth of July?” she said. “Over at BC High, attending a cookout with an 80-year old Jesuit.”
Gross forged close connections with his students and parishioners, regularly traveling for weddings and baptisms, even in his later years.
When Nagle, originally of Litchfield, N.H., organized a funeral for her Boston-raised father at the Seaport shrine, Gross drove up to New Hampshire to meet with the grieving family. That simple act of consideration spoke volumes, she said.
“It could have been a phone call, you know, but he did it,” she said. “For my mother — who was born and raised Catholic, but has been fairly distant — I feel like it made her feel like someone really cared.”
Art Muldoon, 58, said he first met Gross as a student at Philips Andover in the early 1980s. The two stayed in touch after Gross officiated his father’s funeral in 1984, and he became something of a “family priest” — officiating Muldoon’s wedding, his sister’s wedding, and baptizing Muldoon’s two children.
Muldoon said that Gross’s charisma stemmed from the simple fact that he was “thoughtful about the world as different people experience it.”
“He was so well-traveled, and he had a lot of insights and interests to share,” he said. “So people really did enjoy hearing his stories as much as sharing their own.”
Gross was also a Jesuit “in the mold of Pope Francis,” Abbott said, with a strong social consciousness about the role of the church in addressing poverty and social justice.
“Somebody accused him of being political, and he said, ‘I’m not political. I preach the gospel,‘” Abbott said. “‘Who are we ignoring? Who are we looking past? Who are we uncomfortable with?’ And he wouldn’t let the congregants off the hook.”
Gross was last at the shrine just weeks before his trip to Spain, Abbott said. News of his death was shocking to the community, and hearing about the circumstances meant they were “kind of reliving the whole thing again,” she said.
Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com. Follow him on X @fonseca_esq and on Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports.