Vermont police on Tuesday shot and killed a man wanted for questioning in the death of a 23-year-old Massachusetts woman who was reported missing by her family and later found deceased in a pickup truck.
Authorities said the man was walking in West Brattleboro when police tried to speak to him. His identity is being withheld pending the notification of his family, according to NECN, and state police did not provide other details as to how he ended up dead.
Vermont officials had earlier said they were looking to find and speak to 34-year-old Matthew Davis, the ex-boyfriend of victim Mary Anderson, in connection with her recent death.
ADVERTISEMENT
Anderson’s family reported her disappearance late Sunday afternoon after she was last seen around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night, Harvard Police Department officials said.
“She’s never been away. This is very much unlike her,” Sheila Anderson, Mary’s mother, told Boston 25 News on Monday.
The 23-year-old’s body was discovered just after midnight two days later, in the navy blue Toyota Tacoma with Massachusetts license plates that she was last seen driving, Vermont police said. Authorities said her death was “suspicious.”
Davis, Anderson’s ex-partner, was identified as “a person of interest who may have important details about the events that occurred here in Brattleboro,” Major Dan Trudeau, commander of the Vermont State Police Criminal Division, said at a Tuesday evening press conference.
“At this point I would consider him dangerous,” Trudeau added, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. “I’m not saying that he’s a suspect, but he is of importance to us.”
Davis was convicted of armed assault with intent to kill after a February 2009 incident in which he attacked another ex-girlfriend’s new partner, The Berkshire Eagle reported. Then 21 years old, Davis hid in the woman’s bedroom closet and waited until the couple had finished having sex.
He then jumped out, armed with a large kitchen knife, and stabbed the man in the chest, arms, and legs, according to MassLive.
Authorities found Davis hiding in a snow bank several hours after the attack. He was eventually sentenced to four to nine years in prison, court records stated.
Following Anderson’s Sunday disappearance, friends expressed concern over a number of “weird” posts made to her Instagram and Snapchat in recent days. One told CBS Boston that the updates didn’t seem like they had been made by Anderson.
Sheila Anderson told MassLive that she feared her daughter had been “abducted” by an “ex-fiancé.” Separately, Sheila told WCVB that her daughter and Davis had broken up in November after dating for four years.
“Something happened in their relationship,” Sheila explained, “and she said: ‘I’m done.’”
“I know that Mary told me that he was texting her to try and get back together,” Sheila told NBC10 Boston. “I just know that Matt had anger issues and I knew that through Mary.”
