April 15, 2017
For Immediate Release
Contact: Paul Jarvey (508) 735-2981
or Lindsay Corcoran (774) 670-8811
PRINCETON – A 31-year-old Worcester man was charged in connection with the Aug. 7 slaying of Vanessa Marcotte, according to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.
“We got him,” Mr. Early said at a press conference this afternoon to announce that the DNA of Angelo Colon-Ortiz had matched the samples found on the hands of Ms. Marcotte.
Mr. Colon-Ortiz was arrested Friday by State Police Detectives assigned to the District Attorney’s Office and Worcester Police.
He was charged with aggravated assault and battery and assault with attempt to rape. Mr. Early said he expected more charges to be added. The suspect is being held on $10 million bail and will be arraigned Tuesday in Leominster District Court.
Ms. Marcotte, 27, had worked for Google in New York City. She was in Princeton visiting her family last August. She had been out for a walk the afternoon of Aug. 7 and was reported missing when she did not return.
Investigators received more than 1,300 tips from the public, but the break in the case came when an alert trooper with the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney’s office recently spotted a dark SUV in Worcester driven by a male matching a description of the suspect. Not finding a piece of paper, the trooper wrote the license plate number down on his hand and followed up. He later went to the suspect’s home and where suspect provided the DNA that led to the match.
“The arrest was the result of hard work by police who tirelessly investigated this case from the day of Ms. Marcotte’s death,” Mr. Early said. “I’d like to thank the Massachusetts State Police, including the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the District Attorney’s office, Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, the Commonwealth Fusion Center, State Police Crime Scene Services, State Police SERT Team, the State Police Underwater Recovery Unit, State Police Air Wing and State Police K-9 unit, VFAS, Worcester Police, Central Mass Police Chiefs and two special thanks to Princeton Police Chief Michele Powers and the entire Princeton police department for their tireless efforts in this case, secondly to Col. Rick McKeon and Secretary of Public Safety Dan Bennett for their resources on this case.”