Police revealed Thursday they are closing in on a person of interest in the mysterious murder of a New York City woman who was found dead last summer after running near her mother’s home in Massachusetts.
Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said Thursday that the suspect in the killing of Vanessa Marcotte is a Hispanic or Latino man, about 30 years old, with light to medium-toned skin, and an athletic build.
Early said the conclusions were based on witness statements and information extracted from DNA, although he would not say where the DNA was taken from other than that authorities “feel this DNA is from our person of interest,” the Boston Globe reported.
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Early added that the person of interest would have had scratches on his face, neck, hands and arms after the Aug. 7 attack in Princeton, The Associated Press reported.
Marcotte, a 27-year-old Google employee, was found dead less than a mile from her mother’s home with burns to her head and feet, Fox 25 reported.
Authorities previously said the suspect was driving a dark-colored SUV, which was seen parked alongside a road in Princetown around the time Marcotte was killed.
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A source told Fox 25 in November that investigators believe the driver of the vehicle lives around the area or visits the area frequently.
“They may have additional information that they're not sharing. They may have developed information about a person or persons of interest,” an investigator told the station.
More than 1,000 tips have poured in about the case, but the DNA that was recovered has been passed through national criminal databases without a hit.
"Not a day goes by that we don't reflect on the enormity of our loss," Steven Therrien, Marcotte’s uncle, told reporters in December.
“As Massachusetts State Police and Princeton police continue to investigate Vanessa’s murder, we urge anyone with information to call the state police hotline at 508-453-7589," Therrien said.
The family has set up a website in her honor, VanessaMarcotte.org.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
