Man charged with murder of 27-year-old jogger faces judge
Angelo Colon-Ortiz is accused of murdering Vanessa Marcotte
The man suspected of killing Google employee Vanessa Marcotte near her mother’s home in Massachusetts last summer posed as a motorist with a disabled SUV, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 31, was charged with assault and attempted rape, and was held on a $10 million cash bail. Prosecutors said they sought the high bail because they expect to charge him with murder for the slaying of the 27-year-old New York City resident.
New details have emerged to what led to Aug. 7 murder in Princeton, about 40 miles west of Boston.
Prosecutors said Marcotte left her mother’s home on Brooks Station Road for a walk just after 1 p.m. Her body was found in the woods about a half-mile from her mother’s home about seven hours later.
Her iPhone was disabled or shut off at 2:11 p.m.
The Boston Globe reported that a man authorities allege was Colon-Ortiz was spotted in the area standing next to a black SUV just before Marcotte’s disappearance. An area resident reportedly told police that the SUV’s hood was up and the man was on the phone.
Prosecutors said the resident passed the same location around 2:05 p.m. and saw that the hood was down and all the windows were closed. The man thought nothing about it until police sought information from people in the area that day.
According to the Globe, a state trooper spotted a Hispanic man driving a black SUV in Worcester. When trooper went by the driver’s home – identified as Colon-Ortiz – he hold found his wife.
However, the trooper returned later, and in the presence of Colon-Ortiz’s wife, asked the suspect for a DNA sample.
Colon-Ortiz was arrested on Friday after his DNA profile was allegedly matched with DNA recovered from Marcotte, police said.
On Tuesday, Edward P. Ryan Jr., Colon-Ortiz’s attorney, entered not guilty pleas to charges of aggravated assault and battery and assault with attempt to rape at his arraignment Tuesday in Leominster (LEH'-mihn-stur) District Court.
Ryan, who said Colon-Ortiz was born in Puerto Rico, did not argue for lower bail, but reserved the right to seek lower bail.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
