Vermont State Police are asking for the public’s help tracking down an unidentified red-headed man suspected of fatally shooting a 77-year-old retired university official on a hiking trail within walking distance of the campus where she had been a fixture for years.
The initial suspect description has been updated after tips poured in over the weekend, authorities said.
The suspect is now described as a White male with “short red hair,” according to the latest description authorities shared over the weekend. Earlier in the investigation, they said they were looking for someone with dark hair.
He appears to be in his late 20s and stands about 5 feet, 10 inches tall. Wearing a dark gray T-shirt and carrying a black backpack, he was headed north along the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail, toward the Vermont State University Castleton Campus.
Honoree Fleming, shown with her husband Ron Powers, was fatally shot Friday night during her walk. (Ron Powers/Facebook)
Anyone who was on or near the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail on Oct. 5 who may have seen the suspect is asked to call state police.
Police are also urging local hunters to check their game cameras and for residents and business owners to check their home and commercial security footage for potential signs of evidence recorded.
“Some of these tips are gonna pay off,” Vermont State Police Major Daniel Trudeau told reporters Friday. “Some of the sightings are gonna pay off.”
“The suspect is in all likelihood armed and dangerous, so should be treated as such.”
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Vermont State Police released this undated photo of Honoree Fleming, a 77-year-old retired Vermont State University Castleton Campus dean who they discovered shot to death on the popular Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail Thursday. (Vermont State Police)
They are also asking for information from anyone who may have seen the victim that day.
Honoree Fleming, who was found dead around 4:30 p.m. Thursday, entered the 20-mile mixed use trail about 30 minutes earlier at the pavilion area at VSU Castleton. She was wearing a white and blue striped shirt, black pants and black sneakers.
The state medical examiner conducted an autopsy last week and found her manner and cause of death to be a homicide with a gunshot wound to the head.
Honoree Fleming, 77, was found dead on the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail in Castleton, Vermont, on Thursday. (Google Earth)
Fleming, a former dean of education at the school, had also worked at Trinity and Middlebury colleges and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, VSU said in a statement. Her husband is an Emmy and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist named Ron Powers, who co-wrote “Flags of Our Fathers” and assisted the late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy with his memoir, “True Compass.”
“Those of you who knew her know that she was beautifully named,” he wrote of Fleming in a Facebook post over the weekend. “I have never known a more sterling heart and soul than hers. She has taken far more than half my own heart and soul with her.”
Honoree Fleming and her husband Ron Powers (Ron Powers)
According to the Castleton Spartan, a school newspaper, he too became a fixture at the school after his wife began working there.
The university canceled classes on the main campus Monday as police continue the search for the suspect. Police have stepped up patrols in the area.
Anyone with information on the case or who wishes to report anything suspicious is asked to call Vermont State Police at 802-773-9101. There is also a website to submit tips anonymously here.
