2008 Woodie Awards
Vermont police find missing college student's body
Amie Stockwell-The Washington Post
Issue date: 10/19/06 Section: nation/world
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Washington - The body of a missing college senior from Arlington, Va., was found Friday off a rural road near the University of Vermont. Police said that the man with whom she was last seen six days ago was arrested on unrelated sex assault charges and was being questioned about her death.
Burlington Police Chief Thomas Tremblay said the body was tentatively identified as that of Michelle Gardner-Quinn, 21. The body was discovered about 15 miles southeast of downtown Burlington, near a swimming hole popular among college students and residents, Tremblay said.
He said it was not yet known how Gardner-Quinn was killed or when her body might have been left at the spot. Police said they are investigating her death as an apparent kidnapping and homicide.
"We are not done yet," Tremblay said in an afternoon news conference at Burlington's City Hall. "There is still more work to be done."
Gardner-Quinn--whose disappearance last Saturday was the focus of an intense investigation that fanned across several nearby communities --was last seen walking from Burlington's downtown area toward campus, about five blocks away.
A surveillance camera captured her walking with Brian Rooney, 36, a construction worker who lent her his cellphone so she could call friends after the battery in her phone died, police said.
Rooney, of nearby Richmond, Vt., has not been charged in Gardner-Quinn's slaying, Tremblay said, although he was being interviewed by detectives last night. Tremblay said Rooney was charged Friday with sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child in Caledonia County, about 80 miles east of Burlington. He declined to elaborate on the charges.
Rooney is to be arraigned Monday on those charges, Tremblay said.
The disappearance and death of Gardner-Quinn was at least the third such incident in the past year involving a female college student. The body of University of Virginia student Elizabeth Hafter, 22, was found Oct. 1 along the Blue Ridge Parkway with a single gunshot wound to the head after she had been missing a few days. And in September 2005, Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Behl was found slain in rural Mathews County. Behl, 17, of Vienna, Va., was found one month after she was reported missing from the Richmond campus.
"Michelle you were one-in-a-million," wrote her friend Elizabeth Oliphant on Facebook.com, a social networking site popular among college students. "I am heartbroken for your family-they will stay in my thoughts and prayers for a long time. You will be missed dearly."
Gail Fendley, a longtime family friend, said in a telephone interview Friday that she considered Gardner-Quinn a part of her family. Her son, Ian Willson, 22, had grown up with Gardner-Quinn, and the two had dated in recent years. On Friday, Fendley sat sobbing inside her vehicle, parked on a street in Richmond, Va., where her son attends college.
"It's not that every life doesn't matter, but this is one who would've made the world a better place," Fendley said. "I just can't imagine how someone could hurt our Michelle."
Burlington Police Chief Thomas Tremblay said the body was tentatively identified as that of Michelle Gardner-Quinn, 21. The body was discovered about 15 miles southeast of downtown Burlington, near a swimming hole popular among college students and residents, Tremblay said.
He said it was not yet known how Gardner-Quinn was killed or when her body might have been left at the spot. Police said they are investigating her death as an apparent kidnapping and homicide.
"We are not done yet," Tremblay said in an afternoon news conference at Burlington's City Hall. "There is still more work to be done."
Gardner-Quinn--whose disappearance last Saturday was the focus of an intense investigation that fanned across several nearby communities --was last seen walking from Burlington's downtown area toward campus, about five blocks away.
A surveillance camera captured her walking with Brian Rooney, 36, a construction worker who lent her his cellphone so she could call friends after the battery in her phone died, police said.
Rooney, of nearby Richmond, Vt., has not been charged in Gardner-Quinn's slaying, Tremblay said, although he was being interviewed by detectives last night. Tremblay said Rooney was charged Friday with sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child in Caledonia County, about 80 miles east of Burlington. He declined to elaborate on the charges.
Rooney is to be arraigned Monday on those charges, Tremblay said.
The disappearance and death of Gardner-Quinn was at least the third such incident in the past year involving a female college student. The body of University of Virginia student Elizabeth Hafter, 22, was found Oct. 1 along the Blue Ridge Parkway with a single gunshot wound to the head after she had been missing a few days. And in September 2005, Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Behl was found slain in rural Mathews County. Behl, 17, of Vienna, Va., was found one month after she was reported missing from the Richmond campus.
"Michelle you were one-in-a-million," wrote her friend Elizabeth Oliphant on Facebook.com, a social networking site popular among college students. "I am heartbroken for your family-they will stay in my thoughts and prayers for a long time. You will be missed dearly."
Gail Fendley, a longtime family friend, said in a telephone interview Friday that she considered Gardner-Quinn a part of her family. Her son, Ian Willson, 22, had grown up with Gardner-Quinn, and the two had dated in recent years. On Friday, Fendley sat sobbing inside her vehicle, parked on a street in Richmond, Va., where her son attends college.
"It's not that every life doesn't matter, but this is one who would've made the world a better place," Fendley said. "I just can't imagine how someone could hurt our Michelle."