HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION IN SHELDON
Police are searching a property on Rice hill road in Sheldon in connection to what they are referring to as a 50-year-old homicide.
The home is owned by Rebecca and Robert Moore, according to town records.
Police have not identified whom the victim may be but did say that they recovered part of a skeleton within the home.
The remains will be brought to the Chief Medical Examiner’s office in Burlington by state police, according to Captain Jean-Paul Sinclair of the Vermont State Police.
The remains will also be examined by the State Crime Lab as well as some outside forensic anthropologists, Sinclair said.
Officer’s were at the home throughout the night to keep the scene secure.
Two Search and Rescue teams worked to examine the 240-acre property as well as K-9 cadaver dogs. Sinclair said that their searched did not yield any results.
According to property records, the Moors have owned the property since 1993.
Before 1993 the property belonged to Kathleen Moore, who bought the property in 1986 from the Estate of Reginald McFeeters and Kathleen Moore.
If there was a homicide on the property 50 years ago, the owner at that time would most likely have been Reginald McFeeters. According to property records, McFetter owned the property either outright or with Kathleen Moore from 1967 until his death in 1986.
According to Sinclair, about 20 officers took part in the two-days long search.
Sinclar said that the property owners have been very cooperative in the case, he added that the property owners said the skull that police found had been passed down through the family and was seen on a shelf in the home by a visitor, who later reported it to police.
Sinclair said the police do not have any leads to missing persons from the area, 50 years ago.
Sinclair did not say if the police knew the sex of the individual, but did say that no obvious trauma was visible to the skull.
It’s possible that the officers are considering a local tale of a murdered farmhand to be true, but police would not confirm that.
