Pair Charged in Strangling of Vt. Prep School Teacher

Melissa Jenkins went missing Sunday night
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 28, 2012 11:57 AM CDT
Pair Charged in Strangling of Vt. Prep School Teacher
This undated identification photo provided Monday, March 26, 2012, by the St. Johnsbury, Vt., police shows Melissa Jenkins.   (AP Photo/St. Johnsbury Police Department)

A Vermont couple was arrested today and charged with murdering a boarding school teacher who went missing Sunday night, ABC News reports. The body of Melissa Jenkins, 33, was found on a dark road Monday, a day after her SUV was found near signs of a struggle, still running and with her 2-year-old son safely inside; she had been strangled. Suspects Allen Prue, 30, and wife Patricia, 33, knew Jenkins, police said today, and had "snow plowed her driveway a couple years ago." No motive was given.

Allen Prue was an hour late for his newspaper delivery shift that night, reports the Caledonian Record, the paper he delivered. He also worked as an independent snow plow driver. Jenkins, a beloved science teacher and basketball coach at the prestigious St. Johnsbury Academy, also worked as a waitress and was getting her master's degree. A cousin tells the AP he believes "she left her house with the idea … to try to help somebody," but wouldn't say more for fear of hampering the investigation. (More Allen Prue stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X