Update: The killer of Google employee Vanessa Marcotte has received a life sentence in Massachusetts and won't be eligible for parole for 45 years, reports CNN. Angel Colon-Ortiz, 36, killed 27-year-old Marcotte in 2016 when she was out for a walk in Princeton while visiting her mother. Prosecutors say she fought back, and DNA on her hands proved crucial in the arrest of Colon-Ortiz. Our story from 2017 follows:
Twenty-seven-year-old Vanessa Marcotte was murdered in the middle of the day while walking near her mother's house in Massachusetts last August. Late Friday, authorities arrested a suspect. "We got him," ABC News quotes Joseph Early Jr. as saying. The district attorney says they are "very confident" Angel Colon-Ortiz, 31, killed Marcotte and left her body in a wooded area about half a mile from her mother's house in Princeton. A state trooper stopped Colon-Ortiz on Friday because he and his vehicle matched the description of a person of interest in the case. According to the Boston Globe, a DNA sample voluntarily provided by Colon-Ortiz matched DNA found on Marcotte's hands.
Authorities long believed Marcotte fought her attacker to the extent she likely caused injuries to him. They credit her resistance for Colon-Ortiz's arrest. “It was through her determined fight and her efforts that we determined the DNA of her killer,” Early says. Colon-Ortiz, who was reportedly working in the area when Marcotte was killed, has been charged with assault and intent to rape. A murder charge is likely forthcoming. He appears to have no prior criminal record. Marcotte was one of three women killed in the US while out running during a nine-day stretch in August, CNN reports. All three cases appear to be unrelated. (Read more Vanessa Marcotte stories.)
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