PRINCETON, Mass. (AP) — For most who live in this town, the changes have been minor—a locked door at night, an extra look at a passing stranger, a decision to forgo a solo run.

But the reality those changes reflect—a shattered peace of mind—is, for many, the most unsettling result of the Aug. 7 daylight killing that, a month later, has townspeople and police grappling for answers.

“These things make you realize what life is really like,” Ramani Fernando observed soberly last Wednesday at the town library. “Just because we’re tucked in here doesn’t mean we’re safe.”


Last Wednesday, Sept 7., marked one month since 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte was found slain in the woods off Brooks Station Road after going for a run. Her body, investigative sources have said, was found naked and partially burned; District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. has called the circumstances surrounding her death “horrible,” and has told people to remain vigilant.

In a town of 1,200 families where violent crimes numbered 7 in 2013—there were 1,750 in Worcester—the slaying and intense police and media activity that followed were new and, for many, shocking. The circumstances and the fact that Marcotte was visiting her mother from New York created uncertainty about the killer’s motive, and that kept people inside their homes.

A month later, with the killer still unknown, the acute sense of fear has abated somewhat, residents said, but is still very much a factor in daily life.

“I’ve heard of two or three people getting dogs,” said Tia Lotuff—mostly German shepherds.

“It’s calmed down some, but it’s still on people’s minds,” said Katie Carlson, who hears many a conversation while working at Mountainside Market, a popular market not far from the town center.

Carlson, 23, is an avid runner and a lifelong town resident. She still runs alone, though she no longer goes out without pepper spray.


“I don’t think anyone is running alone without protection right now,” she said. A “small minority” of people she knows have stopped running altogether, she said, but most have instead opted to run in groups or pairs.

Police Chief Michele Powers— who has been referring all questions on the case and issues related to it to Early —did so again last Wednesday. Her administrative assistant, Maureen Lynch, confirmed that she has been receiving an elevated level of calls about the legality and use of pepper spray. The chemical was made legal to carry without a firearms license two years ago for those over 18.

Lynch also confirmed that police have seen a “slight increase” in firearms permit requests since Aug. 7.

“I do have a co-worker who is afraid to walk through the parking lot without her gun,” Carlson noted.

Kevin Laughlin, who lives close to where Marcotte’s body was found, said he has decided to open carry his legal firearm while doing chores around the yard.

“It’s just so folks can see that people are armed there,” said Laughlin, who drove eight hours from an annual fishing trip to get back to his family the day of the slaying.

“I called police and they told me to use an abundance of caution,” Laughlin said. “What the hell does that mean?”

The question is one many folks in town have, but not one that authorities have been quick to answer. Early issued a statement Wednesday that his detectives are continuing to probe the case intensely; he did not address the level of concern residents should have, and a follow-up inquiry with the office on the topic went unanswered.


Police often refrain from sharing information that could jeopardize their investigations; Fernando said she understands secrecy is often required, but hopes for some news soon.

“Not having closure is unnerving,” said Fernando, who, for the first time in 20 years in Princeton, has concerns about her safety.

She said she would not go walking alone now, and that her husband half-expects to see someone in his barn when he opens the door.

“I’ve been scouring the internet to find more information,” Fernando said. “But it’s just all the same.”

Lois Shorten, a town librarian, said people keep asking her if she’s heard anything.

“We’re all waiting to hear,” Shorten said. “Everyone is surprised there’s been no news.”

Town Administrator Nina Nazarian declined to comment last Wednesday when reached at Town Hall. Housed in Bagg Hall, a handsome 1884 red-brick building, the municipal offices are in the same complex as the town’s library, police and fire stations.

A few hundred feet away, on the steps of the town gazebo, rest several running shoes draped with a rosary— a tribute to Marcotte.

And a few miles away on Brooks Station Road, in front of a guardrail near where her body was found, somebody has planted flowers.

“Please respect our privacy during this difficult time,” reads a professionally printed, black-and-white sign at the home of Marcotte’s mother, a half-mile down the road.

Marcotte, a Google employee said to be in her “dream job,” was remembered at her funeral last month as a warm and caring person with a special gravitas.

“Vanessa embodied everything that is good in a human being,” her family wrote in her obituary.

Marcotte is buried at Woodside Cemetery in Westminster, where a pair of decorative white doves adorns a metal stake driven into the earth atop a patch of fresh grass that awaits a marker.

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Information from: Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass.), http://www.telegram.com