Woman’s ex-boyfriend killed by police hours after her body is found, Vermont cops say
A missing Massachusetts woman’s ex-boyfriend was shot and killed by police several hours after her body was found in her pickup truck in Vermont, state police said.
Authorities called 23-year-old Mary Anderson’s death “suspicious” and began searching for her ex-boyfriend after she was found dead early July 19 in Brattleboro, according to Vermont and Massachusetts state police. The young woman, of Harvard, was reported missing over the weekend.
Nearly 20 hours later, two state troopers and a Brattleboro officer saw Anderson’s former boyfriend, Matthew Davis, 34, walking in the woods and shot him to death “during an attempt to speak with” him around 7:45 p.m., according to a news release from Vermont State Police.
Davis was armed with a knife, according to police, which was found near him after he was pronounced dead at the scene following attempts to give him first aid in West Brattleboro.
Anderson was last seen the evening of July 16 in Hudson, New Hampshire, which is roughly 65 miles east of where her body was discovered in Brattleboro, the release said.
Her family told Boston 25 that she was visiting friends in New Hampshire before she went missing.
“She’s never been away. This is very much unlike her,” Anderson’s mother told the outlet on July 18.
Anderson’s cause of death will be determined after the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington, Vermont, performs an autopsy, state police said.
State police detectives are investigating the fatal shooting of Davis, according to the release. After the investigation, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office and a state attorney’s office will conduct their own reviews of the incident.
The two state troopers involved in the shooting were placed on paid administrative leave for five days, police said.
“Further details will be released as the case continues.”
Brattleboro is roughly 115 miles south of Montpelier.
This story was originally published July 20, 2022 at 9:50 AM with the headline "Woman’s ex-boyfriend killed by police hours after her body is found, Vermont cops say."
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