Missing Mother 33-Year Old Melissa Jenkins *found deceased*

[TheMorningStar]

Police are searching for a missing Vermont mother whose vehicle was found abandoned Sunday along the side of a road with her 2-year-old son inside.

The SUV belonging to 33-year-old Melissa Jenkins, of Danville, Vt., was discovered Sunday along Goss Hollow Road in St. Johnsbury, not far from the woman's home, Vermont State Police Lt. Bob Cushing told FoxNews.com.

Jenkins' young son was found, unharmed, inside the 2006 silver Suzuki.

Cushing said authorities found evidence indicating the woman's disappearance is potentially suspicious, but he declined to elaborate on what was discovered. He noted that the vehicle was not out of gas.

"Right now, we're treating this as a missing persons case," Cushing told FoxNews.com. "But that can change, obviously."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/26...ndoned-inside/

[AngelFire]

Police are considering foul play in the disappearance of a Vermont mother whose vehicle was found abandoned Sunday along the side of a road with her 2-year-old son inside.

The SUV belonging to 33-year-old Melissa Jenkins, of Danville, Vt., was discovered Sunday along Goss Hollow Road in St. Johnsbury, not far from the woman's home, Vermont State Police Lt. Bob Cushing told FoxNews.com.

Jenkins' young son was found, unharmed, inside the 2006 silver Suzuki.

"Responding troopers observed evidence at the scene to indicate that Ms. Jenkins' disappearance is the result of foul play as evidence present showed signs that a struggle had occurred," Detective Sgt. Walter Smith said in a press release Monday.

Cushing confirmed to FoxNews.com that authorities found suspicious evidence, but he declined to elaborate on what was discovered. He noted that the vehicle was not out of gas.

"Right now, we're treating this as a missing persons case," Cushing told FoxNews.com. "But that can change, obviously."

"Everything is under investigation," he said.

Jenkins is a science teacher at the St. Johnsbury Academy. She is not married and lives alone with her son, though she often stays with her mother, according to authorities.

She is described as 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighing 130 pounds. She has blond hair and hazel eyes.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/26...#ixzz1qFf4YFbT

I wonder if they checked the baby daddy. I always suspect baby daddies now when mom just vanishes.

[tmdgirl]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1380504.html

Authorities in Vermont are in a desperate search for Melissa Jenkins, a missing school teacher whose SUV was found abandoned along the side of a road with her 2-year-old child alone inside.

Police got a call around 11:30 p.m. Sunday from a friend of Jenkins' who spotted the 33-year-old single mother's 2006 silver Suzuki Grand Vitara -- with its still engine running -- along Goss Hollow Road in St. Johnsbury. The location is not far from where Jenkins lives, according to Vermont State Police Captain Dave Covell.

Police found no sign of Jenkins, but they did find indications at the scene that she had not voluntarily left her vehicle.

"Responding Troopers observed evidence at the scene to indicate that Ms. Jenkins' disappearance is the result of foul play as evidence present showed signs that a struggle had occurred," Vermont State Police Major Ed Ledo told reporters during a Monday afternoon press conference.

Ledo did not elaborate further on any potential evidence found at the scene. He did, however, say that Jenkins' child is in good condition and is being cared for by a family friend.

According to Covell, Jenkins was last seen at approximately 8:30 p.m. Sunday. The friend who later located her car was the last known person to see her and became concerned when unable to locate her, police said.

Jenkins holds degrees from Lyndon State College in natural science and geology. She teaches high school science and coaches the girls' basketball team at St. Johnsbury Academy, an independent boarding and day school. Jenkins also works as a part-time waitress at The Creamery Restaurant in nearby Danville.

The Vermont State Police Crime Scene Search Team is processing the scene where Jenkins' vehicle was found and are scouring her home for any possible clues. The Vermont Air National Guard is also assisting in the search by canvassing the area with via helicopter, Ledo said.

Jenkins is described as a white female, 5-foot 4-inches tall, 130 lbs., with blonde hair and hazel eyes. Anyone with information about Jenkins' whereabouts is asked to contact the Vermont State Police in St. Johnsbury at 802-748-3111. Police are also looking to speak with anyone who may have driven Goss Hollow Road in St. Johnsbury on Sunday evening, between 7:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

So the friend last saw her around 8:30 Sunday evening, then couldn't contact/locate her later in the evening...and just happened to find her vehicle. I wonder why the person was trying to find her at the later point in the evening and why they went looking for her.

[tmdgirl]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...KcS_story.html

Eric Berry, 44, of Lyndonville, said Jenkins is a cousin by marriage and godmother to his daughter. He described her as a kind person who loves her son and said he believes she was coming to someone’s aid when she disappeared.

“She left her house with the idea of trying to help someone,” he said. He would not elaborate.

It will be interesting to find out what he means by this statement.

[Whisper]

Police believe they've found missing teacher's body
Foul play suspected

ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. -
Vermont authorities say they have found a body they believe is that a missing boarding school teacher.

An SUV belonging to 33-year-old Melissa Jenkins was found Sunday night with her unharmed 2-year-old inside.

State Police Maj. Ed Ledo said Monday evening that authorities found a woman's body in nearby Barnet.

He says that authorities are searching for a suspect and that the public should be vigilant.

Police did not give details on the condition of the body or how they believe the woman died. An autopsy is planned for Tuesday.

[...]

http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new...z/-/index.html

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Vermont State Police say an autopsy has confirmed that a body found off a back road is that of prep school teacher Melissa Jenkins who disappeared while her son was left unharmed in her idling car.

Police said Tuesday that the death of 33-year-old Jenkins has been ruled a homicide. Police did not release the cause of death.
[...]

Authorities acknowledged they did not know whether Jenkins' disappearance was isolated. Vermont State Police Maj. Ed. Ledo said at a news conference that the public should be vigilant as authorities continue to seek a suspect.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_1...chool-teacher/

Family members believe Jenkins -- who was a teacher and coach at St. Johnsbury Academy -- left home to help someone with car trouble, but they don't know who that was.
[...]

"Although I cannot disclose the details of how the body was found, or the condition of the body, this death is considered suspicious," said Vermont State Police Maj. Ed Ledo.

Police are looking to talk to anyone who traveled along Goss Hollow Road in St. Johnsbury on Sunday between 7 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. and along Comerford Dam Road in Barnet.

http://www.wmur.com/r/30773590/detail.html

[TheMorningStar]

Police took Allen Prue, 30, and his wife Patricia Prue,33, into custody late Tuesday night in connection with the murder of Melissa Jenkins.

Six troopers were involved in the warrant’s execution.
Vehicles were towed from the scene.
Around the same time Patricia Prue was being questioned at the state police barracks in St. Johnsbury.
She experienced a medical episode and was transported by ambulance to NVRH. She was listed in stable condition at 11 p.m. and returned to the barracks at approximately midnight. She entered the correctional facility at approximately 1 a.m.
Allen Prue was taken into custody around that time and was taken to the correctional facility.

http://caledonianrecord.com/main.asp...rticleID=76655

[Whisper]

http://caledonianrecord.com/main.asp...rticleID=76655

Any reason why they allegedly killed her though??

[TheMorningStar]

Any reason why they allegedly killed her though??

No alleged motive was provided, but Vermont State Police said in a statement that "they knew Ms. Jenkins and had snow plowed her driveway a couple of years ago."

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...teachers-death

[cubby]

What you wanna bet Mr. Prue is baby's daddy and Mrs. Prue wanted baby's mama GONE!

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The only motive suggested in the court documents filed in the case against 30-year-old Allen Prue and his 33-year-old wife Patricia Prue, of Waterford, was that Allen Prue told police he wanted to "get a girl" on Sunday night.

The documents say that in the past Allen Prue had asked victim Melissa Jenkins out.

Patricia Prue allegedly called Jenkins on Sunday night and told her they needed help.

The Prues were arrested early Wednesday. The documents show Jenkins' body was found in the Connecticut River, just over the state line in New Hampshire. It was weighted down with blocks and was partially covered by branches.

http://www.kmov.com/news/national/Sn...144661255.html

The police affidavit said Allen Prue used to plow Melissa Jenkin’s driveway, and that he and his wife went out Sunday night, and while they were out, Allen “got the idea to get a girl.”

Caledonia County State’s Attorney Lisa Warren said, “It appears that this was sexually motivated.”

The affidavit does not state who specifically killed Jenkins, but suggests they both at one point choked her. Warren says there was an “effort by the both of them in strangling her.” Police state Jenkins body was thrown in a river after she was strangled.

The Prues called Jenkins Sunday night to say they needed help with their car because they were having car trouble on her road. The documents also say that in the past Allen Prue had asked Jenkins out.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/a...cher-her-death

[cubby]

Sounds like this might be stranger than Prue being the baby's daddy. Sounds like they both just wanted to get their jollies with someone and she was handy.

[Rockin Ma]

I assumed the picture of the baby was hers. I was under the impression her child was half black. I don't think he's the daddy. I wonder the time frame of it all. It had to be a real quick thing that no one noticed her baby alone on the side of the road in a car.

[TheMorningStar]

“Allen Prue advised that when Melissa Jenkins got out of her vehicle he grabbed her and strangled her,” Smith said, summarizing an interview Prue had with other detectives. “Allen Prue advised that he didn’t know what she was doing but [k]new that his wife Patricia was outside of the vehicle helping him.”

Patricia Prue denied any knowledge of Jenkins’s death in her interviews with State Police, Smith said in the statement.
Wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, the couple appeared this morning in a Vermont courtroom, where a judge ordered them held without bail. The prosecutor, Caledonia County State’s Attorney Lisa Warren, said the only known tie between the couple and Jenkins was the snowplowing. She declined further comment.
Jenkins’s vehicle was found idling Sunday night with her 2-year-old son still inside. Police have said it was immediately clear she was forcibly removed from the vehicle, which was recovered around 11 p.m. on a back road near her St. Johnsbury home.
On Monday afternoon, police found Jenkins’s body in Barnet, a town about 10 miles from St. Johnsbury.
Jenkins had called a friend Sunday evening, saying she “got a weird call from a girl and guy who used to plow her driveway. They said their car broke down near her house,” the detective’s affidavit said. Other friends, after not hearing from her for about two hours, became nervous and drove toward her house and discovered her car, with her son asleep inside. The friends found her shoe and a male’s hat with “Polaris Racing” on it.

Prue told officers, according to the detective’s affidavit, that after he strangled Jenkins, he put her in the back seat of the car and left. Prue also said that, at one point, his wife had choked Jenkins some more to “ensure she wasn’t breathing.”

Prue also detailed the couple’s disposal of the body, saying that he and his wife had put Jenkins’s body in a tarp, along with her clothes and their clothes, and poured bleach on them. Then, Prue told police, they weighed down the body with cinderblocks and put it in the Connecticut River, covering it with branches.

http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrode...8NO/index.html

[Bohring]

I hope the baby slept through it.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A snowplow driver accused in the death of a Vermont teacher and mother had been harassing the woman before the deadly attack, according to her friends.

Friends say Allen Prue, 30, had been calling Melissa Jenkins for several months, asking her to go out. Friends said the young mother referred to him as "the creeper."
[...]

A friend told police that Allen Prue had asked Jenkins out a couple of times and that she felt uncomfortable around him, according to the documents. She stopped having him plow, and in autumn 2011 he showed up drunk at her home asking if he could plow her driveway the following year.

After the court appearance, Allen Prue's mother, Donna Prue, said that her son has never been in trouble with the law before and that she has faith he didn't commit the crime.

"I do not believe he would ever do this, because he didn't have it in him. I have nothing against her (Patricia); I don't have nothing bad to say about either one," said Donna Prue, who lives with the couple and her daughter. She said she did not know Jenkins.
[...]

Her former boyfriend told police she called him saying that she had gotten a weird call from a couple who used to plow her driveway and that she was going to help them. She wanted someone to know what she was doing, the documents say.

When he couldn't reach her two hours later, he went to check on her. He told police he found her vehicle, with her son sleeping in it, and one of her shoes nearby.
[...]

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/30791532/detail.html

[sugarfree irony]

I hope the baby slept through it.

According to the video here the child was awake for at least part of it . He saw her crying and indicated a boy strangled his mommy .

http://gma.yahoo.com/video/news-2679...-28769110.html

[Whisper]

According to the video here the child was awake for at least part of it . He saw her crying and indicated a boy strangled his mommy .

http://gma.yahoo.com/video/news-2679...-28769110.html

yep saw on news baby put hands around his neck and showed how mommy was choked and also they found used condoms and wrappers with her body
Its in this article

He saw the abandoned car, the toddler sleeping inside — and signs of a struggle outside, including one of Jenkins’ shoes lying on the road.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/a...ured-strangled

[Tundratot]

If this guy was a nuisance and a creeper, I can't understand why she went to help. I don't think I would have. If I did, I'd have gotten someone else to come with me. Thank God she alerted people what she was doing or who knows when her child would have been found.

Here's another article, with pictures, about the story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...st_read_module

[Silvahalo]

I came across this case, it really upset me. Made me sick.

Jenkins’ SUV was found hours later abandoned on the side of the road, the engine running, the lights on and her 2-year-old son, Ty, asleep in the back seat. The next day, about 10 miles away, detectives discovered her body — bound, beaten and naked — lying face-down in shallow water along the Connecticut River. She had been strangled to death.

Why did she think going to help this "creeper" was a reasonable idea? Poor judgement def., but what I've read about her she doesn't come across as dumb as in some one in a movie where you scream in your mind wtf are you doing?!
This person gave her the creeps, was in her employ, let him go as he made her uncomfortable. So why didn't she see this as putting herself (and child), in a potentially dangerous situation, enough so that she decided to help? Perhaps being from a small town, the feeling nothing bad really bad happens here, maybe just a very trusting person, loving and caring she has been described by friends and co-workers. a science teacher to children and had a way with them..."gifted".
She even contacted a friend so her whereabouts would be known, still, she's dead.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have not gone out as she did, especially with baby, but that is me, now reading this, how can anyone know? really? how? Has it just come down to you just can't trust anyone, don't help because you can never know? christ, this woman went off thinking she was doing a good thing, died screaming and likely begging for her life and the life her her child as she probably thought harm would come to him to. So wrong, so unfair. The world can be such a mad, terrifying place.

Melissa Jenkins was a mother a friend, a teacher to children. A human being that deserved life and all that was hers. My sympathies to those who miss her, love her as she's gone to never smile or cry again. Never to say, OK, I'll help you.
Rest in peace Melissa Jenkins.

[TheMorningStar]

@Silvahalo , My best guess is that she was just a really nice person. After 10 years, Raq has got me doing this - we would both help anyone (even someone we don't know) without hesitation or question.
Now, I would rather die helping someone then for any other reason.
Putting the child in danger is another matter altogether - most uncool.

[Silvahalo]

@Silvahalo , My best guess is that she was just a really nice person. After 10 years, Raq has got me doing this - we would both help anyone (even someone we don't know) without hesitation or question.
Now, I would rather die helping someone then for any other reason.
Putting the child in danger is another matter altogether - most uncool.

Exactly why I wouldn't have done it myself. No matter how nice people might think I am.
Might have called a tow truck for them but not gone myself.

[sugarfree irony]

Sad to think if she had listened to her intuition she might still be alive . She thought he was a creeper for a reason . Sometimes I think women are raised with such an emphasis on being nice , polite , lady like it can over ride common sense .

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A warrant says a slain Vermont prep school teacher was severely beaten, and her body had patterned marks that appeared to come from the toe of a shoe.

A box printed with the name of a company that sells stun guns was among the items seized from the Waterford home of Allen and Patricia Prue, who are charged with second-degree murder in Melissa Jenkins' strangulation death. The documents made public Wednesday don't indicate that police found a stun gun.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/05/439...p-teacher.html

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Melissa Jenkins was a young mother and a dedicated teacher at St. Johnsbury Academy in St. Johnsbury, VT. In late March of this year, Melissa 's young life was taken from her. Tragically, her young son Ty was a witness to the senseless violence that snuffed out her light. In an effort to show him support, we asked for people to send pictures of themselves holding signs that read "We Love You, Ty," and soon pictures started pouring in from around the world. Ty's song was written to be both a lullaby and a prayer...to speak our wishes and blessings over a young boy who lost too much, too soon. We ask you to donate what you can toward Ty's upbringing : His college, his medical and therapeutic needs.

Info on donating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUQxBoBFlyY

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Allen and Patricia Prue of Waterford are now facing charges of premeditated murder in the strangulation of popular St. Johnsbury Academy teacher Melissa Jenkins.
[...]

The Caledonian Record obtained a new 10-page affidavit filed by Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Walter Smith laying the case for first-degree premeditated murder by the Prues. The affidavit includes statements from several people at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility indicating Patricia Prue, who is being held there without bail, has made comments that the killing was planned in advance.

The new affidavit also noted that Steve Shapiro, Vermont’s chief medical examiner, said a sexual assault of Jenkins could not be ruled out.

The affidavit states that one of Patricia Prue’s fellow inmates told authorities she admitted strangling Jenkins while Allen Prue sexually assaulted her. The court document also states that portions of a ripped-up note that Patricia Prue had written contains statements similar to those in the other inmate’s account.

Nearly two months before the slaying, the Prues bought a mobile phone, known as a Tracfone, that was used to lure Jenkins from her home, Smith said. He said there was no evidence the phone had been used for any other calls during that period.
[...]

If convicted the Prues would face a sentence of at least 35 years in prison.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/a...urder-suspects