A cigarette butt found near the body of a 24-year-old teacher murdered 52 years ago in Vermont has now helped investigators reach the alleged perpetrator of the crime, an upstairs neighbor, who may have strangled her.
DNA evidence collected by the Burlington Police Department from the cigarette butt and investigative work conducted led authorities to the man who allegedly killed Rita Curran one night in July 1971.
The suspect, identified as William Deroos, who was 31 at the time, left his apartment that evening for “a brisk walk”. When he came back, he told his wife to say that he was gone for those 70 minutes.
Since the investigation resumed in 2019, investigators have re-interviewed Deroos’ ex-wife, and she said he briefly left the apartment, a period when Curran’s roommates weren’t around at her Burlington apartment.
“We are all convinced that William Deroos is responsible for the aggravated murder of Rita Curran, but since he died in a hotel room from a drug overdose, he will not be held responsible for his actions, but the case will be closed.” said police inspector James. Trieb, Commander of the Investigative Services Division, at a news conference Tuesday morning.
After Curran’s death, Deroos moved to Thailand and became a monk, but later returned to the United States. In 1986, Deroos died of a drug overdose in San Francisco, police said.
Curran’s parents died not knowing who killed their daughter, but the victim’s brother and sister attended the event held at Burlington Police Station.
In the early morning hours of July 20, 1971, Burlington police were called to the Brooks Avenue apartment after Curran’s roommate came home to find his body in the bedroom he shared with her.
Police say Curran put up a strong fight but was strangled. The murder shocked Burlington.
Since then, the case has remained open, but in 2019 Trieb and a team of inspectors, agents, technicians and others started the case as if it had happened then and there.
Key evidence was a cigarette butt found near Curran’s body.
In 2014, previous investigators sent the cigarette butt and other evidence for DNA analysis. The test determined the DNA profile of whoever smoked that cigarette, but did not match existing samples in DNA databases compiled by law enforcement.
But the researchers who took on the case in 2019 hired a DNA testing company and compared the samples to genetic material submitted to commercial DNA testing companies by the general public.
So last August, Burlington detectives were told that the sample, which ran through relatives on both sides of the Deroos family, pointed to Deroos, despite the fact that he had no DNA profile on file.
Inspectors found that Deroos and his wife, Michelle, were living upstairs at the time of Curran’s death. They had spoken to investigators after Curran’s death, but at the time they said they had not seen or heard anything.
Deroos and his wife, who no longer used the name Deroos, left Vermont shortly after Curran’s death. Their marriage ended when Deroos left for Thailand. Deroos remarried after returning to the United States.
In a recent interview, Deroos’ ex-wife, who lived with him in Burlington and now lives in Eugene, Oregon, told investigators she lied about her husband leaving the apartment that night. Later, Burlington detectives interviewed another woman who said Deroos had a penchant for sudden outbursts of violence.
Detective Thomas Chennette, who interviewed Deroos’s first ex-wife, said Tuesday he didn’t believe she knew her husband had killed Curran, but was protecting him because he already had a criminal record.
“I think she lied at the time because she was young. She was naive, newly married and in love,” said Chennette.
Now-retired U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, who was the district attorney for Chittenden County when Curran was killed and who visited the crime scene that evening, attended Tuesday’s event. When asked if he thought the matter had been resolved, he replied that it had. But “I have to admit I was imagining that after 20 and 30, 40 years
Source: DN
