Massachusetts

Man Charged in Connection With Jogger's Death Indicted for Her Murder

What to Know

  • Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 31, of Worcester, was indicted Friday for the murder of Vanessa Marcotte.
  • Marcotte, a 27-year-old former Google employee, was killed while jogging near her mother's house in Princeton on Aug. 7, 2016.
  • Colon-Ortiz was linked to the murder by a cheek swab that matched DNA taken from underneath Marcotte's fingernails.

A Massachusetts man charged in connection with the brutal slaying of a woman who was killed while jogging in Princeton last August has been indicted for murder.

Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 31, of Worcester, was indicted by a grand jury on Friday for murder in the death of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte, according to the Worcester County District Attorney's Office.

He had previously been charged with aggravated assault and battery and assault with attempt to rape during his arraignment in Leominster District Court. He pleaded not guilty to those charges in April.

Colon-Ortiz will be arraigned on the murder charge in Worcester Superior Court at a later date. He is currently being held on $10 million bail.

Marcotte, a Google employee living in New York City, was in Princeton visiting her family when she went on a jog on the morning of Aug. 7, 2016. She was reported missing when she didn't return, and her body was found in the woods not far from her family's home off Brooks Station Road later that evening.

Her partially stripped and burned body was found just off the roadway. According to a police, she suffered a fractured nose in the assault and "crushing injuries to the structures surrounding her throat."

Prosecutors said Colon-Ortiz had worked as a third party contractor delivering FedEx packages in the area. Phone records show he was close by the crime scene at the time of Marcotte's death. He was arrested after a cheek swab taken in March matched DNA found underneath Marcotte's fingernails.

In response to the indictment, Marcotte's uncle Steve Therrien said, "We are happy the legal process is moving in a forward direction. It's the first step in a long process."

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