Vermont State Police say they have arrested a man in connection with the murder of an 82-year-old woman who had been reported missing last week.
Darren Martell, 23, of St. Albans, was arrested late Thursday on a charge of aggravated murder for the killing of Roberta Martin, of Enosburgh, according to state police. They said Martell had been living with the residents of a house next door to Martin's home on Butternut Hollow Road.
State police did not release any details about a possible motive.
Martell was arrested on the murder charge Thursday night while he was in custody at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, where he had been held since Monday on an unrelated charge of lewd and lascivious conduct after police found him touching himself in a sexual manner along the edge of a public walking path near a school in St. Albans.
He is being held without bail. He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Friday.
Neighbors had reported Martin as missing on July 17 after they went to check on her and discovered she was not at her home.
State police said Sunday that they had located human remains around in a wooded area off Sand Hill Road in Enosburg near Martin's home. They said in an update Monday that autopsy results confirmed the remains were Martin's. Her cause and manner of death have not yet been released.
