[A] Waterford man who was found this week fatally shot off the side of a road in Concord and whose death is ruled a homicide had been the target of a police investigation into heroin dealing since July, according to federal court records.
Two people, including the man’s girlfriend, who were also subjects of that drug investigation were taken into custody on federal drug charges shortly after 37-year-old Michael Pimental’s body was discovered, the documents stated.
They have both been questioned in connection with Pimental’s death, though no charges have been filed in the slaying, according to police and court filings.
Krystal Whitcomb, 27, and her father, Shawn Whitcomb, 51, appeared Monday in federal court in Burlington on charges of distributing heroin, court documents stated.
They both remain detained pending a hearing Thursday to determine if they will stay jailed pending resolution of the drug charges against them.
State Police Capt. Dan Trudeau, head of the major crime unit, declined Tuesday evening to term the Whitcombs suspects in Pimental’s death.
“They are certainly persons of interest because they are in the core group,” Trudeau said. “We’re still trying to piece it together. We did talk to them but we talk to lots of people. We’re trying to sort it all out.”
He added that police acted on numerous search warrants Tuesday as part of the death probe, including one search that started in the morning at Pimental’s residence in Waterford and was expected to run well into the night.
“Those are all in progress,” Trudeau said of the searches. “Maybe they’ll help us out, maybe they won’t.”
The captain also said that state police are continuing to look for Pimental’s blue 2005 Ford F150 extended cab with Vermont plates 296A851.
“It’s just an unaccounted vehicle right now,” Trudeau said. “From what we understand, it was typically at the house and it’s not there and we don’t know where it is. We don’t know if it’s associated with any crime at all. We’re just trying to find it.”
State police said around 11:30 a.m. Sunday they responded to a report of a dead body on a property on Victory Road in Concord. The property owner reported finding the body, later identified as Pimental, along the wooded edge of his driveway, according to police.
Pimental died of multiple gunshot wounds, police said, and his death termed a homicide.
According to court documents that became public Monday with the filing of the federal drug charges against the Whitcombs, the Vermont Drug Task Force in July started an investigation into the distribution of heroin by Pimental and the Whitcombs.
“The investigation utilized a cooperating individual (“CI”) who told me, among other things, that Krystal Whitcomb was dealing heroin for her boyfriend, Michael Pimental,” stated an affidavit written by Montpelier Police Sgt. Wade Cochran, who is assigned to the drug task force.
The most recent “controlled buy” involving an informant took place on Wednesday, Oct. 10, according to the affidavit.
Cochran wrote in the affidavit that he met with the informant in St. Johnsbury on Wednesday to arrange a buy of heroin from Krystal Whitcomb.
After an exchange of text messages between the informant and Krystal Whitcomb, she drove up in a silver Cadillac and sold heroin to the informant in a parking lot, the affidavit stated.
“Krystal gave the CI eight bags of heroin and while the CI was standing by the car, Krystal appeared to snort a substance the CI believed was heroin,” the sergeant wrote.
Three days later, on Saturday, state police started an investigation into the disappearance of Pimental, Krystal Whitcomb’s boyfriend, according to the affidavit. The filing does not state what prompted police to begin searching for Pimental.
According to an affidavit filed in his case, Shawn Whitcomb sold 20 bags of heroin to an informant on Sept. 6. He was arrested Sunday on that federal drug charge.
His daughter, Krystal Whitcomb, was also arrested Sunday when a sheriff’s deputy from Grafton County, New Hampshire, pulled a silver Cadillac over in Haverhill, New Hampshire, for a motor vehicle violation. Krystal was in the passenger seat and an unknown man was driving the car, police said.
The man who was driving the Cadillac, who was not named in the filing, was arrested on New Hampshire charges and Krystal Whitcomb agreed to take a ride back to Vermont with VSP detectives who had arrived at the scene, court records stated.
Trudeau said Thursday evening that while he didn’t have the name of the man arrested in New Hampshire readily available, the charges that man faces in that state are not related to the homicide in Vermont.
Police recovered two firearms from the Cadillac, a Hi-Point model JCP .40 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol, was found tucked between the passenger seat and the center console, the affidavit stated. The firearm was loaded with a full magazine, according to the filing.
The second gun, a Hi-Point model CF380 .380 caliber pistol, had a round in its chamber, Cochran wrote. That firearms was found in a bag belong to Krystal Whitcomb. She told police, according to the affidavit, that both of the firearms belonged to her.
Back in Vermont, Krystal Whitcomb was charged with selling heroin on Oct. 10 to the informant. Also, the affidavit stated, as she got out of the police vehicle at the St. Johnsbury barracks a package fell from her lap which contained three “bundles” of suspected heroin and fentanyl.
Asked why the drug investigation that began in July had run so long, Trudeau referred comment to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont, which is prosecuting the case.
Kraig LaPorte, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont, declined comment Thursday on the cases involving the Whitcombs.
Anyone with information about Pimental’s death or the whereabouts of his truck is asked to call the Vermont State Police St. Johnsbury barracks at (802) 748-3111.