[V]ermont State Police Trooper Isaac Merriam knew that something was wrong at the Danville Hill Road residence in Cabot when the house gained a body count.
For years, the residence has served as a local drug exchange hub. Vermont State Police have responded to more than 60 calls regarding the building since 2014, for complaints ranging from theft to fraud to assault. The building’s fatal overdose wasn’t the sole cause of the state’s investigation — but for state officials, it suggested a pattern.
“The nexus that we can pull everything back from … is the drug nexus. It’s fueling that crime,” Merriam said.
The VSP decided to dive into the Cabot residence’s activities in March. Merriam said the complaints about the Danville Hill Road house pushed the officers to focus on it, which he described as “a troubled spot that needed more attention.”
“That’s when we started going back in time and looking at calls for service, and what’s come out of the house, and how we can clean up Cabot a little bit,” Merriam said. “The domestics and the assaults out of the house — it needed to stop.”
The house itself is located in downtown Cabot, across from the general store and a village green away from Cabot High School. The building is white and gray and two stories tall; there is a metal butterfly decoration hanging by the front window.
Bobby Searles, the owner of the Cabot Village Store and the adjacent Harry’s Hardware, said that most of the town is a “hardworking, real Vermont community.” According to Searles, those involved in the drug house are more “transients” than residents: he believes they do not represent Cabot’s primary population.
“There’s a handful of people that happen to occupy that building. If there is a bad name [for Cabot], they give it a bad name,” Searles said.
The only exception to the property’s revolving door of occupants is the home’s owner, Shelley Corliss. She is formally responsible for the building, Merriam said; she is the only person facing criminal charges for its activities.
According to Merriam, Corliss, 55, is the self-described “mother of the household.” She had an open-door policy, the trooper added. She welcomed all into her home without judgment, and the consequences have largely fallen back on Corliss herself.
“She invited company in that use drugs,” Merriam said. “Long story short, they take advantage of her in the long run: steal from her, steal from other people in the house, go down the street and steal from the local store, it just goes on and on.”
Corliss was, Merriam said, a victim and a perpetrator alike.
According to the VSP’s press release, the home’s crimes include domestic assault, assault, theft, fraud, burglary and attempts to elude. Corliss has also been involved in separate court cases over the years, including a 2018 incident in which she was accused of stealing a car.
For all the burglary and violence and accidents that have taken place at the Danville Hill Road house, however, officials said the overdoses are among the most concerning. There have been several cases reported to the police, Merriam noted, and at least one has resulted in death.
“The medical examiner couldn’t rule it an overdose, but opiates were in the body. That contributed to a seizure, that lead to the death of that individual. It’s a huge public safety issue,” Merriam said. “We’ve had several reports of overdoses at the house. They’re continuing to happen.”
The investigation into the Cabot residence comes as Vermonters statewide continue to struggle with opioid addiction. Last month, three people died of overdoses within five days in Chittenden County. And earlier this year, police spent months trying to close a drug house in Brattleboro.
State health officials have repeatedly advocated for accessible Narcan and fentanyl testing strips. In the case of a dangerous drug strain, such precautions can mean the difference between life and death. But for Cabot, Merriam said the issue is as much one of saving a town as of saving an individual. The house was a “hub” for drug activity, he explained. It wasn’t good for Corliss, but it also wasn’t good for the community.
Searles said he has kicked at least four house residents out of his general store for stealing. The incidents weren’t cases of armed robbery, he specified, but more like petty theft: taking beer when no one was looking, writing bad checks.
“Everybody calls it the crackhouse. Everybody knows that it is a den of ill repute,” Searles said. “When the police come screaming into town, everybody knows where they’re going.”
Searles added that, for all that he would love to see the town “buy that building and burn it down,” he doesn’t know how the police could have handled the complaints differently.
“I guess it’s the same problem in every community,” he said. “I don’t know what they can do. … These guys get arrested, they get cuffed and stuffed, and they’re back in the town tomorrow.”
Vermont Drug Task Force official Lt. Teresa Randall said that while the task force played no direct role in the Cabot case, the VSP has seen the impacts of drug houses in other communities. Town expenses for EMS officials increase when there is drug activity in an area, she said; so do rates for crimes such as theft and burglary.
Randall added that the task force targets drug dealing at several levels, with emphasis on organizations based out of state. Vermont is not a “source state,” she said, which means that most drugs originate elsewhere.
But the task force also focuses on the people who house others’ drug organizations — people like Shelley Corliss.
“The drug trafficking organizations from out of state come into town, and they [homeowners] house them, give them transportation, and set them up with a network of customers,” Randall said. “They’re facilitating the operations just as much as the dealers.”
Corliss is scheduled to answer for “Penalties for Dispensing or Selling Regulated Drugs in a Dwelling” in court on Aug. 22. Until then, however, Cabot residents will continue navigating the presence of drug activity in their downtown.
“Generally it’s a great community,” Searles said. “Cabot is a town on the rise, and people love being here.”
But, he added, “it is obviously clear that [the drug house residents] are not productive members of society.”
