Vermont authorities are searching for a convicted murderer recently released on furlough in Bellows Falls who removed his electronic monitoring device Wednesday and is now on the run.
William Wheelock, 55, was convicted in a 1987 second-degree murder case and is serving a sentence of 21 to 99 years in prison, according to a statement released Thursday by Vermont State Police.
He has previously been released from prison on probation or furlough several times over the past 20 years and has violated conditions leading to his return to jail each time.
Wheelock was most recently released on furlough Jan. 28 and was living in transitional housing in Bellows Falls, police said. As part of his furlough this time, Wheelock was required to wear an electronic monitoring device.
Police said Wheelock cut off and discarded that device, alerting corrections officials to notify law enforcement, according to the statement.
The Bellows Falls Police Department was notified around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the statement, and began searching for Wheelock with assistance from Vermont State Police.
Police say that Wheelock was seen around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday getting into a dark-colored SUV, possibly a Nissan Rogue, with Vermont license plates at the Penguin Mart at 124 Rockingham St. in Bellows Falls.
The vehicle, with two or three people inside, then headed north on Route 5 toward Rockingham, according to the statement.
Police described Wheelock as white, 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing about 215 pounds, with blue eyes, thinning gray hair, and “666” tattooed on his left eyelid.
Wheelock is known to have ties to the Springfield, Massachusetts, area, according to police.
“Based on the circumstances surrounding his abscondence and his lengthy remaining incarcerative sentence, Wheelock’s behavior is considered unpredictable and potentially dangerous,” police said in the release.
According to reports from the Rutland Herald, Wheelock was on parole from an armed robbery in Springfield, Massachusetts, when the murder in Vermont took place in an apartment in Ludlow in 1987 following a drug and alcohol binge and an argument with another man.
That argument, the newspaper reported, ended with Wheelock shooting and killing James Brillon, 26, of Danby.
“Confrontations between the two punctuated the night,” stated a summary of the case in a 1991 Vermont Supreme Court opinion upholding Wheelock’s conviction.
“The killing occurred when the victim entered the living room; defendant, who testified he believed the victim had a knife, shot him in the chest,” the decision stated. “During the investigation, police found no knife near the body, and did not search for one in the apartment.
Judy Henkin, deputy corrections commissioner, said Thursday evening that between 1999 and 2017 Wheelock had been released several times on either probation or furlough. He’s been returned to prison each time for violating his release conditions, though not for committing new crimes, Henkin said.
In total, she said, over the past 32 years Wheelock has served about 26 years behind bars while spending six years under corrections’ supervision in the community.
For his latest release, Henkin said, Wheelock had the added condition of electronic monitoring.
Bellows Falls Police put a post on its Facebook page Wednesday night that Wheelock had fled fourlough, but it did not state that Wheelock had previously been convicted of murder. The release Thursday from Vermont State Police contained more information.
Anyone with information about Wheelock’s whereabouts is asked to contact local law enforcement.
If anyone sees him they are asked to not approach or contact him, but instead call 911 or the Vermont State Police Westminster Barracks, 802-722-4600; Bellows Falls Police Department, 802-463-1234; or the U.S. Marshals Service, 802-951-6271.
