Updated July 15.
Vermont State Police on Wednesday arrested a Bennington man following a nearly three-year investigation into the 2019 homicide of a woman whose remains were found in a shallow grave in Searsburg.
Deven D. Moffitt, 32, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of 43-year-old Jessica “Red” Hildenbrandt of Ballston Spa, New York, state police said in a press release Wednesday night.
Despite Hildenbrandt’s New York residence, police reported in 2020 that she “spent considerable time in Vermont,” especially in and around Bennington. Ballston Spa is an hour west of Bennington.
A human jawbone and, later, more human remains, were found in a gravel pit on Somerset Road in Searsburg on Sept. 17, 2019, kicking off the more than three-year search for the killer. It took nearly a year for Hildenbrandt’s remains to be identified. Her death was ruled a homicide in September 2020, though a cause of death has not been released.
Vermont State Police detectives determined that Hildenbrandt and Moffitt had been in a relationship while Moffitt was incarcerated, according to the release. Hildenbrandt posted Moffitt’s bail on July 8, 2019. Evidence indicates that Hildenbrandt was killed not long after, in mid-July, police said.
Hildenbrandt reportedly told the Windsor County State’s Attorney’s Office in March 2019 that she feared for her life if Moffitt were to be released, but Hildenbrandt subsequently stopped participating in the investigation, according to the release.
Police attempting to arrest Moffitt on Wednesday chased him from an apartment complex on South Street in Bennington and deployed “less than lethal round(s),” according to the release. Detectives tackled Moffitt in a residential area on Jefferson Avenue. Police did not report any injuries.
Moffitt is being held without bail at the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland pending his arraignment, which is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Thursday.