Vermont State Police say the death of 73-year-old Claudia Voight in Windham in February was a homicide. That determination took place in April, but police waited until Monday to notify the public.
“Due to the sensitive nature of the case from the early stages of the investigation, (Vermont State Police) opted to wait to disclose the incident to the public,” according to a press release issued late Monday morning by state police.
“The investigation has now progressed to a point where VSP is able to release information without jeopardizing the case,” the release added.
Voight’s death on Feb. 20 did not initially appear suspicious, the release stated; it was reported to be the result of an apparent medical event.
But an autopsy several days later, conducted by the state Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington, indicated that the death was suspicious.
In April, the release stated, final findings confirmed Voight died of neck compression, with the manner of death ruled homicide.
State police do not believe that Voight’s killing was random, according to the release, “and there is no identified threat to the community.” No one is in custody and the investigation remains ongoing, police said.
Voight’s daughter, Heidi Voight, a news anchor and reporter for NBC Connecticut, posted Monday on Facebook about an hour after the state police issued its press release that her mother should still be alive, and thanked people for their kindness since her mother’s death.
“I know you’ve had questions and there is something I’ve been wanting to tell you, but up until now, couldn’t,” she wrote in the post.
“I’ve been carrying this painful secret: My mother’s death was not natural, nor peaceful,” she continued. “My mother was murdered, violently, in the place she should have felt safest — her own home in Windham, Vermont.”
Heidi Voight added that her children ask her almost every day about their grandmother, Claudia Voight: “Why did Grandma go to Heaven?”
She added that there is “emotional purgatory” that comes from having to remain silent.
“How could we write her obituary or plan her service until the world understood the true magnitude of this senseless loss?” she wrote. “But our silence was necessary to protect the early stages of the intense criminal investigation.”
Heidi Voight also thanked state police for “working tirelessly” to obtain justice. She could not be reached Monday for comment.
Adam Silverman, a state police spokesperson, stated in an email Monday, in response to questions, that Claudia Voight was not married or in a relationship at the time she was killed. He said the state police Major Crime Unit became involved in the investigation after the autopsy’s initial determination that the death was suspicious.
Silverman said the decision to delay publicly disclosing information about a particular investigation is made on a case-by-case basis.
“I can’t recall a case in my five-plus years as (public information officer) where circumstances necessitated waiting five months for the initial disclosure of a homicide case,” he said.
