A Vermont man charged last year with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his estranged wife more than 30 years ago in Morrisville has died.
Peters, 71, of Hyde Park, had been arrested in September 2024 after a grand jury in Lamoille County returned an indictment on the murder charge against him in the 1993 death of 42-year-old Cheryl Peters, who was in the process of divorcing him at the time of the killing.
Carroll Peters had pleaded not guilty to the charge and had been released on $200,000 bail. A trial was set for January 2026.
Lamoille County State’s Attorney Aliena Gerhard confirmed that Carroll Peters died Thursday. Specific details about the cause of death were not immediately available Friday.
“The State is grateful to the grand jury made up of members of our community who indicted Carroll Peters on charges of first degree murder,” Gerhard said in a statement. “In later hearings, the Court affirmed the grand jury’s findings, when it ruled that the weight of evidence against Mr. Peters was great.”
Gerhard said in the statement that while the homicide case would no longer go to trial, she was hopeful the indictment “brought at least some measure of solace” to the family of Cheryl Peters.
“They waited thirty years for justice for the brutal killing of their mother. The State’s Attorney’s Office is also deeply grateful to law enforcement, all now retired, who never gave up over three decades and made the grand jury possible,” the prosecutor added. “Their dedication to Cheryl, her family, and justice is unparalleled.”
Given the serious nature of the murder charge, Gerhard said she would be filing a motion to prevent the charge from ever being sealed or expunged from court records.
Carroll Peters, who had been the subject of past investigations into his wife’s fatal shooting, lived in the Morrisville areas for decades after her death and ran a land surveying business in town, his defense attorney, Kirk Williams, said at his arraignment.
Gerhard had termed the killing of Cheryl Peters as “execution-style” when speaking in court during the arraignment.
Following that hearing, Gerhard, who became Lamoille County state’s attorney last year, said it was not new evidence that led to the murder charge against Carroll Peters.
“Nothing changed in my opinion,” Gerhard said at that time. “We had a grand jury. We brought it to the community.”
