U.S. Marshals capture suspect in killing of CT news anchor’s mother

U.S. Marshals captured a Vermont fugitive in Groton on Wednesday suspected of killing the mother of an NBC Connecticut news anchor in February, officials said.

U.S. Marshals in Connecticut and Rhode Island, assisted by the Rhode Island State Police and Groton Police Department, arrested 44-year-old Shawn Conlon at Gold Star Inn & Suites in Groton on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Law enforcement officials initially believed Claudia M. Voight, 73, died in her Windham, Vermont, home from a medical event on Feb. 20 but later determined in April that she died from neck compression that was detectable only during an autopsy, police said.

Law enforcement officials said they delayed releasing the April conclusion that her death was a homicide to protect the investigation.

An extensive Vermont State Police investigation identified Conlon as a suspect in the homicide, and an arrest warrant was obtained on Dec. 18. The Vermont State Police enlisted the help of the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force to locate and apprehend Conlon. The U.S. Marshals investigation led first to Rhode Island, then to Groton, according to officials.

Once in custody, Conlon was transported to the Groton Police Department where he was processed and held for arraignment in New London. He will be extradited to Vermont to face the charge of second-degree homicide.

Voight is the mother of NBC Connecticut news anchor Heidi Voight, who posted on social media in July that she had been carrying a “painful secret.”

“This has broken me and changed me. But I am my mother’s daughter, and I will come back stronger. I will fight for her,” she wrote.

“I have been carrying this painful secret: My mother’s death was not natural, nor peaceful. My mother was murdered, violently, in the place she should have felt safest — her own home in Windham, Vermont,” Voight wrote. “Claudia Voight was stolen from this world. She was stolen from her family, from her children, and from my precious daughters who now ask me almost every day, “Why did Grandma go to Heaven?”

Voight wrote: “I want to thank the many dedicated law enforcement professionals including Vermont State Police who are working tirelessly to bring our family justice, and the victim advocates holding us safely through this overwhelming process.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.