Thursday, 4:30 PM
Police say autopsy confirms Vermont student was murdered
By Suzanne Smalley, Globe Staff
ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. -- The suspect in the slaying of an University of Vermont student denies any involvement in her disappearance, according to an affidavit filed in court today.
Brian L. Rooney says that he walked with Michelle Gardner-Quinn on a downtown Burlington street about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, but he drove off in his vehicle and never saw her again. The body of Gardner-Quinn, a 21-year-old senior, was found Friday by hikers near a rural gorge about 15 miles from Burlington.
At a late afternoon press conference, Burlington police said preliminary results from an autopsy confirmed that she was the victim of homicide, but police declined to release an exact cause of death. Police also renewed an appeal for the public's help finding a silver earring, a sneaker, a shoulder bag, and other items belonging to Gardner-Quinn and tracking the movements of a red Jeep Cherokee belonging to Rooney.
He has not been charged in connection with Gardner-Quinn's disappearance and death, but court documents released today suggest that he has an alleged history of violence against women.
In the same affidavit, a former wife says Rooney used a cloth soaked in ether to knock her out and have sex with her. The ex-wife said Rooney also did the same to her teenage sister, according to the affidavit filed by a Vermont State Police officer.
Rooney, a 36-year-old construction worker, was arraigned this afternoon on a sex assault charge involving the sister in 1998 when she was 15. He was also arraigned on a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child for allegedly fondling the sister in 1996 when she was 13.
Those allegations emerged as police investigated him in connection with the Gardner-Quinn case. It is the Globe's policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault without their consent.
Rooney was ordered held on $150,000 cash bail on the charges.
