Marcotte, a former Leominster resident who was living in New York, was murdered Sunday after going for a jog about 1 p.m., along Brooks Station Road in Princeton. Police were notified by her family when she did not return home. Her body was found in a wooded area just a half mile from her mother's home by a police K9 unit Sunday at 8:20 p.m.
According to multiple news outlets, including WCVB and NECN, a state police source said Marcotte's body was found unclothed, and that her hands, feet and part of her head had been burned.
Vetrano was strangled and sexually assaulted after setting out for a jog just after 5 p.m., on Aug. 2, through a park several blocks from her Queens home.
In a press conference held outside Princeton Town Hall on Tuesday afternoon, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said, "We understand there are similarities" between the two cases.
"We're approaching this from every angle," he said. "We're fairly early in the investigation."
Marcotte had been working as an account manager for Google since January 2015. She was a 2011 graduate of Boston University and a 2007 graduate of the Bancroft School in Worcester.
Early said an autopsy was conducted on Marcotte's body Tuesday morning, and based on preliminary information, "we do believe (her death) was a homicide."
Asked whether her body was burned, Early said he would "not speak to the condition of her body."
Massachusetts law-enforcement officials believe Marcotte's death likely took place Sunday, between 1 and 4 p.m., and are asking anyone who might have seen anything suspicious during that time period to contact police.
At the press conference, Early urged anyone who was in the vicinity of Brooks Station Road on Sunday who "may have seen a woman walking or running" to call the Massachusetts State Police tip line at 508-453-7589.
The tip line has received hundreds of calls so far, he said, and state police are "following every lead."
"The tips that are coming in have provided us with a lot of good information in regards to this case," he said.
On Monday, Early and Princeton Police Chief Michele Powers urged local residents to use an abundance of caution and remain aware of their surroundings while traveling through the area.
That was similar advice offered by Police Chief Sam Albert in the neighboring town of Westminster.
"People do have to be aware because these kinds of tragedies can happen in communities as small as this," he said. "A lot of our residents do go up there to hike and run and frequent the area around Mount Wachusett and the surrounding roads, so we've been trying to urge people to do their due diligence. If they go out running or hiking, go in pairs and not alone."
Albert also said that calls to the Police Department have greatly increased since the investigation began.
"Just in the last couple days, we've had an increase in calls for appointments and a lot of people asking how they can get pepper spray or to get permits for firearms," he said.
The District Attorney's Office has asked anyone with information relevant to the investigation to call the Massachusetts State Police tip line at 508-453-7589, the state police detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney's office at 508-453-7589, or the Princeton Police Department at 978-464-2928.
Read more:
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com...#ixzz4Gug1MKLm