On Sunday, March 24, 2012, 33 year-old science teacher from St. Johnsbury, Vermont, Melissa Jenkins went missing. That Sunday night, local Police were notified that Jenkins car was found abandoned with her two year old son still in the car. Police concluded that a struggle took place. The next day, the body of the abducted teacher was found. Jenkins was found dead in the Connecticut River near Barnet. Three days after the finding, on March 28, local police found and arrested their two main suspects, Allen and Patricia Prue. The couple was charged with second degree murder and improper disposal of a body. Allen Prue and his wife are allegedly accused of luring Jenkins away from her home. Prior to the murder, Mr. Prue admits that he became …show more content…
Prue strangled her and put her in his back seat when she was unconscious. His wife continuously checked to make sure Jenkins wasn’t breathing. They then took off Jenkins clothes and put her body, her clothes, and their own clothes, on a tarp and bleached everything. Then they used cinder blocks to sink the body in the Connecticut River. A main reason local found the deceased body and the murders so quickly was that Jenkins told a friend about the suspicious couple before she went missing. She gave her friend the Prues name and phone number, which she got from a business card prior. On June 22, Patricia Pure confessed to her cellmates that she murdered Melissa Jenkins. Also, forensic evidence indicated that the murder was premeditated., so the charges were upped to first degree murder. Ms. Prue also faces additional charges of aggravated sexual assault. Evidence that the murder was premeditated is that the couple bought an stun gun 91 days before Melissa Jenkins’ death. The stun gun marks on Jenkins body matched those that their stun gun would make. Also, a burn phone was purchased 56 day before the murder and it was only used to call Jenkins as a way to lure her from her home. Finally, neighbors saw the Prue’s car outside the Jenkins home a couple of days before the incident. It was determined that they planned to stun her, take sexual advantage of her, and kill