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Thank you.
What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Big thank you to Erica for this recommendation today. This is yet another case where a woman is just minding her own business, exercising alone, and something absolutely horrible happens. But it has a really strange angle to it that's a little bit different. So thank you so much for putting this one on our radar, Erica.
Yes, thank you so much, Erica. And if you guys are all caught up on Going West episodes, check out our bonus series that includes international cases.
It's just like Going West, but there are almost 110 full-length ad-free episodes on there with cases that you haven't heard and you will not be hearing on Going West. And you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts or over at patreon.com slash goingwestpodcast. Yeah, we cover some seriously baffling stories over there, so check it out. All right, guys, this is episode 408 of Going West, so let's get into it. ♪
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In August of 2016, a 27-year-old woman was on a run in a rural area of Princeton, Massachusetts, and never returned home. When her body was found that evening with disturbing injuries, including burns to various parts of her body, a manhunt ensued to catch the culprit.
And when police found their perpetrator, multiple women came forward to tell their stories. This is the story of Vanessa Marcotte. ♪♪
Vanessa Teresa Marcotte was born on June 17th, 1989 in Lemonster, Massachusetts, which is in Worcester County, about an hour northwest of Boston. The only child of Rosanna and John Marcotte, she grew up very close with her parents because even though they did divorce after Vanessa was born, they both remained active and loving co-parents.
Her mom, Rosanna, said of her daughter, quote, "'She was my only child. She was my world.'"
Vanessa had a very keen sense of style, and according to her friends and family, she loved to dress them and give them fashion advice. But she also was an avid lover of the outdoors and enjoyed hiking and skiing the nearby mountains with her dad. She loved yoga, running, and swimming at the beach, calling Cape Cod, which is about two and a half hours drive from her hometown, her happy place.
Vanessa is remembered glowingly. Her obituary reading that she, quote, embodied everything that is good in a human being. It went on to describe her as compassionate, bright, vivacious, generous, and loving.
From a young age, Vanessa was an accomplished and ambitious student. She graduated from the Bancroft School in Worcester, Massachusetts, and went on to study communications at Boston University, graduating magna cum laude in 2011. She was hired at WordStream and then Vistaprint before finally landing at Google.
Vanessa moved to New York City and settled into what she called her dream job at Google in January of 2015, working as a healthcare account manager. Her media professor from Boston University, Steve Quigley, recalled that Vanessa took to marketing swiftly and was a natural at it.
He said fondly, quote,
He added that she later offered to mentor his students who were interested in following her very career path and also passed along work and internship opportunities at Google to his students. So she was like actively trying to help other people who, you know, kind of were looking up to her and what she was doing in her life.
And this is just who she was. She loved to help people because also in the very little spare time that Vanessa had, she loved to volunteer and offered free tutoring services back in Massachusetts and teamed up with Harlem Grown in New York City, which is an organization that supplies local food insecure families with farm fresh food.
On the first weekend of August 2016, Vanessa headed to Princeton, Massachusetts, which is still in her home county of Worcester County, and she was going there to visit her parents. And this town is extremely safe, by the way. It's quaint and nice, and murder basically never happens here. On the afternoon of Sunday, August 7th, she headed out for a run in the rural backwoods behind her mother's house.
She said goodbye to her mom, Rosanna, who remembers her daughter waving with a bright smile. Rosanna later reflected, quote,
Vanessa left her mom's house on Brooks Station Road around 1.15 p.m. that afternoon, promising to be home soon. And we are going to post a Google Street View of Brooks Station Road because it's super rural. This is like kind of a main road, but it has one lane on each side with forests of trees on both sides as well. So it's like a strip of road in the middle of a forest, essentially.
Yeah, but it's really beautiful. Yeah, super pretty, and normally would probably be a very safe place to go on a walk or a run because there's not a ton of cars, there's not a ton of people, and it's really serene. Yeah, and this was like her last run before heading back home because after this run, Vanessa was going back into the city on a Manhattan-bound commuter bus in just a few hours, so her outing this run would be very brief.
But nearly an hour passed and Vanessa still hadn't returned home. So her mom, Rosanna, was beginning to feel a little bit uneasy and attempted to reach her daughter by phone. But to her growing concern, Vanessa just wasn't answering. At 2:11 p.m., 55 minutes after Vanessa left, her phone began to go straight to voicemail, indicating that it had either been shut off or it was disabled, or she didn't have any service.
Hours later, at 5.30 p.m., her bus for New York City departed, and her parents feared the worst. By then, Vanessa had already been reported missing, and Princeton police, along with state police, Vanessa's parents, and a canine unit, descended on the woods behind Rosanna's home, scouring the two-lane road surrounded by thick woods that Vanessa was believed to have been walking and jogging on, like Daphne said.
Her parents searched for her frantically. In fact, her dad John was so adamant about being present for the search that investigators had to politely ask that he dismiss himself as his presence was throwing off the scent of the police dogs. And almost as quickly as their desperate search had begun, it came to the conclusion that nobody was hoping for.
because on the evening of Sunday, August 7th, around 8:20 p.m., seven hours after she left the house, a state police canine unit came upon 27-year-old Vanessa's lifeless body in the woods.
She was found just a half mile or 0.8 kilometers from Rosanna's house. So she hadn't made it very far from her mom's house at all, which just added to that pain and her parents really reeling from how sudden and senseless this was. Like she had just gone for a run. She wasn't supposed to be gone very long. And she hadn't been before she was met with somebody who took advantage of her.
One friend from college described Vanessa to the mourners at her funeral by saying she was, quote, "'So perfect that sometimes it felt otherworldly. You epitomize grace, light, humility, and absolute magic. You are the stuff dreams are made of.'"
The small community of Princeton, Massachusetts, which was described by the media as quiet and wooded and home to only about 3,000 people, was on edge. I mean, like Keith said, murder almost never happens there. There are approximately zero murders in the town each year. Like before Vanessa's, there hadn't been a murder in three decades.
I mean, that just goes to show you how nice this town really is. Like, three decades is a long time to not have a single murder. Yeah, that's a really long time. And the Princeton Police Department issued a statement to the public to, you know, of course, exercise an abundance of caution, especially to young women kind of venturing out by themselves because they didn't immediately know who was behind this and why.
They couldn't be sure if it was a random act or if she was specifically targeted. So they just wanted everybody in the area to stay extra vigilant because somewhere in the vicinity of Princeton, someone had gotten away with murder.
For now. But let's get into the scene here because Vanessa's murder was very disturbing. Basically, her body had been found in the brush along the side of that two-lane road that she had left on and she was missing clothing, which indicated a possible sexual assault.
she was found badly beaten and partially burned on her head, feet, and hands. And because of this, it wasn't determined without a doubt that she was sexually assaulted, but it did seem like a likely motivation for this crime.
And then beside her body was a charred running shoe. So this whole burning aspect was really bizarre. So her right shoe, which was a size 11 Saucony brand women's running shoe, was missing from the scene, along with dark colored running shorts, her underwear, and a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute baseball hat.
Her headphones and white iPhone 6 had also been stolen, so there were multiple things missing here. Vanessa's official cause of death was strangulation, but she had sustained a brutal beating and fought back hard before her death, which meant that her attacker most likely had sustained injuries as well.
Her nose and thyroid cartilage were fractured, and she suffered blunt force trauma to her head and torso. But the most alarming detail of the crime scene goes back to this really strange burning angle because her attacker had burned her remains
like in an attempt to cover up her murder, but it didn't work. So he just ended up burning multiple, like smaller parts of her body, like almost trying to light her on fire to destroy any evidence. I don't know why he thought that this was going to be a good idea or if it was going to completely cover up evidence from the scene. But yeah, I mean, very stupid. Okay, but this is going to come back later, this next part. So remember this, because her...
Her socks and a hair tie that were found on her body tested positive for both gasoline and DEET, which is the active ingredient in insect repellent. So it's like they didn't just put a flame to her body. They put accelerant on her body to try to light her on fire. But again, this is going to come up a little bit later. Luckily, investigators were able to collect foreign DNA from her body and
including from underneath her fingernails after she presumably scratched her murderer. But unfortunately, the sample did not match with anybody when entered into CODIS. So now at least they did have this resource to use against any suspects, you know, whenever they would get DNA from suspects and people they questioned. But yeah, this person at this point didn't have a criminal record.
Right, so they're still at large here. Well, during the two weeks following her death, the Princeton Police Department received about 900 tips. I mean, that's a lot of tips. Yeah, especially for such a small area. Absolutely.
But love it, like people are out there knowing that this happened. They see this man and take a video of him thinking that maybe he got those injuries.
while he killed Vanessa. Right, it's super smart, and actually, this would be the exact way that this case would be solved anyway, but we're gonna get to that. I mean, not about the scratches, but just people paying attention in general. Yes, exactly. Two weeks after Vanessa's death, police announced that they had zeroed in on a person of interest, and that they were testing his DNA against that of the DNA that was found at the scene.
Her family posted signs all over the community and even started a website spreading awareness and just hoping for tips. Though the name of the potential perpetrator was not known, there had been someone else spotted in the area around that same time. Two potential witnesses came forward revealing that they had seen a black SUV parked near the discovery of Vanessa's body.
At 2:05 PM, which is just minutes before Vanessa's cell phone was shut off,
One of the witnesses passed by the car yet again, but this time they noticed that the windows were closed, the hood had been put down, and the man was nowhere to be seen. Really interesting that this person passed by twice so they could get information from both situations and both time stamps, you know? Yeah, I mean, I don't know if they were intentionally doing that or if maybe they had just
gone out to go get something and then were headed back home but either way we got this information. Yeah, either way they're paying attention. Absolutely. And thankfully the witnesses also reported the appearance of the driver who had apparently been having car trouble so that police could scan the area for men whose physical appearance and car matched that exact description. So police took note of this suspicious sighting knowing the proximity was likely not a coincidence and that this man may have been involved.
And most people believed that this was probably a random attack, though police briefly considered whether it could have been a crime of retaliation or maybe even passion. But when asked who would have had the motivation to do such a thing, her parents were totally stumped. Like, she had no known enemies.
And she hadn't been in any recent romantic relationships either. And especially since she had only recently gotten into town to visit and didn't actually live there, it felt like this person did not know her previously. And actually, former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole explained that it was likely a crime of opportunity born out of urges that Vanessa's killer felt were out of his control.
She said, quote, And that's the kind of violence you see when a stranger goes after someone that they don't know.
She also added, quote, What's interesting is they can pretty much go back to normal. And if they were married, they'd go back and have a hamburger with their wife and children as if nothing happened. And they would explain the scratches away on their face? Absolutely. We have a way to explain it away because one of the traits and characteristics of a psychopath is that they are pathological liars and they are remarkably good at it.
She also claimed that she believed the killer was familiar with the area and likely still resided there, blending in with everyone else who was reeling from this horrible crime. Well, Mary Ellen's assumption would eventually turn out to be correct. But for now, to the dismay of both law enforcement and Vanessa's many loving friends and family, the investigation stalled and eventually came to a halt altogether.
Over a thousand tips slowed to none and yielded no perpetrators. But then, thanks to the keen eye of a state trooper in Worcester who never forgot the description of the driver or the vehicle near the scene of the murder that day, a suspect finally came along.
The district attorney's office announced that they were looking for a Hispanic or Latino man driving a dark-colored SUV. And one day, while out on patrol, Massachusetts State Trooper Robert Parr spotted a man in a vehicle who matched the descriptions and, thinking quickly, jotted the man's license plate down on his hand so that he could look into it later.
This man was spotted in Worcester, which ironically was where Vanessa had attended high school, and it was situated just 17 miles or 27 kilometers south of Princeton, which is where Vanessa was murdered.
So matching the plates to the vehicle's registration, three officers stopped by the owner's home in Worcester seeking more information and hoping that he would consent to offering a DNA sample. Police knocked on the door of 31-year-old Angelo Colon Ortiz, who was a man with no criminal history who seemed to live an ordinary life.
It's believed that he resided on Woodland Street in Worcester, but his brother was the contact for the apartment, so that part's a little bit unclear. But one reporter's search of the neighborhood turned up very few people who knew of or had seen Angelo.
He was a quiet man, kept a low profile, and lived with his girlfriend, Raquel Lozada Vega, who he referred to as his wife, and their children. And depending on the source, they shared either two or three kids. Now, at the time, Angelo was working for a third-party logistics company, which facilitated the exchange of packages between FedEx and multiple post offices in the area.
Investigators noted before they even spoke with him that he was a potential ideal candidate for having knowledge and awareness of the landscape and also the geography of multiple townships in the vicinity of Worcester.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he had lived in Worcester for less than a year, and he couldn't speak, read, or write English, which will be relevant later. So, he was asked to provide a cheek swab to match potential DNA with the DNA that was found on Vanessa's body. And also, his girlfriend or wife, Raquel, actually encouraged him to do this, because obviously she probably didn't know what the outcome was going to be.
But there's more.
and retracing Angelo's movements on the afternoon of August 7th, 2016,
proved that he had purchased $5 worth of gas to put in a gas can at a store in Rutland, Massachusetts, just six miles or 9.6 kilometers from where Vanessa's body was found. And remember that her socks and hair tie had gasoline on them. So this means that either he killed her and then went out to get gas or got gas to keep in his car for this reason, like maybe it was premeditated.
But more likely, he wanted to burn her body, went to get a small amount of gas, and then came back and failed his attempt. Yep, they're putting all the pieces together here. It's all connecting. So unbeknownst to Angelo, the case was reaching its breaking point because the DNA that was found underneath Vanessa's fingernails was a match for Angelo's cheek swab.
On April 15th, 2017, almost a month to the day since investigators had come by his home asking for a sample, Angelo Colon-Ortiz was arrested for the murder of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte.
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After Angelo's arrest, he was held on $5 million bail while his court-appointed defense team attempted to ascertain how he had been coerced into essentially giving himself up to the police, you know, with that DNA swab. And as police quickly uncovered, though he may not have had a criminal history, he did have a reputation.
Now, a former employee with the Princeton Post, a woman named Gleazelia, had to talk with Angelo kind of frequently when he made his morning deliveries, and she called every single one of them, quote, uncomfortable interactions. On multiple occasions, she overheard him making objectifying comments about her and another coworker while he made his morning rounds.
Glizalia recalls, quote, I guess he figured no one understood Spanish. He made some comments about how me and the postmaster looked. Sexual comments. I was on guard at all times. He was just very creepy. Not that I'm trying to make fun of anybody's last name, but part of his last name is spelled like colon. So every time I read his name, I just keep reading colon.
Which kind of makes sense because this guy is a giant asshole. Oh my god, you would. So like Vanessa, Glizalia was 27 and frequently walked the back roads that Vanessa had been murdered on. And she was so rattled after Vanessa's death that she wound up quitting her job, which is the same one that forced her to interact with Angelo, and moved out of town altogether.
She added sadly, quote, On Tuesday, April 18th, 2017, so three days after his arrest, Angelo pleaded not guilty to assault with intent to rape, aggravated assault, and battery. But the murder charges against him were still pending.
Then in June of that same year, again, 2017, Angelo was indicted on murder charges. And the following month, July, he pleaded not guilty. So he is pleading not guilty to all of these charges, even though he matches the description physically. His car matches the description of the car that was on that road that day at that very time. His phone pings are matching up. He went to the gas station to get only five gallons of gas and a canister.
We know that there was gasoline on her body. Obviously, because he's a piece of shit and he's trying to get away with it. Because as Angelo and his defense team prepared for court, his lawyers worked to attempt to block the use of physical DNA against him, claiming that he had not been able to fully consent to the cheek swab sample. Which is annoying because they're saying, yeah, okay, it was a match, but we don't want that to be able to be used against us.
Right, and in a motion filed in January of 2022, his team alleged that the DNA was obtained illegally and that the results should not be admissible in court. Through his lawyers, Angelo claimed that a language barrier forbade him from providing consent to the swab.
In the arrest affidavit to support the motion to suppress evidence, Angelo attested that on March 16th, 2017, two or three big white officers from the state police came to his home, speaking, quote, a version of Spanish that was strange to me.
His girlfriend Raquel assisted in translating between the two and Angelo claimed, quote: "I had only recently returned to my home from work when the officers arrived at my home. I was tired. They stated that they were investigating all Latinos in Massachusetts and were looking for a black vehicle. At this point, Raquel, who I refer to as my wife, stated that her vehicle was green.
The officers told Angelo that they would be performing DNA testing in connection with an unsolved murder in Princeton, and asked if he was familiar with the area. Angelo continued in the affidavit, quote,
Angelo later told his defense attorneys that he did not think his participation was voluntary, saying, quote, The affidavit added that only one of the troopers present at the time spoke Spanish, and that he didn't know it very well. And I mean, it was really Raquel that was brokering this exchange, and unaware of her boyfriend's involvement, advised him to comply with the cheek swab.
Angelo's defense attorney, Edward P. Ryan Jr., later argued that the evidence was collected without his consent, without probable cause, and without a search warrant. The form was not properly translated, and he was not provided with a representative who could translate adequately. But ultimately, the motion to suppress evidence hearing never took place, and Angelo obtained a new defense team to prepare for trial.
A judge, Janet Kenton Walker, denied the motion to suppress the evidence. However, she did describe the evidence collection as, quote, the product of carelessness. Which I would agree with, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it matches the crime scene. Yeah, I mean, I totally get it. I get that they're trying to say that it wasn't done correctly. But yeah, I mean, at this point, who gives a shit? Like, it matches.
Well, six painstaking years passed between when Vanessa was killed and when her family finally received the closure they deserved. Marred by the claims of illegally obtained evidence and Angelo's unwillingness to plead guilty, the Marcotte's quest for justice was met with delay after delay. After an agonizing wait, Angelo Colon Ortiz finally pleaded guilty once
on Wednesday, October 26, 2022. So five and a half years after his arrest and over six years after he murdered Vanessa. And he only pleaded guilty because he accepted a plea deal. So he's not, he's taking legal responsibility, but he's not saying what he did or why he did it.
For his sentencing, Angelo appeared calm and sullen as he filed into the courtroom and he spoke only one word, culpable, which means guilty in Spanish, obviously. His lawyer announced that he would plead guilty to second degree murder and unarmed robbery in order to avoid going to trial. That was the plea deal.
Angelo, now 36 years old, sat stoically in court, remaining quiet throughout the whole ordeal and offering no explanation as to why he committed this heinous act against Vanessa.
I think it's kind of crazy here that he gets 20 years for stealing a cell phone. Like, they were like, yeah, we're just going to, like,
Up those charges as much as we can. Yeah, I mean, this guy's going to be in prison for life. And that's what's so frustrating is if that's the case, why not just say what you did? Obviously, he doesn't have empathy or he wouldn't have done it in the first place if he was a good guy. So he doesn't have the heart and soul to give this family a break and a chance.
But it just makes you so mad. I mean, we see this with a lot of murderers. They don't like to take responsibility. They always want to push the blame off to somebody else, sometimes even making themselves the victims. So annoying. And it's just stupid. Well, in a brave move by Angelo's girlfriend at the time of the crime, Raquel actually testified against him at his hearings.
claiming that while the supposed Spanish-speaking state trooper was not necessarily fluent, he spoke well enough for Raquel to understand what he was saying because initially she'd even consented to give a sample herself until they told her that the investigation was only interested in male suspects. So from her perspective, she's saying, no, he knew what was going on and even testified against him.
But one of Vanessa's biggest advocates sadly didn't make it to see the day that Angela was convicted of her murder. Vanessa's mom, Rosanna, addressed the court announcing that Vanessa's beloved father died just 10 days prior to that guilty verdict. In the statement that she read to the court, Rosanna said, Sadly, John passed away on October 16th.
Regardless of the medical reasons stated on his death certificate, he died of a broken heart caused by this deep and endless grief. I would like the court and parole board to take note that in the last 10 days, I've had to write John's obituary and my victim impact statement regarding Vanessa's murder, neither of which should have happened.
She continued on to explain the true weight of him having taken away their only child, saying, quote,
Lastly, the defendant robbed John and me of holding Vanessa one final time. This will never be forgotten or forgiven. Angelo declined to make a statement, but his lawyer spoke on his behalf.
Well, here's a very annoying statement that his defense attorney read. It says, quote, while it is certainly understandable why Ms. Marcotte's family view him as a monster, Mr. Colon Ortiz is a human being. He is a flawed one. He has a mother, siblings who have offered him their love and support and were surprised by his actions. He wants them to know he is remorseful for his actions and sorry for their suffering.
I want to punch both of them in the face. But for him to not stand there and say why he's remorseful and what he exactly did, but have it said through someone else like, we don't believe you. He's also not saying that he's remorseful
for his actions to the Marcotte family, he's saying that he's remorseful that he put his family through this situation. Right, yeah, it is so unbelievable, especially knowing that Vanessa's dad had died so shortly before this hearing took place. Like, what a slap in the face. Yeah, no remorse, no condolences, no nothing.
Despite the tragic circumstances of her death, Vanessa's friends and family wanted her life to leave behind a lasting legacy of strength and empowerment. The year after her murder in 2017, her family and friends established the Vanessa T. Markop Foundation, which is an organization that sought to promote gender equality, teach self-defense, and foster a world where women are, quote, free to live boldly.
According to Vanessa's cousin, one of the co-founders of the organization, they began teaching workshops through the Worcester County Sheriff's Office and quickly started receiving requests from many other counties and schools as well. So that's really cool. Ashley McNiff, who is one of Vanessa's best friends and another co-founder of the foundation, said this after Angelo's conviction, quote,
It's been a really long six years for us, and I think being in there was awful to have to relive the day. We're just happy that it can finally be put behind us, and that we're able to just really focus now on carrying out the work that we did in Vanessa's honor for the foundation.
I think every woman deserves to be able to go for a walk on a Sunday afternoon without the fear of being murdered. And I think for us, that's really what drove us to do this. I know we always said if this had happened to someone else, Vanessa would have done anything in her power to prevent it. And so that's really what we've set out to do. ♪♪
Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I'm
I'm so glad that it had the outcome that it did, that this piece of shit is finally in prison where he's going to remain for the rest of his life. Yeah, but it's just it's so sad that that this happened and this happens a lot. We've covered so many cases where women in this very situation are just wrongfully murdered for going on a run. Yeah, I mean, we just we just covered the story of Rachel Morin, which was pretty much the same thing.
Yeah. And I love what Ashley said, you know, about that women should be able to go for a walk at any time and not worry about being murdered. Cause I've talked about this with a ton of our listeners who feel the same way. And I feel like as women, we're just always shocked that, uh,
This is something that we have to think about whenever we go out. Like I went on a walk the other day and Heath was like, oh, do you want me to come with you? Like, do you have your phone on you? He was really worried about me just going on a walk. It was like 11 a.m. You know, we shouldn't have to feel that way. So I love what they're doing with this foundation. And again, thank you so much to Erica for recommending this case. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ♪
so
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