Governor: Woman ‘alleged perpetrator’ in four Vermont murders

BARRE, Vt. – The woman charged in the slaying of a Vermont social worker is also “the alleged perpetrator” of the deaths of three relatives whose bodies were found Saturday, Gov. Peter Shumlin said.

The three women found dead at a Berlin home Saturday morning were an aunt and two cousins of 40-year-old Jody Herring, the governor said at a news conference Saturday night after returning from vacation in Nova Scotia upon hearing of the deaths. Herring was arrested on a murder charge in the death of Lara Sobel.

Sobel was gunned down after work Friday outside a state office building in Barre. She handled a case for the state Department for Children and Families in which Herring lost custody of her 9-year-old daughter, authorities said.

“I think all Vermonters are as shocked, dismayed, horrified and grief-stricken as all of us are,” Shumlin said. “I cannot remember, in my lifetime, four people being murdered by the same alleged perpetrator.”

Shumlin tentatively identified the three victims found Saturday as Rhonda Herring and Regina Herring, the suspect’s cousins; and Julianne Falzarano, an aunt. The cousins were in their 40s, and the aunt in her 70s, he said.

Shumlin said the three were killed before Sobel’s life was taken.

The governor said the investigation into the deaths of Herring’s relatives was ongoing and he declined to release any additional information. Police said at least two of the women appeared to have been shot.

Authorities said Friday night that Sobel had just left a DCF office on Friday afternoon when she was shot twice. The child remains in state custody, officials said.