MONKTON — Vermont State Police have arrested Angela Auclair, 47, of Monkton, in connection with the murder of her late husband, David Auclair, who was shot to death in Hinesburg on July 11.
Auclair was arrested Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 10, on suspicion of aiding in the commission of a felony (first-degree murder) and obstruction of justice arising from the July 11 slaying, according to a press release issued by the VSP Tuesday evening.
“The investigation revealed a pre-planned and coordinated effort to burglarize a Colchester residence where a firearm was stolen and used in the killing of David Auclair just over one day after the burglary,” the press release states. “Detectives also learned Angela Auclair instructed at least one witness in the case to lie to the police.”
Auclair has been jailed without bail and will be arraigned Wed., Dec. 11, at 8 a.m. in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in Burlington.
According to police, the affidavit of probable cause outlining the charges will be filed with the court and made public following the arraignment.
Three months ago, Vermont State Police arrested Angela Auclair’s son Kory Lee George, 31, of Monkton for firearms violation charges, including possession of the gun police say was used to kill David Auclair.
“A VSP investigation has established that George possessed the Beretta which was used to kill his stepfather, David Auclair,” said Det. Sergeant James Vooris of the VSP Major Crimes Unit in an affidavit filed in the case.
David Auclair, 45, a longtime Monkton resident, was shot and killed in the parking lot of the LaPlatte Headwaters Town Forest, off Gilman Road in Hinesburg, at approximately 9:45 p.m. on July 11, police say.
A little over an hour later, Vooris, who was responding to multiple reports of gunshots in the area, discovered Auclair’s body, which “lay partly under a 2017 GMC pickup truck registered in his name,” Vooris explained in the affidavit. “His head and torso were under the truck while his legs protruded. He had been shot multiple times. There was black grease on his hands; it appeared that he may have been trying to crawl under the truck as he was being shot.”
Nine bullets were recovered from Auclair’s body, Vooris went on to say, which the Vermont Forensic Laboratory later concluded had been fired from a 9mm Beretta semi-automatic pistol — one of the two guns Kory George is accused of possessing.
George’s previous felony convictions prohibited him from possessing firearms. He has not been charged with committing homicide, but he has been accused of stealing the Beretta the evening before Auclair was killed.
According to court documents, evidence indicates that on July 10 George stole the Beretta from the Colchester home of an Auclair family friend, James Synnott, while Angela and David Auclair were having dinner with Synnott at a restaurant.
An hour before he stole the gun, George had met his mother at the University Mall in South Burlington. Then, while she dined with Synnott, Angela Auclair’s boyfriend John Turner, 47, of Huntington, drove George to Colchester and dropped him off near Synnott’s house, said Vooris in his affadavit. George entered Synnott’s house, stayed for about 10 minutes, then left the area with Turner.
The stolen Beretta was test-fired a few hours later near the Auclairs’ Monkton property at 116 Cat Tail Lane, Vooris said.
On July 14, three days after David Auclair was killed, the Beretta was recovered from Lewis Creek, between the Auclairs’ Monkton home and the Hinesburg parking lot where the homicide took place.
The gun’s condition — “it was not corroded or rusted when it was recovered from the creek,” according to the criminal complaint — suggests that it hadn’t been there very long.
Also recovered was a prepaid cellphone that had been used to call David Auclair less than an hour before he was killed, “apparently to lure him to the Hinesburg trailhead,” Vooris said in the affidavit. “Evidence indicates that the cell phone was purchased on July 11, 2019, at the Rite Aid in Milton,” the affidavit said, adding that, though he says he cannot remember what he purchased there, “George has admitted entering the Rite Aid that day.”
This evidence, and the fact that the shooter left no casings at the crime scene, “indicates that the murder of the defendant’s stepfather was carefully planned and executed,” wrote the U.S. Attorney’s office in a court document.
Reach Christopher Ross at [email protected].