BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — A man arrested last month in Connecticut in the killing of a television news anchor’s mother in Vermont last February has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Shawn Conlon, 44, was arraigned in Brattleboro on Friday.
Claudia Voight, 73, of Windham, Vermont, died in her home Feb. 20, 2023. She was the mother of Heidi Voight, an anchor at NBC Connecticut, an NBC-owned news station.
Vermont State Police said Conlon rented a room in Claudia Voight’s home and stopped paying rent in late 2022 but remained in the home until he allegedly attacked and killed her.
Law enforcement officials initially believed Claudia Voight suffered from a medical event but later determined she died from neck compression that was detectable only during an autopsy.
In a July Facebook post, Heidi Voight revealed the manner of her mother’s death.
"I have been carrying this painful secret: My mother’s death was not natural, nor peaceful," she wrote. "My mother was murdered, violently, in the place she should have felt safest — her own home in Windham, Vermont. ... This has broken me and changed me. But I am my mother’s daughter, and I will come back stronger. I will fight for her."
Conlon was captured at a Connecticut hotel in December, 10 months after Claudia Voight's death.
The attorney who represented Conlon at his arraignment declined to comment on the case on Saturday.