An 82-year-old woman found dead in Enosburg this week was sexually assaulted, murdered and then partially burned in the woods by a 23-year-old neighbor, Vermont State Police said on Friday.

The alleged killer, Darren Martell Jr., pleaded not guilty in a St. Albans courtroom on Friday to a charge of aggravated murder — the most severe charge under state law, which carries a minimum sentence of life in prison without parole.

Roberta Martin disappeared from her Butternut Hollow Road home, where she lived alone, sometime between 11:30 p.m. on July 16 and noon the following day, when a pair of neighbors reported her missing.



The neighbors, close friends of Martin's, had gone to check on her at the request of Martin's daughter, according to police. At Martin's home, they discovered her air conditioner had been removed from a window and was on the front porch. The sliding glass door was open, and Martin was gone, state police investigators recounted in an affidavit filed in court on Friday.
A trooper who responded to the scene noticed tangles of duct tape in Martin's bedroom and alongside tracks from a wheeled dolly that led from Martin's house to the next-door neighbor's yard. Police later discovered more duct tape in a firepit there.

As search crews looked for Martin, investigators homed in on Martell Jr., who had recently begun living in a camper in the neighbors' backyard. The Department for Children and Families told investigators that Martell Jr. had a history of "assaultive behavior" toward his girlfriend. The woman also reported that Martell Jr. had stolen a relative's underwear and "implied that he used them for sexual gratification."

A sister to Martell's girlfriend later told investigators that Martell Jr. and his girlfriend had asked her grandmother to tell police that Martell Jr. was at her home on the night that Martin disappeared.

On July 18, police executed a search warrant on the camper and seized Martell Jr.'s property. Days later, they learned that Martell Jr. used a wooded area near Sand Hill Road to grow marijuana. At the location, less than a mile from Martin's residence, police said they found a gas can and Martin's remains, which were scattered and "appeared to be burned."

The day after discovering Martin's remains, Vermont State Police detectives found Martell Jr. on a public path in St. Albans. He was masturbating, police allege. Martell Jr. ran into the wood, forcing a local school into lockdown, before police arrested him. He has been incarcerated at Northwest State Correctional Facility since Monday on a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct.

Following that arrest, Martell Jr. told police that he had never spoken to Martin nor been at her property. But vaginal swabs from Martin's body found sperm with DNA that "preliminarily" matched that of Martell Jr.

Numerous members of Martin's family attended Martell Jr.'s arraignment on Friday afternoon in St. Albans but declined to speak to the press. A public defender representing Martell Jr. contested whether the evidence submitted by state police was enough to support the murder charge, noting the lack of a cause-of-death finding or other evidence tying Martell Jr. to the crime scenes.
Superior Judge Robert Katims denied the request, saying Martin "clearly" was murdered "based upon the manner in which the body was found" and the DNA evidence that points to sexual contact. He ordered Martell Jr. to remain held without bail, at least until a subsequent hearing, when the state may present more evidence, including autopsy results.

State police and prosecutors are tightly controlling information about the case and declined to say much beyond what was included in the court affidavit. 
After the hearing, Franklin County State's Attorney Bram Kranichfeld said the murder is a "terrible tragedy for our community."

"My office, the Franklin County State's Attorney's Office, is committed to holding the perpetrator of this act accountable and bringing him to justice," Kranichfeld said.