Officials in Upstate New York have identified the person they believe is responsible for the 1994 slaying of an 81-year-old woman in her home, but said justice will, unfortunately, not be served.
Jeremiah J. Guyette, the suspect linked to the death of Wilomeana “Violet” Filkins, took his own life in 2019, authorities said at a Thursday news conference.
Filkins was found dead on Aug. 19, 1994 in her East Greenbush apartment by her brother and niece after no one was able to reach her. She was killed two days earlier. She was found with several blows to the head, authorities said.
“She was a very simple woman, lived quietly and would have never envisioned what occurred,” Filkins’ niece, Carol, said.
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Wilomeana “Violet” Filkins, 81, was found dead in her New York apartment in 1994. Her alleged killer took his own life in 2019, authorities said Thursday.
(New York State Police)
DNA collected from Guyette after he died was linked to the killing after the sample matched a thumbprint found on a coffee table in Filkins’ suburban Albany apartment.
“Over the course of my career every time there was a changeover in our Detective bureau there was a promise made from one detective to another to never stop investigating this case in order to find justice for Violet and her family,” said East Greenbush Police Chief Elaine Rudzinski.
Guyette, who was 17 at the time of the killing, planned to steal a car and rob a bank to get money for college, police said. Three years after the murder, Filkins’ belongings were found several miles from the crime scene along a road, WNYT-TV reported.
Guyette, a Minnesota native, moved to East Greenbush to live with his father and graduated from Columbia High School in 1994, said East Greenbush police Detective Sergeant Michael Guadagnino. He enlisted in the Air Force and was stationed at the then-Patrick Air Force Base south of Cape Canaveral.
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