Marshals Track Down Alleged Killer of TV Anchor's Mom

UPDATE Dec 21, 2023 7:55 AM CST

Months after NBC Connecticut news anchor Heidi Voight disclosed that her mother had been murdered, an arrest has been made. Shawn Conlon, 44, was arrested at a hotel in Groton, Connecticut, by members of the US Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force, CT Insider reports. He is being held in custody pending extradition to Vermont, where 73-year-old Claudia Voight was murdered on Feb. 20. Police say Conlon had been renting a room in Voight's home but stopped paying rent about two months before he strangled her. NBC Connecticut reports that Conlon has been linked to crimes including assault, threatening, and unlawful restraint in five other states.

Aug 3, 2023 11:56 AM CDT

In the weeks after NBC Connecticut news anchor Heidi Voight announced her mother's death in February, a lot went unsaid. As Voight revealed Monday, per CBS News, "I have been carrying this painful secret: My mother's death was not natural, nor peaceful. My mother was murdered, violently, in the place she should have felt safest—her own home in Windham, Vermont." Claudia Voight, 73, was initially thought to have died Feb. 20 from a medical event. But "Voight had sustained injuries that were detectable only during autopsy," Vermont State Police said Monday, per NECN. The autopsy revealed in April that Voight had died from neck compression, though police said that information wasn't released publicly to protect the investigation.

"There is an emotional purgatory that comes when you must silence what you want to scream from the rooftops," wrote Heidi Voight, a former Miss Connecticut. "Claudia Voight was stolen from this world. She was stolen from her family, from her children, and from my precious daughters." She added: "But our silence was necessary to protect the early stages of the intense criminal investigation." No arrest has been made. But police believe Voight was targeted and say there's no known threat to the public, per WCAX.

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"This has broken me and changed me," Heidi wrote. "But I am my mother's daughter, and I will come back stronger. I will fight for her." She added her absence from work will continue as "I'm taking this time to be present for the many processes ongoing related to my mom's case, and to make sure I'm getting the help I need." (More murder stories.)