iStock/Thinkstock(MONTPELIER, Vt.) — Vermont police are searching for a suspect in a murder that authorities said is the first to occur in the state’s capital in almost a century.
Vermont State Police issued an arrest warrant on Monday for 29-year-old Jayveon Caballero, who is wanted for second-degree murder.
Investigators believe Caballero knew the victim, 33-year-old Markus Austin, and that an altercation occurred between them early Sunday morning outside a bar in the town of Barre. Detectives received information that at some point during the altercation, Austin assaulted Caballero’s girlfriend, 22-year-old Desiree Cary, according to police.
Later Sunday morning, at approximately 4:30 a.m., police said Caballero confronted Austin at a parking lot outside the victim’s apartment in the capital Montpelier and allegedly shot him before fleeing the scene in a vehicle. The victim was found dead on the ground from at least one gunshot wound, police said.
Caballero’s girlfriend was arrested in Barre on Sunday night as part of an ongoing drug distribution investigation by the Vermont Drug Task Force. Cary was subsequently charged with selling crack cocaine and heroin and jailed for lack of $10,000 bail, police said.
Cary is due back in court in April, authorities said. It’s unclear if she has hired an attorney and if she has entered a plea.
Investigators learned that Cary lives with Caballero in an apartment in Barre, police said. Vermont State Police searched the residence on Monday in an attempt to locate the suspect and to search for evidence, police said.
Detectives have received information that Caballero may have fled Vermont sometime during the day on Sunday. The suspect remains at large and it’s unknown if he is travelling in a vehicle, police said. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Vermont State Police at (802) 229-9191 or the Montpelier Police Department at (802) 223-3445.
The Montpelier Police Department told ABC affiliate WVNY-TV that this is the first murder to occur in Vermont’s capital since the 1920s.
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