Vermont State Police names suspect and closes investigation into 2023 Wheelock murder

Vermont State Police have identified a suspect in the fatal shooting of a 27-year-old man in Wheelock in October 2023. However, no charges will be filed because authorities believe the suspect committed suicide.

According to state police, 40-year-old Gary Larocque of Brownington shot Gunnar Watson as he stood in the doorway of his Wheelock home around 5:50 a.m. on October 16, 2023. The chief medical examiner determined that Watson died of a gunshot wound to the upper torso.

Police found several .223-caliber shell casings in Larocque’s home that matched the shell casings found at the crime scene. Investigators also used digital location data to pinpoint Larocque at the crime scene, state police said in a news release Tuesday.

Larocque died about two weeks after Watson’s death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside his home, police said. The Caledonia County District Attorney’s Office ruled that premeditated murder charges would have been filed if Larocque had not killed himself.

Investigators have not identified a motive for the murder. State police said Larocque and Watson were co-workers at a tree-trimming company and had known each other for several years. Watson was also a sergeant in the Vermont National Guard and was married with two young children, WCAX reported.

More from Vermont Public: According to Vermont State Police, the series of murders in October appears to be isolated cases

Watson’s death was part of an unusual series of murders in rural Vermont in October 2023.

Two arrests were made in the October cases; two men were charged in connection with the killing of 42-year-old Jeffrey Caron in Plainfield, and a 14-year-old was charged with murder after allegedly shooting 14-year-old Madden Gouveia. The teen’s case was eventually transferred to family court, where it will be heard behind closed doors.

Police are still investigating the other murders, including that of Honoree Fleming, the former dean of Castleton University who was shot while walking on a railway embankment in Castleton.

“None of them have stalled in general,” Major Dan Trudeau, head of the VSP’s criminal division, said Wednesday. “Even in Castleton – we’re still getting some leads here and there.”

More from Vermont Public: Vermont State Police release sketch of “person of interest” in Castleton murder

Law enforcement officials have identified a person of interest in the double murder of Jahim Solomon and Eric White, two 21-year-old Massachusetts men who were found dead in Eden. In a motion filed earlier this year, federal prosecutors said 28-year-old Theodore Bland is a person of interest in the incident. According to court records, Bland pleaded guilty in March to an unrelated federal weapons offense.

There is little news on the other two October murders, although earlier this year the medical examiner’s office determined that 23-year-old Tanairy “Tanya” Velazquez Estrada was strangled and her death was ruled a homicide in Washington. Police had previously classified the case as a suspicious death.

Police have not released an update on the death of Wilmer Rodriguez, a 27-year-old who was shot multiple times in a home in the city of Newport.

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