Man pleads not guilty in weekend shooting death of wife in Bolton
October 20, 2021 | By Mike Donoghue | Correspondent BURLINGTON – A former Essex Junction couple returned to the Green Mountain State to celebrate their first wedding anniversary over the weekend when the husband shot his wife multiple times and later dismembered her body, according to Vermont State Police.
Joseph Ferlazzo. Vermont State Police photo
Joseph Ferlazzo, 41, most recently of Northfield, New Hampshire, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington to a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Emily Ferlazzo, 22, in Bolton early Saturday morning. The day before, police said he confessed to the killing during questioning in St. Albans.
Ferlazzo, who had a recent address on Park Street in Essex Junction, has been licensed in Vermont for about 10 years as a tattoo operator and body piercer. His wife, Emily Schwarz Ferlazzo, was licensed by the state of Vermont as a nursing assistant, records show.
Joseph Ferlazzo has no known criminal record. The victim’s mother informed police she had been told by her daughter about domestic violence happening in the relationship, police said. The mother said she had seen scratches and bruises on her daughter three or four times, police noted.
Ferlazzo during his confession told state police the couple had arrived in Bolton at about 7 p.m. on Friday to visit his sister from Pennsylvania and her boyfriend who were staying at an Airbnb condo. He claimed after the two couples separated, he and Emily argued, police said. He said she was kicking and punching him in the arm and groin, Detective Sgt. Jim Vooris wrote in court papers.
Ferlazzo said his wife eventually went to bed in the camper for about 5 to 10 minutes and that he then retrieved his Glock 19 handgun from a cabinet “jumped on top of her” and shot her twice in the head, court records show.
State police said the autopsy on Wednesday by the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington confirmed the homicide was due to gunshot wounds to the head. It did not specify how many.
Ferlazzo said he had an anxiety attack after the shooting and when he saw blood coming from her head, he put a garbage bag over his wife’s head and moved her into the bathroom in the camper, Vooris said. She remained there while Ferlazzo went out for breakfast in the morning in Waterbury with his sister and her boyfriend.
After breakfast, Ferlazzo drove the camper to St. Albans Town and left it at a friend’s home on Meadowbrook Lane. Ferlazzo estimated it was 12 to 15 hours after the shooting that he dismembered the body using a hand saw, placing body parts in separate garbage bags, Vooris said. Ferlazzo said he deposited the saw behind the driver’s seat in the camper.
Ferlazzo left the remains in the camper – a converted bus – at the friend’s home at 14 Meadowbrook Lane in St. Albans Town, police said. On Monday he returned to New Hampshire alone riding his motorcycle. There he told his wife’s parents a story about Emily and him fighting on Saturday and their daughter getting out of the camper on U.S. 2 in Bolton.
They told police that Ferlazzo told them he went to a nearby store and when he went back to find his wife, she had disappeared. They recounted that Ferlazzo said Emily was going to get a Uber ride back to New Hampshire. By Tuesday morning Ferlazzo had driven back to Vermont in his 2016 red Jeep Wrangler.
Ferlazzo, who was an itinerant tattooist, often left things at the homes of customers that he had befriended, police said. The motorcycle was one of those items that had been with an acquaintance in Vermont, police noted.
Police received a 911 call on Tuesday from Spencer Lemons, 35, reporting that Ferlazzo had admitted in a conversation with him that he had killed his wife, Vooris said.
Detective Trooper Vienna Valenti said Lemons was giving Ferlazzo a ride at about 12:05 Tuesday morning to his camper when the two men noticed state police had it under surveillance, police said. Lemons asked Ferlazzo why and Ferlazzo said his wife was in the camper and not alive, police said. Lemons asked if he killed her and Ferlazzo replied “yes,” police noted. Lemons told police he kicked Ferlazzo out of the vehicle and called 911, Vooris said.
The camper was seized and towed to the state police barracks in St. Albans.
Getting the breaks
Vermont State Police say they got a couple of early breaks in the case. The victim’s family reported their daughter missing as soon as they heard about the couple splitting. It also helped getting one of Ferlazzo’s friends to call 911 when the defendant admitted he had killed his wife.
Emily Ferlazzo. Photo courtesy Vermont State Police
Authorities said they also got a third break in the case when one of the state police detectives on the case stopped on a break to grab a soda at a store in St. Albans at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday. Detective Sgt. Aimee Nolan, commander of the crime scene search team, spotted Ferlazzo walking into the Maplefields store near the state police barracks in St. Albans.
Nolan asked about his identity and Ferlazzo agreed to go with Nolan for questioning. When they pulled into the state police barracks Ferlazzo’s camper with the body inside was in the impound lot, records show. Troopers were still seeking a search warrant for the camper. Ferlazzo might have been unaware police had not been inside the vehicle yet, and he proceeded to tell the whole story to troopers, records show.
Once the search warrant was obtained for the camper, many of Ferlazzo’s statements were confirmed, including eight plastic bags containing human remains in the camper, records show. The bags and their contents were sent to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Nolan also reported that the Glock 19 handgun was found on the bed inside the vehicle, Vooris wrote.
On Wednesday, police and court personnel in Vermont said they were hard-pressed to recall such a disturbing killing.
According to social media posts by Emily Ferlazzo, she and Joseph were engaged in September 2020 and were married a month later. Although they listed their hometown as Essex Junction, court records indicated that the pair had been living recently in Northfield, New Hampshire, in the camper parked outside the home of Emily’s mother and stepfather, Adrienne and David Bass. The 2000 white Chevrolet Express passenger bus with Vermont registration plates was converted into a camper.
Adrienne and David Bass gave statements to Vermont State Police about Emily Ferlazzo. Mrs. Bass noted past domestic abuse, however officials said no court action was ever sought.
Vermont officials also confirmed that police in Pennsylvania have reached out to Vermont authorities concerning the unsolved fatal stabbing death of Joseph Ferlazzo’s stepmother in 2009. Joseph A. Ferlazzo Sr. – Joseph Ferlazzo’s father – reported he went to the store and came home to find his wife had been killed, news reports indicate. Young Hee Lin-Ferlazzo, 39, died from multiple stab wounds and nobody has been charged in her death.
Via video from a St. Albans prison, Joseph Ferlazzo pleads not guilty to first-degree murder in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington on Wednesday. Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George is seated at the prosecutor’s table. Courthouse press pool photo by Glenn Russell.
Court arraignment
On Wednesday, Ferlazzo answered a few basic questions from the judge during the virtual court hearing and entered a not-guilty plea. He is jailed at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town and attended the proceeding via live video link.
Judge A. Gregory Rainville agreed with the written motion from Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George that Ferlazzo be held without bail. Rainville told Ferlazzo that the crime carries a possible life sentence upon conviction. He said the state police affidavit provides a great weight of evidence.
George also asked Ferlazzo be ordered to have no contact directly or indirectly with the victim’s family and with the key witnesses.
Public defender William Kidney was assigned to Ferlazzo’s case. He asked that a hearing be held promptly on the weight of the evidence to see if his client should be detained. Rainville said he expects that will happen in the next week or two.
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More than half of the homicides committed in Vermont involve domestic violence. In central Vermont, the nonprofit organization Circle of Washington County VT serves victims and survivors of domestic violence with a 24/7 confidential hotline (1-877-543-9498), support groups, referrals, protection orders, safety plans, court advocacy, shelter, prevention programming and community education. Circle is one of 15 member nonprofits of the VT Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence operating across the state. And outside of Vermont, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available online or by calling 800-799-SAFE.