WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Suspect Charged in Woodstock Murder
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Woodstock, Vermont - August 26, 2009
A murder charge has been filed in connection to the death of a Woodstock woman who was killed in her home this past July.
Police have said from the beginning that Charles "Punky" Haynes, 51, of Bridgewater, was a person of interest in the murder. Haynes was arrested the night of the murder on an unrelated trespass charge. He has been in custody ever since.
Police say Raynetta Woodward, 79, was beaten to death in her Woodstock home July 1. Woodward's brother and a neighbor found the woman in her living room hidden under blankets in a pool of blood.
A police K-9 tracked Haynes to an unoccupied summer home near the crime scene. Additional charges were brought against Haynes Wednesday, including second-degree murder.
"The autopsy ruled that the manner of death was a homicide and the cause was blunt trauma to the head," Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand said. "The affidavit as well indicates that there was a hammer found at the scene with human blood on it."
Sand says that DNA evidence is an important part of the case. According to the police affidavit, Woodward's blood matched samples that were pulled from the clothes Haynes was wearing the night he was arrested. But a motive for the crime is not being released.
The murder charge comes almost two full months after the alleged crime took place.
"There have been extensive tests conducted at the crime lab to include DNA analysis of a number of samples and so the principle delay has been to await the results of the DNA testing. Based upon those results, that has allowed the state to file the murder charge," Sand said.
Haynes pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge. His bail has been increased to $250,000.
Adam Sullivan - WCAX News
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