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Missing Albany Woman Found Murdered

Derby, Vermont - January 15, 2006

Police found the body of a missing woman from Albany Sunday in a shallow grave near her home. They now say Tina Fontaine was murdered and they have arrested her boyfriend.

Twenty-nine year-old Tina Fontaine of Albany was last seen over a week ago. She was first reported as a missing person. But police now say her live-in boyfriend, Franky Niles, killed her.

"He's going to be charged with murder in connection with her death," said Vermont State Police Lt. Leo Bachand.

Fontaine, a substitute teacher, has a 6-year-old daughter. Last week Franky Niles called Channel 3 News because he wanted to talk about his then missing girlfriend. At that time he said he was shocked about Fontaine's disappearance.

"I feel useless at this point in time. I feel helpless. I feel like there's nothing that I can do. I can't say whether or not I believe she was kidnapped. I hope that she wasn't," said Niles. "We were settling down to start a family. We were gonna build an addition on the side of her trailer. And we were talking about marriage, we were talking about having a child and at this point in time she believes that she's seven weeks pregnant.

But now police say Niles is behind bars at the Newport prison - charged with murdering his girlfriend.

"We recovered a body that we believe to be that of Tina Fontaine. The body was recovered from a shallow grave not far from the residence. We will be transporting the body to the chief medical examiners office where we will have an autopsy conducted," said Lt. Bachand.

Anson Tebbetts - Channel 3 News