Who Killed Beloved College Dean Married to Pulizter Prize Winner? Vermont Police Just Released a Sketch

Dr. Honoree Fleming, 77, was shot in the head while hiking near her former campus on Oct. 5. The person of interest remains at large

About a week after Dr. Honoree Fleming, a retired dean from Vermont State University, was shot in the head while hiking along her favorite trail in Castleton, Vt., Oct. 5, police have released a composite sketch of the person of interest.

Described to police by witnesses as a 5-feet-10-inch White man in his 20s with short, spiky red hair, the person of interest was last seen on the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail in a dark gray T-shirt with a black backpack about 4:30 last Thursday — around the time passersby found Fleming with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

As of Monday, detectives had received more than 200 tips in the murder investigation, Vermont State Police said in a prior press release, noting that they were “interviewing potential witnesses, nearby residents and people who were on the trail around the time of the shooting, among other individuals.” Part of the rail trail was closed at least into Monday, as investigators canvassed the area for additional clues.

Investigators, who called her death “suspicious,” in the hours after her body was found, have not released information as to why they believe the dean was killed.

Fleming was married to Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and critic Ron Powers. She had two sons, one of whom had died, her surviving son Dean Powers said in a Facebook post. The biochemist was “a firm believer in science,” and an agnostic who “may never have accepted the idea that miracles are possible,” her son wrote, describing her as a self-sacrificing wife and mother and “the first agnostic saint.”

Before becoming a dean for the Vermont State University system, Fleming worked as an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Middlebury College, according to the school newspaper, The Middlebury Campus.

In a Facebook post over the weekend, Vermont State University Castleton Campus, where she retired as a dean and near where she was killed, called her murder a “heartbreaking event.”

“Her contributions to education and her impact on our campus will live on in all of us,” the school wrote.

In the fall afternoon light, Fleming – in a blue and white striped shirt with black pants and black sneakers – left the pavilion area at her former university and entered the rail trail around 4 p.m. last Thursday, walking south toward Poultney.

Fleming was found about 30 minutes later, police said. The Chief Medical Examiner said she died from a gunshot wound to the head and determined that the manner of death was homicide.

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In the days after Fleming’s murder, Detective Sgt. Adam Temple, a composite police sketch artist from the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office in Bath, Maine, traveled to Vermont to interview witnesses who had seen the man along the trail, Vermont State Police said in a press release Wednesday. Temple sketched and revised the drawing, according to witness feedback, police said.

“I am still in shock,” Fleming's husband wrote of her death in a Facebook post reported by ABC News. “Those of you who knew her know that she was beautifully named. I have never known a more sterling heart and soul than hers. She has taken far more than half my own heart and soul with her.”

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