N.H. fugitive nabbed on slay charges

A 34-year-old New Hampshire man accused of brutally stabbing to death two women last month before fleeing to the Bay State is expected to be hauled back to the Granite State to face murder charges, officials say.

Timothy Verrill of Dover was nabbed at a medical facility Monday in Lawrence by members of the state police Fugitive Justice Team, authorities announced yesterday. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has charged him with two counts of second-degree murder stemming from the gruesome deaths of Christine Sullivan, 48, and Jenna Pellegrini, 32, whose brutalized bodies were found last month at a home in Farmington, N.H., officials said.

Authorities say Pellegrini and Sullivan had been stabbed many times, and Sullivan also had been repeatedly struck in the head with a blunt object.

Citing an “ongoing investigation,” a spokesman for New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph A. Foster’s Office declined to answer questions yesterday, including what Verrill’s relationship to the victims was and whether investigators have determined a motive for their murders.

Pellegrini’s cousin, Lindsey Bavin of Middleboro, said her grandmother told her about Verrill’s arrest yesterday.

Bavin, who said she won’t be able to attend the arraignment, told the Herald, “I would like to say to this monster, you took a mother away from her children.”

According to Pellegrini’s obituary, she was a mother of two, worked as a hairstylist and “had a passion for travel and loved sailing with family.”

Sullivan’s family and friends could not be reached last night.

Verrill was arraigned in Lawrence District Court yesterday on a fugitive from justice charge.

He waived rendition and was ordered held without bail, according to Essex District Attorney spokeswoman Carrie KimballMonahan.

“We were advised that the New Hampshire authorities are going to get him tomorrow,” she said.

Carole Alfano, a spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Judicial Branch, said Verrill is expected to be arraigned on the murder charges in Strafford Superior Court this afternoon or tomorrow morning. — antonio.planas@bostonherald.com