Slay suspect ‘was very vulgar’
Worcester man pleads not guilty to Princeton jogger charges
LEOMINSTER — Glizelia Ribot said she feels “very lucky” Angelo ColonOrtiz is behind bars.
She claims the 31-yearold Worcester man — who pleaded not guilty yesterday to initial charges of aggravated assault and assault with intent to rape in connection with the murder of a young woman in Princeton — was rude when he stopped in at her post office.
“I didn’t like making eye contact with him,” she told the Herald. “He would lick his lips. He would say (in Spanish), about my postmaster, ‘Look at her (expletive).’ ... He was very vulgar and perverted with his language and unprofessional.”
Colon-Ortiz is the lone suspect in last summer’s gruesome murder of Google executive Vanessa Marcotte, 27, according to the district attorney’s office.
Ribot said Colon-Ortiz, a delivery driver, would often stop by the post office in Princeton.
“I didn’t like being with him by myself. The way he acted. His body language and his vocabulary. ... I feel very lucky,” she added. “I didn’t work there much longer, because of everything that happened. ... With that happening to Ms. Marcotte, I couldn’t stay in the area much longer.”
Colon-Ortiz, a married father of three, is being held on $10 million cash bail in anticipation of his indictment for Marcotte’s murder.
A state police report on Colon-Ortiz’s arrest, made public for the first time yesterday, states Marcotte suffered a broken nose fighting for her life and “crushing injuries to the structures surrounding her throat.” Her body was also set on fire.
Marcotte’s uncle, Steven Therrien, would only say “Justice for Vanessa” as he left the Leominster courthouse, head bowed, under a state police escort to his car.
Supporters of Colon- Ortiz declined comment.
“This is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions for the family of Vanessa Marcotte,” defense attorney Edward P. Ryan Jr. told reporters. “My heart goes out to them. I can’t imagine dealing with this kind of loss. It’s unfortunate that it now has to be done in such a public way.”
Colon-Ortiz, he said, “is obviously very shaken. He doesn’t speak any English.”
Marcotte’s remains were discovered by police in woods off Brooks Station Road in Princeton near her mother’s home the night of Aug. 7, more than seven hours after she went for a run at 1:15 p.m. that day. Her mysterious death sparked nationwide attention as police searched for her killer.
Among the 1,300 tips that later flooded law enforcement, Worcester Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Travers said, was the description of a vehicle.
“One witness described seeing a dark-colored SUV, described as a Ford Escape, parked near the site where Vanessa’s body was later discovered,” he said yesterday.
The witness, he said, first noticed the SUV at about 12:45 p.m. on Aug. 7, then again at 2:05 p.m. when he returned from running an errand.
On the first pass-by, Travers said, “his attention was drawn to the vehicle by a male standing next to the vehicle, who appeared to be talking on a cellphone, the hood of the SUV up.”
Travers said the witness was going to pull over to help, “but when he noticed the person holding the cellphone, he kept going.”
The second time he drove by, the witness told police, the hood was down and the male appeared to be gone from the area.
Authorities were able to develop a DNA profile of a suspect from scrapings under Marcotte’s nails during her autopsy. An alert state trooper spotted ColonOrtiz while on another assignment. The D.A. said the suspect’s DNA is a match.
In Worcester yesterday, neighbors said they were rattled by the news an accused killer was living next door.
“You hear about that kind of thing on TV. It’s really bizarre to think I could have seen somebody who is a murderer,” said Melanie DeFilippo, 21.
“You just never know who you live next to,” added Jose Alvarenga, 42. “There are always children out here. This is where my kids play.”