Suspect Confesses To 2014 Killing
Man Is Registered Sex Offender; Victim, An Insurance VP, Was Stabbed While Jogging
A suspect in the 2014 slaying of insurance executive Melissa Millan, who was stabbed to death while jogging on a highly used trail in Simsbury, walked in to the town’s police station this week and told police he wanted to confess, law enforcement sources said.
The sources said the man, who was accompanied by several members of his church, told police he couldn’t live with what he had done. State police detectives were called in to assist with the investigation and interviewed the suspect overnight Thursday.
Millan, 54 at the time, a senior vice president at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., was running along a trail that cuts behind the center of town on Nov. 20, 2014, when she was stabbed in the chest.
On Friday, several state police cruisers were parked at the Simsbury police station and investigators could be seen coming and going as they worked to corroborate the suspect’s story.
The suspect lived less than two miles from the murder scene. He is a registered sex offender in Connecticut who moved to the state in 2011. He had pleaded guilty to fourth-degree sexual assault charges in his former state, according to police records.
The suspect, who The Courant is not naming because he hasn’t been charged, has no criminal record in Connecticut. It could not be determined if he was still on probation in another state. Sources said the attack appeared to be random.
The FBI and the Connecticut chief state’s attorney’s office cold case squad got involved in the investigation more than a year ago. Investigators went back out to the area last November and did a new search for evidence.
Millan was jogging on Iron Horse Boulevard north of Phelps Lane when she was attacked with an edged knife. Police believe the killing occurred between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. There were no witnesses who came forward.
Six months after Millan was found dead, an anonymous donor put forth $40,000 as a reward for information leading the arrest of the killer. At the time, police said they had no suspects and were actively looking for leads.
In the years since her slaying, Simsbury police have repeated that the case was the department’s highest priority, but little was said about progress. Last year, then police Chief Peter Ingvertsen said Simsbury police had partnered with the state’s cold case unit in hopes of closing the case.
Ingvertsen said then that the department did have “physical evidence from the crime scene that will help us to identify the person or persons responsible for her death,” but declined to comment specifically.
Millan, divorced from her husband, William Hodkin, had two children, 15 and 12, at the time of her killing.
A Simsbury native, Millan was described as a “pillar” among her friends in Team Training New England, with whom she had trained for different events since 2006.
“Regardless of her formidable responsibilities at home and at work, she made every effort to mentor ‘newbie’ triathletes and provide moral and other support to her team members year in and year out, without fail,” Team Training New England members Janice and Lynne posted at the time on the group’s website.
On the team’s online memorial page, they describe Millan as an “extraordinary human being [who] touched so many lives in a profound and genuine way.”