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Arrest Made in "Violent" Murder of Morning News Anchor's Mother Who Was "Stolen from This World"
"My mother's death was not natural, nor peaceful," Connecticut news anchor Heidi Voight revealed in July. "My mother was murdered, violently, in the place she should have felt safest — her own home."
An arrest has been made in the murder of a Connecticut morning news anchor's mother, who was allegedly killed in her own Vermont home by a tenant who stopped paying rent.
Heidi Voight, a news anchor and reporter for NBC Connecticut's TODAY, revealed in July that the February death of her mother, 73-year-old Claudia M. Voight, was not a natural one.
"She should still be here," Heidi began a July 31 Facebook post. Explaining her absence at the time from NBC Connecticut, she continued, "There is something I've been wanting to tell you, but up until now, couldn't. I have been carrying this painful secret: My mother's death was not natural, nor peaceful. My mother was murdered, violently, in the place she should have felt safest — her own home in Windham, Vermont."
Who killed Claudia Voight?
On December 20, Shawn Conlon, 44, of Rhode Island, was arrested for the February 20 murder of Claudia, Vermont State Police announced in a news release. Conlon was taken into custody at a hotel in Groton, Connecticut, by the U.S. Marshals Service, with help from police departments in multiple states.
"The Vermont State Police earlier this week obtained a warrant for Conlon's arrest on a charge of second-degree murder," the agency added in the December 20 release. "VSP's investigation determined that Conlon had been renting a room in Ms. Voight's home, though he stopped paying rent in late 2022 but remained in the house, until he attacked and killed her in February."
After Vermont State Police got the arrest warrant, investigators worked with the U.S. Marshals Service to track down Conlon, who was thought to be in Rhode Island but was eventually found to be in Connecticut.
"Conlon was charged in Connecticut as being a fugitive from justice," Vermont State Police stated. "During an initial court appearance, Conlon was ordered held for lack of $1 million bail on the fugitive charge. He waived extradition and will be transferred back to Vermont to face the murder charge at a future date. The Vermont arrest warrant for second-degree murder orders Conlon jailed without bail."
Conlon is currently being held at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center, according to Connecticut Department of Correction records reviewed by Oxygen.com.
How was Claudia Voight killed?
In July, Vermont State Police announced they were investigating Claudia's death in her Windham home as a homicide. The agency said at the time that her February 20 death was initially reported as an apparent medical event and it did not initially appear suspicious. "However, an autopsy performed several days later at the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Burlington indicated the death was suspicious, and Voight had sustained injuries that were detectable only during autopsy," police added. "Final autopsy findings in April confirmed that Ms. Voight's cause of death was neck compression, and the manner of death was homicide."
Vermont State Police said over the summer that the department waited to make these details public "due to the sensitive nature of the case." "State police believe the killing of Ms. Voight was not random, and there is no identified threat to the community," the agency stated in July.
On December 20, the day Conlon was arrested, Heidi posted the word "HALLELUJAH" in all caps on Facebook.
The expression of relief comes five months after the grieving daughter wrote of her mom, "Claudia Voight was stolen from this world. She was stolen from her family, from her children, and from my precious daughters who now ask me almost every day, 'Why did Grandma go to Heaven?'
"'She went to be with God,' is all I can muster, because I still don't have the words yet to begin to explain to such innocent minds that such evil exists in this world," Heidi added at the time. "That she never would have willingly left them, her cherished grandbabies. It wrenches my broken heart to know that someday they will have to learn the truth of how they were robbed of so many years with their 'Grandma CC', the one who held their little hands as they took their first steps, the one who now visits as butterflies in the garden, the one who exists in memories and photos and stories that I must now keep alive."
