mattx109
Member
This is a tragic story, and one that makes it even clearer to me why one should have a weapon and cell phone ready while at home, and to act defensively with caution.
Had he not gone to investigate his house may have been burned down, but maybe he and his wife could have at least gotten out. Who knows? Maybe the police would have arrived in time, although I'm sure response time isn't amazing in the area. If he had to go it alone, a defensible position could have saved him.
A sad story and cautionary tale, for sure. My sympathies to those affected.
(Mods, feel free to move if necessary...not sure if this is the right spot for this.)
Isle La Motte teens charged in slayings
Isle La Motte teens charged in slayings
By John Briggs
Free Press Staff Writer
ISLE LA MOTTE -- Two Isle La Motte youths were charged Wednesday in Vermont District Court in North Hero with the double homicide of George and Anna Fleury, whose bodies were found inside their burned Main Street home early Sunday morning.
Heath Lockerby, 18, of 383 Church St. and Quinten Teeple, 17, of 383 East Shore Road heavily shackled and still wearing their street clothes, each appeared briefly in the small courthouse.
Lockerby appeared first, was led out, and then Teeple came in. Neither man spoke.
Each was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree, arson and burglary of an occupied dwelling to commit a felony. Judge David Jenkins ordered them held without bail. Their next court appearance has not been scheduled.
The double murder stunned the small Isle La Motte community, and it seemed to hit harder as islanders learned Wednesday that two local boys had been arrested for the crime.
"None of us are thinking properly," said Claire Atkins, who lives on East Shore Road close to the Teeple house. "It's really touched this whole island."
"It was enough to think they had died of fire," said Julie Horrigan, who knew the Fleurys well. "This is just more than you can think. Everyone is devastated."
Gruesome crime
The details of the crime, as presented in court papers, spell out a plot by Lockerby and Teeple that seems grotesquely out of place on the picturesque island.
According to those papers, Lockerby and Teeple learned from the Fleurys' grandson, identified in court papers as Z.S., that the elderly couple had a money-filled safe in their home.
Z.S. admitted to police that he had stolen money from the safe "multiple times," and twice took $1,000. He used the money to buy a Playstation 2 computer console from Teeple for $300 and to buy drugs, he told police, and shared the drugs with Lockerby and Teeple. He also told Lockerby and Teeple where he got the money.
According to Lockerby's account, he and Teeple decided in mid-June to rob the Fleurys.
"Approximately two weeks before the crime," the court papers said, "they walked through the woods and left two one-gallon milk jugs filled with gas near the Fleury's home."
At that point, they told police, they were planning to enter the house when the Fleurys weren't home and then set a fire to eliminate any evidence.
They changed their minds and decided to break in after dark.
Saturday, June 27, Teeple told police, he and Lockerby picked up his girlfriend and then drove to New York state to pick up Lockerby's girlfriend. Then, because Teeple's parents were gone for the weekend, they drove to his house and began drinking beer. At one point Teeple told police that the foursome finished off a 30-pack of beer.
Sometime after 2 a.m. Sunday, the two young men rode their bikes to the Fleury house, then watched the house from behind the Fleurys' swimming pool fence, smoking cigarettes. They were wearing ski masks, gloves, black shirts and dark jeans. They were armed with knives -- Lockerby with a folding knife and Teeple with a 6-inch straight knife.
They pushed up the window to the rear bedroom and entered the home, Teeple first.
The Fleurys' two Irish setters began barking, the men told police, and George Fleury came out of the bedroom and grabbed Teeple's arm.
Teeple kicked Fleury in the stomach, knocking him to the floor. As Fleury struggled to get up, Teeple told police, "I sliced him in the chest."
Fleury got up again, Teeple said, and Lockerby "stuck him in the chest."
Fleury fell against the wall and didn't move again.
The struggle brought Anna Fleury out of the bedroom. Teeple told police that "Anna was going after Lockerby," and Lockerby "slit her throat and part of her shoulder."
She fell backward onto the bed, and Lockerby, according to Teeple's account, stabbed her repeatedly.
According to court documents, Anna Fleury was stabbed more than 10 times in the chest, had a "deep cut" on her right shoulder, and "her hands had defensive wounds inside and out."
George Fleury was also stabbed "multiple times."
After the Fleurys were dead, the police affidavit said, "Lockerby and Teeple calmed the dogs by petting them, and they removed the safe."
They left the safe in the tall grass north of the house and rode their bikes home to get Teeple's stepfather's pickup truck.
The two men drove back to the Fleury house, loaded the safe into the truck, then went back into the house, poured gasoline over the furniture in the living room and used their lighters to start the fire, leaving the dogs inside. Then Lockerby and Teeple drove back to the Teeple house and hid the safe in the woods nearby.
Investigation
Police moved quickly on the case and were helped when an acquaintance of Lockerby and Teeple approached police Monday and told them the two men had talked about stealing money from the Fleurys when they weren't home.
By Monday evening a state police detective had obtained an admission from Z.S., the Fleurys' grandson, that he had stolen money from his grandparents and told Lockerby and Teeple about the safe in the Fleury house.
That night, detectives questioned Lockerby and Teeple. Both said they had spent the night drinking. Lockerby, a volunteer with the island's volunteer fire department, said he received a page alerting him of the fire at the Fleurys' but didn't answer it because he had been drinking. They both said they hadn't left the Teeple house until about noon Sunday.
Their story changed when they learned that someone had seen Teeple's pickup driving down Church Street toward Main Street early Sunday.
Teeple then told police he and Lockerby had awakened at about 4 a.m. and gone for a ride had seen smoke coming from the Fleury house and stopped to try to help. They ran into the house, Teeple told police, found the sofa in the front room ablaze, and then he heard Lockerby "scream" from the bedroom that he had found "two dead people."
Teeple told police they both ran out of the house and drove back to his house without reporting the fire.
Tuesday afternoon, just before 6 p.m., police, having applied for judicial permission, stopped Lockerby on U.S. 2 in Alburg, near the bridge to New York.
Later on Tuesday night, Teeple gave a full statement to the police, admitting that he and Lockerby had killed the Fleurys and then started the fire. Early Wednesday morning, Lockerby also confessed.
Later Wednesday, police searched the Lockerby and Teeple houses and found the safe in the woods where the pair had left it, still unopened.
Had he not gone to investigate his house may have been burned down, but maybe he and his wife could have at least gotten out. Who knows? Maybe the police would have arrived in time, although I'm sure response time isn't amazing in the area. If he had to go it alone, a defensible position could have saved him.
A sad story and cautionary tale, for sure. My sympathies to those affected.
(Mods, feel free to move if necessary...not sure if this is the right spot for this.)
Isle La Motte teens charged in slayings
Isle La Motte teens charged in slayings
By John Briggs
Free Press Staff Writer
ISLE LA MOTTE -- Two Isle La Motte youths were charged Wednesday in Vermont District Court in North Hero with the double homicide of George and Anna Fleury, whose bodies were found inside their burned Main Street home early Sunday morning.
Heath Lockerby, 18, of 383 Church St. and Quinten Teeple, 17, of 383 East Shore Road heavily shackled and still wearing their street clothes, each appeared briefly in the small courthouse.
Lockerby appeared first, was led out, and then Teeple came in. Neither man spoke.
Each was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree, arson and burglary of an occupied dwelling to commit a felony. Judge David Jenkins ordered them held without bail. Their next court appearance has not been scheduled.
The double murder stunned the small Isle La Motte community, and it seemed to hit harder as islanders learned Wednesday that two local boys had been arrested for the crime.
"None of us are thinking properly," said Claire Atkins, who lives on East Shore Road close to the Teeple house. "It's really touched this whole island."
"It was enough to think they had died of fire," said Julie Horrigan, who knew the Fleurys well. "This is just more than you can think. Everyone is devastated."
Gruesome crime
The details of the crime, as presented in court papers, spell out a plot by Lockerby and Teeple that seems grotesquely out of place on the picturesque island.
According to those papers, Lockerby and Teeple learned from the Fleurys' grandson, identified in court papers as Z.S., that the elderly couple had a money-filled safe in their home.
Z.S. admitted to police that he had stolen money from the safe "multiple times," and twice took $1,000. He used the money to buy a Playstation 2 computer console from Teeple for $300 and to buy drugs, he told police, and shared the drugs with Lockerby and Teeple. He also told Lockerby and Teeple where he got the money.
According to Lockerby's account, he and Teeple decided in mid-June to rob the Fleurys.
"Approximately two weeks before the crime," the court papers said, "they walked through the woods and left two one-gallon milk jugs filled with gas near the Fleury's home."
At that point, they told police, they were planning to enter the house when the Fleurys weren't home and then set a fire to eliminate any evidence.
They changed their minds and decided to break in after dark.
Saturday, June 27, Teeple told police, he and Lockerby picked up his girlfriend and then drove to New York state to pick up Lockerby's girlfriend. Then, because Teeple's parents were gone for the weekend, they drove to his house and began drinking beer. At one point Teeple told police that the foursome finished off a 30-pack of beer.
Sometime after 2 a.m. Sunday, the two young men rode their bikes to the Fleury house, then watched the house from behind the Fleurys' swimming pool fence, smoking cigarettes. They were wearing ski masks, gloves, black shirts and dark jeans. They were armed with knives -- Lockerby with a folding knife and Teeple with a 6-inch straight knife.
They pushed up the window to the rear bedroom and entered the home, Teeple first.
The Fleurys' two Irish setters began barking, the men told police, and George Fleury came out of the bedroom and grabbed Teeple's arm.
Teeple kicked Fleury in the stomach, knocking him to the floor. As Fleury struggled to get up, Teeple told police, "I sliced him in the chest."
Fleury got up again, Teeple said, and Lockerby "stuck him in the chest."
Fleury fell against the wall and didn't move again.
The struggle brought Anna Fleury out of the bedroom. Teeple told police that "Anna was going after Lockerby," and Lockerby "slit her throat and part of her shoulder."
She fell backward onto the bed, and Lockerby, according to Teeple's account, stabbed her repeatedly.
According to court documents, Anna Fleury was stabbed more than 10 times in the chest, had a "deep cut" on her right shoulder, and "her hands had defensive wounds inside and out."
George Fleury was also stabbed "multiple times."
After the Fleurys were dead, the police affidavit said, "Lockerby and Teeple calmed the dogs by petting them, and they removed the safe."
They left the safe in the tall grass north of the house and rode their bikes home to get Teeple's stepfather's pickup truck.
The two men drove back to the Fleury house, loaded the safe into the truck, then went back into the house, poured gasoline over the furniture in the living room and used their lighters to start the fire, leaving the dogs inside. Then Lockerby and Teeple drove back to the Teeple house and hid the safe in the woods nearby.
Investigation
Police moved quickly on the case and were helped when an acquaintance of Lockerby and Teeple approached police Monday and told them the two men had talked about stealing money from the Fleurys when they weren't home.
By Monday evening a state police detective had obtained an admission from Z.S., the Fleurys' grandson, that he had stolen money from his grandparents and told Lockerby and Teeple about the safe in the Fleury house.
That night, detectives questioned Lockerby and Teeple. Both said they had spent the night drinking. Lockerby, a volunteer with the island's volunteer fire department, said he received a page alerting him of the fire at the Fleurys' but didn't answer it because he had been drinking. They both said they hadn't left the Teeple house until about noon Sunday.
Their story changed when they learned that someone had seen Teeple's pickup driving down Church Street toward Main Street early Sunday.
Teeple then told police he and Lockerby had awakened at about 4 a.m. and gone for a ride had seen smoke coming from the Fleury house and stopped to try to help. They ran into the house, Teeple told police, found the sofa in the front room ablaze, and then he heard Lockerby "scream" from the bedroom that he had found "two dead people."
Teeple told police they both ran out of the house and drove back to his house without reporting the fire.
Tuesday afternoon, just before 6 p.m., police, having applied for judicial permission, stopped Lockerby on U.S. 2 in Alburg, near the bridge to New York.
Later on Tuesday night, Teeple gave a full statement to the police, admitting that he and Lockerby had killed the Fleurys and then started the fire. Early Wednesday morning, Lockerby also confessed.
Later Wednesday, police searched the Lockerby and Teeple houses and found the safe in the woods where the pair had left it, still unopened.
