While the fire was brought under control in a few minutes’ time, the suspicious death investigation continued for five more hours at the scene before suspending for the evening with the scene being held overnight so processing could continue Thursday morning. All photos © Eric Francis.
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - The grim discovery of a charred body inside a burning car at the back at the Hartford Point Cemetery off Maple Street early Wednesday afternoon has touched off a suspicious-death investigation that will continue today with an autopsy expected to take place in Burlington.
Police at the scene Wednesday said they had no idea initially who the victim might be—nor whether they were looking at some kind of accident, a suicide, or a homicide.
Several callers to 911 spotted a thick column of black smoke rising from a wooded area directly behind and above the Shady Lawn Motel around 1:30 pm. Hartford Fire units searching for the source soon traced it to the far end of an access road that loops around the lower level of the cemetery just above Sargent Street.
Callers as far away as Seminary Hill in Lebanon began reporting a column of smoke rising from the Hartford Point Cemetery in White River Junction at around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. The burning car was located farthest end of the cemetery from the Maple Street entrance.
Arriving firefighters found a small red four-door hatchback completely engulfed in flames between the far end of the narrow access road and a large stand of trees that shields the eastern edge of the cemetery from a series of homes that sit on the slope below the athletic fields belonging to Hartford High and Hartford Middle Schools.
As they knocked down the fire it quickly became apparent that someone was inside the car, and that what had initially been a routine fire call was now a potential crime scene.
Hartford Fire Chief Scott Cooney (left) called in police detectives after firefighters realized what appeared to be a body was inside the fully engulfed red four-door hatchback.
The quiet cemetery, which is accessed by a single entrance off Maple Street, is one of the oldest of the 15 cemeteries in Hartford, with some graves that date back to the early 1700s, and it rises in several levels up a hillside that parallels nearby Interstate 91 on its western side. Hartford Cemetery Trustee Ken Parker, a former state representative and former member of Hartford’s selectboard, arrived shortly after the fire was discovered and said at least one neighbor had reported hearing what she thought were “multiple gunshots” before noticing the smoke.
Hartford Police and Fire investigators gathered in the cemetery and kicked off the investigation working straight through the rainy weather that rolled in. Hartford Police Chief Constance Kelley (at right, with phone) was in charge of the investigation at the scene.
Detectives said they were aware of those reports but also cautioned that all four tires and the gas tank had exploded before firefighters arrived. They noted that such aspects of car fires often get mistaken for something more sinister. Still, police said that, even without any obvious signs of foul play, the circumstances Wednesday afternoon were “weird enough” to prompt Hartford to call for assistance from the Vermont State Police Major Crimes Unit and to request a search warrant for the car from a judge in case the investigation turned up any evidence of a crime.
Vermont State Police Fire investigators and members of the VSP Major Crimes Unit were on scene as well later Wednesday afternoon assisting with the death investigation.
The investigation will continue Thursday morning.
Eric Francis is a veteran Upper Valley freelance writer and photographer who covers crime, fires, natural disasters, and the occasional rabid bobcat.
