Honorable Fleming was identified as the victim of the Vermont shooting

A retired Vermont university chancellor died Thursday afternoon while walking his favorite trail near the campus where he once taught.

Honorat Fleming, 77, a respected biochemist and cell biologistwas shot in the head around 4 p.m. on the Delaware and Hudson Rail-Trail near the Castleton campus of Vermont State University, where he served as Dean of Education before her retirement. HThe body was found a half hour later and witnesses described seeing a white man with red hair, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, whom Vermont State Police have named as person of interest He has not been arrested and police warned he was considered armed and dangerous, urging residents to be vigilant.

“We don’t have a suspect, we don’t have a motive,” Maj. Dan Trudeau, commander of the Vermont State Police Criminal Division, said at a press conference Monday afternoon, but noted that the agency had received more than 200 tips from the public. Investigators are specifically asking people who were walking or cycling along the path between 3pm and 5pm on October 5 to come forward. They continue to search the area with the help of the Castleton and Fair Haven Police Departments, New England K9 Search and Rescue and other agencies.

Fleming’s body was found just a mile from the university, which locked down its campus and issued a shelter-in-place order Friday. The university also announced it on Friday additional security measures were taken to school, with “24-hour coverage” by your public safety department and local police.

“This is an incredible tragedy for the Castleton campus and for all of Vermont State University,” Interim President Michael K. Smith said in a message to students, faculty and staff. “The honoree will be greatly missed.” .

Fleming was days away from celebrating her 45th wedding anniversary with her husband, Ron Powers, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, who announced her death in a Facebook post Friday.

“I will write more, much more, about my beloved honoree as I can,” Powers said. “Those of you who know her know she had a wonderful name. I have never known a finer heart and soul than hers. She has taken far more than half of my own heart and soul with her.”

Powers co-wrote the New York Times nonfiction bestseller “Flags of Our Fathers,” which was made into a feature film directed by Clint Eastwood in 2006. In 2017, she opened up about her and Fleming’s two sons, Kevin and Dean, and theirs. struggles with schizophrenia, and Dean’s suicide, in the critically acclaimed “Nobody Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America.”

“I miss our late night wine conversations,” Powers said, addressing his wife on Facebook. “I miss just sitting and watching you talk to other people. Your beautiful face came alive and your eyes sparkled and your head tilted in a way that made me glad that you you’d come down from the stars to grace my life. And then Dean’s and Kevin’s.”

In a follow-up post thanking the many people who reached out to him after Fleming’s murder, Powers wrote: “You understood and loved his bright soul, and that’s (part of) the reason why I can tell you that even though the brilliance of her scientific vision was not fully recognized during her lifetime, the beloved Honoree did not live in vain. She uplifted every life she touched.”

Classes are scheduled to resume on Tuesday at the university and at the local primary and secondary school, Castleton Police Chief Peter Mantello said at the news conference, but reiterated that residents should remain vigilant.

“The most important thing is situational awareness,” he said he said at the press conference. “Lock the cars, lock the doors. … If you’re going anywhere, pair up, use the buddy system. Bbut the most important thing is to be observant.”