A Vermont town official and his family were found dead of gunshot wounds on Sunday, September 15, in their home in the town of Pawlet.
Pawlet is a village of about 1,400 people located near the border with New York State.
A Vermont medical examiner has completed the autopsy of three bodies and confirms that the dead are Pawlet town selectman Brian Crossman, 46, his wife Erica, 41, and Erica Crossman’s 13-year-old son, Colin Taft. No arrests have been made at the time of this report, but local media say police have identified a relative as a “person of interest.”
The deaths have all been ruled homicides.
According to the autopsy report, Brian Crossman was shot in the head and the torso, a gunshot wound to the head killed Erica Crossman, and Colin Taft died of several gunshot wounds.
Many small towns in Vermont refer to their municipal government body as a “selectboard,” and to the members as “selectmen.” The Pawlet selectboard held their regular meeting the evening of Tuesday, September 17, and Brian Crossman’s place at the table was marked with flowers.
Chairman Mike Beecher, who presides over the five-person body, called Brian Crossman a “friend and neighbor,” who worked hard to serve his community and had only just joined the town board this year. He said the tragedy has hit Crossman’s family hard, and has also left the town “shaken and grieving.”
Crossman’s neighbor Oliver Ihasz was in disbelief at the apparent murders. He said he had just visited with the family three evenings before they were dead. “It just hasn’t sunk in,” Ihasz said.
Apparently an unidentified male relative first discovered the bodies at the Crossman house. He called police and waited nearby. When officers arrived the man himself was covered in blood and led the police to the crime scene.
Brian Crossman worked as a lineman for Green Mountain Power, one of the Green Mountain State’s largest electricity companies.
