Following the tragic death of Katrina Vetrano who was killed after going for a run near her home in Queens, New York, another woman has been found dead in an eerily similar case.
27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte was found dead just half a mile from her mother’s home in Princeton, Massachusetts on Sunday evening.
Marcotte, who worked for Google in New York City, was home visiting her mother for the weekend and was last seen at 1pm when she left for her run.
Her body was discovered just after 8pm is a wooded, according to The Boston Globe.
She is believed to have died sometime between 1pm and 4pm, and according to Fox25 Boston, the woman was allegedly sexually assaulted before her body was set on fire.
Police have initiated a homicide investigation and are yet to determine if this was a random or targeted attack.
“We have a horrible set of facts, horrible set of circumstances and we are going to do everything we can to make sure that this investigation is carried out,” said Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. in a press conference.
“We are asking residents of Princeton and the surrounding areas to use an abundance of caution. We are asking the public to be careful, to be vigilant.”
At this stage police say they have no reason to believe the two cases are related.
