The transient man charged with the murder of Fern Feather last year faces more charges for attempting to escape from a state prison.

Police have provided an update after Seth Brunell, 44, an inmate at the Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury, attempted to escape from the facility.

On April 18, Brunell used a makeshift grappling hook and bed sheets as a rope to climb the fence around the facility. However, he was unable to make it over the fence, and the razor wire eventually ripped the bed sheets.

The Department of Corrections notified the Vermont State Police, who began an investigation. On May 3, Brunell was charged with attempted escape from a correctional center. He is scheduled to appear in Caledonia County court on June 5, to answer to the charge.

Seth Brunell is being held without bail at NECC on a charge of 2nd Degree Murder stemming from the stabbing and killing of a Fern Feather, a biological male identifying as a woman, in Morristown. Brunell was lodged in April 2022.

VDC reported on April 14 last year that an autopsy was conducted Wednesday, April 13 at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington on Fern Feather, 29, of Hinesburg, who was known to family as Zachary Barbeau. The autopsy determined the cause of death was a stab wound to the chest, and the manner of death was homicide.