The Vermont State Police have identified the bodies of four victims whose bodies were recovered from a weekend airplane crash in Addison County.

State police say that a preliminary investigation determined that the four-seat, single-engine Piper aircraft had departed Windham Airport in Connecticut at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, for a flight of about two hours to Basin Harbor Airport in Ferrisburgh. Investigators determined the privately owned plane landed and the occupants arrived for a brunch reservation at Basin Harbor. The party departed the restaurant shortly after noon and were to fly back to Connecticut. A witness reported seeing the airplane on the runway at about 12:15 p.m.

The victims have been identified as Paul Pelletier, 55, of Columbia, Connecticut, Frank Rodriquez, 88, of Lebanon, Connecticut,
Susan Van Ness, 51, of Middletown, Connecticut, and Delilah Van Ness, 15, of Middletown, Connecticut.

No reports were received indicating an aircraft in distress or that a plane had crashed. However, after the plane failed to return to Connecticut as expected, relatives of the occupants reported the situation to the Connecticut State Police and the Middletown (Connecticut) Police Department. Those agencies worked with the Federal Aviation Administration and used cellphone location data to determine the plane’s last known location was near the airstrip in Vermont.

Middletown police notified the Vermont State Police of the situation at about 10:20 p.m. Sunday. Troopers from the New Haven Barracks responded along with members of the Middlebury Police Department and the Ferrisburgh Fire Department. With the assistance of a drone flown by Middlebury police, investigators located the wreckage of the aircraft at about 12:20 a.m. Monday in a wooded area to the east of the Basin Harbor Airport. First responders confirmed all four occupants were deceased.

The bodies of the victims were brought to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for autopsies to determine the cause and manner of death.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are the lead investigative agencies on the airplane crash. Questions about that aspect of this case should be directed to those agencies. VSP’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations is responsible for the death investigation.