by Guy Page
Joseph Ferlazzo, 41, formerly of Essex Junction, is scheduled to be arraigned in a Burlington courtroom at 10:30 AM today for the first-degree murder of his wife, Emily Ferlazzo, 22.
The court ordered Ferlazzo jailed overnight without bail after Vermont State Police located human remains believed to be those of Emily Ferlazzo. Police say Ferlazzo told detectives he had killed his wife early Saturday morning inside their vehicle in Bolton. Police searched it and found her body inside.
The vehicle, a small bus, had been converted into a living and traveling space that Emily and Joseph Ferlazzo shared and had used to travel to Bolton late last week.
Joseph Ferlazzo is believed to be a former Burlington-area tattoo artist. Emily Ferlazzo was an LNA at Lake Region Hospital in the Northeast Kingdom until last year. The couple lived in Essex Junction until recently, according to Facebook posts. When her disappearance was announced yesterday, they were listed as Northfield, NH residents.
The police investigation into Emily Ferlazzo’s disappearance became public yesterday and developed quickly, with multiple press releases throughout the day culminating in a 9:30 PM media briefing at the St. Albans State Police Barracks.
Mrs. Ferlazzo’s family reported her disappearance to the Vermont State Police at about 7:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 18, as soon as they were made aware that she was missing. The Vermont State Police immediately began an investigation that has expanded from the Bolton area to include locations in Enosburg and St. Albans.
Joseph Ferlazzo reportedly told her family in New Hampshire that the couple had been staying at a vacation rental in Bolton. He advised they were in an argument while in their camper van traveling on the Bolton Valley Access Road at about 1 p.m. Saturday. He further stated that she had left the vehicle and began walking along U.S. Route 2. Mr. Ferlazzo told the family that he proceeded to a convenience store in Bolton, and when he returned to the area where he had last seen Mrs. Ferlazzo, she was gone.
By 1 pm yesterday afternoon, state police said the death was suspicious and that they were looking for Joseph Ferlazzo. An hour later, state police detectives located Joseph Ferlazzo at a convenience store in St. Albans, and he agreed to accompany troopers to the barracks. The couple’s missing dog, Remington, also was located unharmed at the home of a friend of Mr. Ferlazzo.
After Ferlazzo confessed to killing his wife in the bus, a subsequent court-ordered search of the bus at the VSP St. Albans Barracks uncovered human remains and other evidence that corroborated Joseph Ferlazzo’s account of the killing. The victim’s body was brought to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy today to determine the cause and manner of death and to confirm identity.