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Body found in home located near to homeless ‘pod’ center
By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
Burlington Police say they have identified the woman found beaten to death at a residence on Elmwood Avenue on Tuesday night.
The next of kin of Tina Mullen, 60, of Burlington has been notified, a police spokesperson said.
The case is being treated as a homicide by police, Vermont’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office and the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office, officials said.
BPD spokeswoman Sarah Hernandez Timm said in a news release that there is no evidence to suggest the community is at risk, but she gave no indication for the basis for that claim. Timm has said the city does not provide her a cell phone to field media calls.
Burlington Police responded about 7:51 p.m. Tuesday to a residence near the Pods that the City of Burlington established for homeless persons in a parking lot north of the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse on Elmwood Avenue.
An unresponsive woman was reportedly found on the floor next to a mattress in a residence. Police and fire personnel determined she was dead, the news release said.
The case was initially classified an “untimely death” – a generic term used by police.
The Burlington Police Identification Unit also was summoned to help collect evidence at the death scene.
The Pods, which opened in February 2023, house up to 35 homeless persons and were funded in part by a $1.6 million federal grant.
Anybody with information about the suspicious death is asked to call Burlington Police at (802) 658-2704.
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Categories: Burlington, Crime
I wish I did not have the unhappy feeling that this article is somehow pointing a finger of blame toward the folks experiencing homelessness who are using the pods . . .
Based on the history so far of what many neighbors of ‘the Pods at Elmwood Estates” have been experiencing, all that needs to be mentioned is the address and most informed readers will draw their own well-based conclusion. Some journalists will bend over backwards to sway a story to make progressive governance look good or blameless, but Mike Donoghue just calls balls and strikes and is the most objective and concise crime reporter to serve Vermont currently…just the facts. Thanks Mike for another informative crime article that enlightens the public about what we may want to avoid to stay safe.
Oh, not in the least. We all know full well based upon vast research that neither serious mental illnesses or drug abuse & addiction that the majority of homeless people suffer from can ever directly lead to assault, abuse, violent crime, rape or murder, riiiiight?
And as long as the mentally ill homeless people who ought to be solely entrusted only to mental institutions for life are honky dory, and the desperate junkies who endanger the life and limb of every single innocent that they contact while “experiencing homelessness” through absolutely no fault or responsibility of their own is A-OK, why should anyone worry about this poor soul murdered in cold blood?????? It’s all good!
You once used to be referred to as a bleeding heart. A more befitting terminology today would be someone with NO heart.
Simply factual information.
Not at all. I myself live on my own dime at a motel often used for the homeless, and recently was myself. Although there were the out-of-staters (most of them, it felt), the are were many who are trying to get their life together, but simply can’t find housing…such as myself. The issue is the location where the beaten woman was found. If anything, it also highlights the vulnerability of the homeless even more, dwelling around such violence without even stable housing.
Please don’t say it was a resident of McKenzie House.. There were issues with the pods and these residents as soon as it opened.
A year ago, a resident of a halfway house next to the McKenzie House attacked a wheelchair bound resident of the McKenzie House in their parking lot. A passer by intervened after the perp turned over the woman in her wheelchair and continued to beat her. She is still recovering from the trauma and her wheelchair still shows the damage. WCAX reported this including camera video. The perp was arrested and I am not sure what happened after that.
$1,600,000.00 for 35 homeless persons = over $45,000.00 per “tenant”. Hummm. sounds like a heck of a deal to me.
This just goes to show the ” Cesspool ” Burlington has become, this is just another case of the scourge running rampant on the streets of Burlington, I’m not saying that
the PODs are the cause of this homicide, but birds of a feather flock together !!
The PODs, are another liberal boondoggle, out of the 35 residents how many leave every morning ” per the rules ” and are out looking for a job ??……. I guess none !!!
So they leave in the morning, go panhandle to get enough money to support whatever habit they have, then come back at night and crash for another day this is not helping anyone, how about having work for the ” City ” cleaning and picking up trash or mowing & raking things up……. things every homeowner does all the time no shame in that, give them a little incentive …………………Nah, progressives are running the city, running it into the ground.
I don’t know what language to use when I say “Heartbroken”. I am so sorry for that woman’s friends, family, and ppl. Let’s not accuse those who are innocent, and know that the Great Spirit above us all will DEFINITELY take an account of whoever did this. We are all equal, under His eye, and anyone who steps out thinking they are beyond His touch, well, they are probably on bad drugs, at best.
Until the citizens of Burlington are fed up enough to replace their city council and the citizens of Chittenden County are fed up enough to replace their SA Sarah Soros George this will continue. When their is a city council willing to promote and support real policing and an SA willing to do their duty: prosecute crime, then there will begin to be a semblance of civil order.
This is so incredibly sad but not one bit surprising. These people need medical and psychiatric help, not oversized dog houses and free injection sites. What a sin that close to 2 million dollars was wasted on ‘pods’ – a creepy thing to call a living space- and not put toward some type of rehab like ‘Jenna’s Promise ‘ in Johnson. She was someone’s little baby once. And made in the image of God.
The blood is squarely on the hands of the leadership (and I use that term loosely) and the non-profiteers. How many more? The “victims” are on both sides of the crime. The perps are kept intoxicated, enabled to remain intoxicated, and handed all the tools and resources to remain intoxicated with no consequences whatsoever. The innocents, unfortunates, or woefully ignorant, don’t think for one moment evil is all around them, stalking them, targetting them, and being set up by their government and community neighbors to be a statistic on a police blotter.
This madness will not stop until the People put a stop to it – shut the wallets and support feeding the real beasts behind of all this “social injustice.”
I take issue with the city of Burlington being compared to a cesspool. Cesspools provide a useful benefit.
The pods have nothing to do with this.
They may not have. The mention was more giving the vicinity and reminding people of what they are, rather than an implication one way or the other. If you have hard info on what did happen to the woman, please let BPD know. And us, if you want.
I no longer go anywhere near Church Street or any place where I need to walk any distance away from my car. I no longer go to the farmer’s market, to the 4th of July fireworks, or to any other group celebration/event. I won’t bring my grandchildren anywhere near the Burlington without at least one other adult. I just won’t take the chance on their, or my own, safety.
Tell us what does and who was responsible? So, if it’s not rampant drug use & addiction, & it’s not serious mental illness that can cause delirium & psychosis, what is the reason for a person to rather randomly murder an innocent woman? And how do you support your statement that the “pods” which harbor & enable those struggling from the above afflictions which are known to endanger public well-being are not the causation for this loss of life?
Pray tell……..
Listen…Tina was an addict long before the pods were even built. She had random people in and out of her place all the time. She used to live on Pearl in the Dunkin Donuts building. She was evicted because of drug use and drug dealing. Most of the people that live in her building on Elmwood are mentally ill and struggle with addiction. As a matter of fact, Jason Baker, the one who interviewed for WPTZ, is a well known crackhead who happens to live in Tina’s building. After he interviewed he couldn’t wait to tell everybody on the block that he was going to be on TV.
VDC seems to be the only news outlet that is reporting that she was beaten to death. BPD press release says nothing of the sort.
Long story short this is my neighborhood. The pods have nothing to do with this. Okay Kathy?
Feel free to correct my spelling and grammar mistakes!