Discarded Cigarette DNA Helps Police Solve 52-Year-Old Murder Case

BURLINGTON, Virginia (AP) – CONNECTED: Winter Storm Updates • Country Situation • Decades of Case Solved

A discarded cigarette found next to the body of a 24-year-old Vermont schoolteacher in her apartment nearly 52 years ago helped investigators find an upstairs neighbor who they say strangled her after an argument with his wife, police said Tuesday.

Burlington police DNA evidence gathered from a cigarette butt and hard investigative work led authorities to the man they say killed Rita Curran within 70 minutes on a July night in 1971.

The suspect, named William DeRos, who was 31 at the time, left his apartment that night to “take a walk.” When he returned, he told his wife not to say that he was not at home for two weeks.

Since the investigation was reopened in 2019, detectives re-interrogated DeRos’ ex-wife and she told them that he briefly left their apartment at a time when Curran’s roommates were not at her Burlington apartment.

“We all believe that William DeRus is responsible for the aggravated murder of Rita Curran, but since he died in a hotel room from a drug overdose, he will not be held responsible for his actions, but this case will be closed,” Burlington said. This was announced at a morning press conference on Tuesday by Police Lieutenant James Trib, commander of the Bureau of Detective Services.

After Curran’s death, DeRoos, known to some as a guru, moved to Thailand and became a monk, but later returned to the United States. According to police, in 1986, DeRoos died of a drug overdose in San Francisco.

Curran’s parents died never knowing who killed their daughter, but the victim’s siblings attended an event held at the Burlington Police Department.

“I don’t think as much about the guy who did it as I do about Rita and my parents and what they went through,” Curran’s brother Tom said during the event. “I pray to Rita and I pray to my parents.”

Early on the morning of July 20, 1971, Burlington police were called to the Brooks Avenue apartment after Curran’s roommate returned home to find her body in their shared bedroom.

Police say Curran fought back violently but was strangled to death. The murder shocked Burlington.

The case remained open and investigators wouldn’t let him go, but in 2019, Trib and a team of detectives, officers, technicians, and others began working on the case as if it had just happened.

The key piece of evidence was a cigarette butt found next to Curran’s body. In 2014, previous investigators sent the stock and other evidence for DNA testing. The test did produce a DNA profile of the person who smoked the cigarette, but it did not match any of the samples in the law enforcement DNA databases.

Detectives investigating the case in 2019 contracted with a DNA testing company and the samples were compared with genetic material provided to commercial DNA testing companies by members of the public. Burlington detectives were told last August that a sample that was traced through relatives on both sides of the DeRoos family pointed to DeRoos, even though he had no recorded DNA profile.

Detectives then determined that DeRos and his wife Michelle were living upstairs at the time of Curran’s death. They spoke to investigators after Curran’s death, but then said they didn’t see or hear anything.

DeRoos and his wife, who no longer uses the DeRoos name, left Vermont shortly after Curran’s death. Their marriage fell apart after DeRoos left for Thailand. DeRus remarried after returning to the United States.

In a recent interview, Derus’ ex-wife, who lived with him in Burlington and now lives in Eugene, Oregon, told investigators she lied about her husband leaving their apartment that night. Burlington detectives later questioned the next wife, who told them that DeRus had a penchant for violent outbursts.

Detective Thomas Chennett, who interviewed Derus’ first ex-wife, said Tuesday he didn’t believe she knew he killed Curran but defended him because he had a criminal record.

“I think she lied at the time because she was young. She was naive. She recently got married. She was in love,” Chennette said.

The event on Tuesday was attended by retired US Senator Patrick Leahy, who was the Chittenden County Attorney when Curran was killed, and went to the crime scene that night. Asked if he thought the case would ever be solved, he said he hoped it would.

“I have to admit, after 20 and 30, 40 years, I thought this would never happen… It was terrible,” he said.