Terrance & Joanne Magnan Farm Identified AS Death Locati

The above photo of Kenny Jerome, taken around 1990 is courtesy of Mary Kay Raymond

In the following Burlington Free Press Report, Terrance Magnan, brother to Donna Meunier, Barb Young and son of Florence Magnan was identified as owner of the farm where Kenny Jerome was fatally shot:

Published: July 08. 2005 12:00AM

By Adam Silverman
Free Press Staff Writer

SHELDON -- A man was shot and killed Thursday afternoon at a remote farm in Sheldon, his body found lying near a barn filled with mooing cows.

Police late Thursday identified the victim as Kenneth Jerome, 33, of Sheldon. Town residents said he worked at the Diamond Hill Heifers farm off Sheldon Road.

As of 9 p.m., Vermont State Police had no one in custody, and Capt. Tim Bombardier declined to comment about a "suspect or suspects." Bombardier said the investigation was intense.

"Teams of detectives are out doing interviews in the neighborhood," he said.

More than 40 police officers, state troopers and game wardens raced to the farm at about 12:50 p.m., said Bombardier, who leads the state police's Criminal Division. He called the death "suspicious" and said residents of the Franklin County town did not appear to be at risk.

"There were other people here at the farm at the time of the incident who could have been targeted, but they weren't," Bombardier said.

Rumors about the death circulated through Sheldon, a town of about 2,200 less than 10 miles south of the Canadian border in northwestern Vermont. Bombardier said in a brief roadside news conference that it was too soon to discuss what happened and why.

"I'm not going to elaborate on motive or speculate on motive at this time," he said.
At the scene

Sheldon Road is a narrow strip of asphalt devoid of stripes or markings where it passes by the Diamond Hill farm. Uniformed state troopers stood at the street-end of two driveways that lead to the farmhouse, barns, manure pit and fields beyond.

A green Vermont State Police mobile command post and nearly a dozen police cars were parked on the west side of the house, just in front of the tire-covered manure pit. Bombardier could be seen meeting with a man in a checked shirt near the neat lawn at 7:30 p.m.

"We're working to get it done," Bombardier said to the man, before other state troopers told reporters to move out of sight of the man and the command post.

To the east of the two-story farmhouse, a white truck labeled Vermont Forensic Laboratory idled on a narrow dirt track leading from the house south toward the barns. Another seven police cars were parked nearby.

At one point, four officers carrying metal detectors walked along a ridge line above the forensic truck. They paused in several places to scan the ground.

The farm was surrounded by open fields and meadows leading away to a stark line of woods. A sign on the front porch, which wrapped around the front and east side of the house, bore the name Magnan. Town records list the owners of the property as Terrance and Joanne Magnan.

At 8 p.m., a gray hearse arrived. It backed up and stopped near the forensic truck. Two men removed a gurney from the hearse and wheeled it on the dirt track over a small rise toward a barn. A group of men returned a few minutes later, a gray body bag on the gurney. They loaded the body into the hearse, and the vehicle drove away.

Bombardier said an autopsy would be performed on the body today at the Vermont Medical Examiner's Office in Burlington.
Jerome

Diana Benoit, who owns the Sheldon Creek Market, said Jerome stopped at her store almost daily during rare breaks from near-constant work at Magnan's farm. Benoit said Jerome bought the same thing each time: two -- just two -- raspberry-flavored alcoholic drinks out of a six pack.

"I'd be like, 'You could grab a six pack and then not have to come in for a few days,'" Benoit said.

That suggestion, Benoit said, prompted a joke from the normally shy Jerome. Benoit said the farmhand told her that if he bought a six pack, she wouldn't get to see his pretty face as much. Benoit laughed as she remembered the moment.

"Wicked nice guy," she said.
Free Press Staff Writer Erica Jacobson contributed to this report. Contact Adam Silverman at 660-1854 or asilverm@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com