ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. -- A Vermont snowplow driver who wanted to "get a girl" was accused Wednesday along with his wife of luring a popular prep school teacher from her home by pretending their vehicle had broken down, beating and strangling her, stripping her body naked and throwing it into the Connecticut River.
Allen Prue, 30, and Patricia Prue, 33, of Waterford, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Melissa Jenkins, whose SUV was found idling along a remote road near her St. Johnsbury home on Sunday with her unharmed 2-year-old inside.
Police said Allen Prue was riding around on Sunday with his wife when he got the idea "to get a girl," the affidavit said. "They didn't plan to get one forcefully," the police affidavit said.
SEE MORE PHOTOS: (Article Continues Below)
Launch Slideshow
HIDE THUMBNAILS
1 of 9
PLAY ALL
VOTE ON THIS SLIDE
ADVERTISEMENT
[{"entry_id":"3462280","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/lonnie-kocontes_n_3462280.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/247203\/slide_247203_2516621_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/247203\/slide_247203_2516621_small.jpg","title":"Marriages That End In Murder","slideshow_id":"247203","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3459228","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/polk-county-crimes-against-children_n_3459228.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/303756\/slide_303756_2584698_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/303756\/slide_303756_2584698_small.jpg","title":"Polk County Sex Sting ","slideshow_id":"303756","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3456217","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/17\/tracey-lynn-garner-buttocks-enhancement-death_n_3456217.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/250188\/slide_250188_1511186_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/250188\/slide_250188_1511186_small.jpg","title":"Morris Garner aka Tracy Lynn Garner","slideshow_id":"250188","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3461473","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/edgar-bonilla-castrated-paraplegic_n_3461473.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/239642\/slide_239642_1632648_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/239642\/slide_239642_1632648_small.jpg","title":"Bad Choices","slideshow_id":"239642","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3462464","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/james-lewis-derosa-executed_n_3462464.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/213294\/slide_213294_766477_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/213294\/slide_213294_766477_small.jpg","title":"Serial Killer Last Meals","slideshow_id":"213294","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3459614","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/bill-pelke-grandson-paula-cooper_n_3459614.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/276620\/slide_276620_2043107_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/276620\/slide_276620_2043107_small.jpg","title":"Exonerated!","slideshow_id":"276620","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3461727","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/fort-hood-trial-date_n_3461727.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/247727\/slide_247727_1452360_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/247727\/slide_247727_1452360_small.jpg","title":"Fort Hood Shooting","slideshow_id":"247727","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3458616","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/fathers-day-mass-shooting_n_3458616.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/239858\/slide_239858_1888070_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/239858\/slide_239858_1888070_small.jpg","title":"Shootings In America","slideshow_id":"239858","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3456275","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/17\/tammy-eppley_n_3456275.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/232715\/slide_232715_2524519_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/232715\/slide_232715_2524519_small.jpg","title":"Student-Teacher Sex Scandals","slideshow_id":"232715","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3461795","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/colleen-shannon_n_3461795.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/245564\/slide_245564_1396711_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/245564\/slide_245564_1396711_small.jpg","title":"Colleen Shannon, Playboy Playmate","slideshow_id":"245564","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3460918","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/steven-pinel-kill-murder-wife-breaks-neck_n_3460918.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/239589\/slide_239589_2275784_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/239589\/slide_239589_2275784_small.jpg","title":"Criminal Masterminds","slideshow_id":"239589","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3461000","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/john-martorano-whitey-bulger_n_3461000.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/303449\/slide_303449_2585266_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/303449\/slide_303449_2585266_small.jpg","title":"Whitey on trial: Key evidence","slideshow_id":"303449","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3458598","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/joseph-naso-trial-opening-statement_n_3458598.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/241286\/slide_241286_1289137_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/241286\/slide_241286_1289137_small.jpg","title":"10 Major Crimes That Shocked the Nation (SLIDESHOW)","slideshow_id":"241286","vertical":"crime"},{"entry_id":"3459242","entry_url":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/06\/18\/zane-noland-boy-finds-loaded-gun-theater_n_3459242.html","content_type":"image","image_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/239802\/slide_239802_1254051_small.jpg","thumbnail_url":"gadgets\/slideshows\/239802\/slide_239802_1254051_small.jpg","title":"Batman Premiere Shooting At Century 16 Cinema","slideshow_id":"239802","vertical":"crime"}]
Police gave no further details on a possible motive in the death of the 33-year-old teacher at the prestigious St. Johnsbury Academy. The Prues were ordered held without bail, and police said more charges were possible.
"They knew Miss Jenkins and had snowplowed her driveway a couple of years ago," Vermont State Police Maj. Ed Ledo said at a news conference announcing the arrests.
A friend told police that Allen Prue had asked Jenkins out a couple of times and that she felt uncomfortable around him, according to the documents. She stopped having him plow, and in autumn 2011 he showed up drunk at her home asking if he could plow her driveway the following year.
After the court appearance, Allen Prue's mother, Donna Prue, said that her son has never been in trouble with the law before and that she has faith he didn't commit the crime.
"I do not believe he would ever do this, because he didn't have it in him. I have nothing against her (Patricia); I don't have nothing bad to say about either one," said Donna Prue, who lives with the couple and her daughter. She said she did not know Jenkins.
Patricia Prue's first husband, Jeffry Witkoff, 38, of Littleton, Colo., said the news was shocking.
"If somebody told me she's a murderer, that's nothing that would pop into her head. When I knew her she did a have history of mental issues, for anxiety and depression and social anxiety," he said. They were legally separated in 2007 and divorced in 2009, he said.
Police were called Sunday night after Jenkins' son was found alone in her vehicle.
Her former boyfriend told police she called him saying that she had gotten a weird call from a couple who used to plow her driveway and that she was going to help them. She wanted someone to know what she was doing, the documents say.
When he couldn't reach her two hours later, he went to check on her. He told police he found her vehicle, with her son sleeping in it, and one of her shoes nearby.
Allen Prue later told police that Patricia Prue called Jenkins and told her they had broken down near her home.
The death of the well-loved science teacher at St. Johnsbury Academy, once attended by President Calvin Coolidge, reverberated through the town of 6,200 in northeastern Vermont about 40 miles south of the Canadian border.
Ledo said he hoped the arrests would bring closure for Jenkins' family and friends.
"We can now turn our full attention to healing from this tragic loss, celebrating Melissa's life and mourning her death," said Joe Healy, a spokesman for St. Johnsbury Academy.
The court documents describe the encounter this way:
When the 33-year-old Jenkins got out of her vehicle, Allen Prue grabbed her and strangled her. He said his wife was outside helping him but didn't know what she was doing. He then put the body in the backseat of their car, and they drove to their home. At some point, Patricia Prue choked Jenkins in the car "to ensure she wasn't breathing."
Back at their home, he put Jenkins' body on a tarp, removed her clothes and poured bleach on her body. The Prues also removed their clothes and put them on the tarp.
They then drove to a boat access at the Connecticut River, which separates Vermont from New Hampshire, and put Jenkins' body in the water, weighing it down with cinder blocks and concealing it with brush.
They threw a prepaid cellphone that Patricia had used to call Jenkins into the water near Moore Dam and took the tarp and the clothes to New Hampshire where they burned them.
Jenkins' body was found in shallow water of the river with her feet tied and severe bruising indicating a severe beating before her death, the affidavit said.
Police say condoms and wrappers were found near the body.
ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. -- A Vermont snowplow driver who wanted to "get a girl" was accused Wednesday along with his wife of luring a popular prep school teacher from her home by pretending their vehicle h...
ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. -- A Vermont snowplow driver who wanted to "get a girl" was accused Wednesday along with his wife of luring a popular prep school teacher from her home by pretending their vehicle h...
MIDLAND, Texas -- A West Texas jury has found a former lieutenant to polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs guilty of bigamy. Prosecutors had accused Wendell...
It's even worse if you think about it. You don't just wake up one day and commit that level of crime with that much preparation. There are probably many other victims out there that they "practiced" on over the years.
DaveWBR: It's even worse if you think about it. You don't
I'm normally a live-and-let-live Liberal, but in this case, I'd say that we should either fry them or set them free. Vermonters will take care of the rest.
Bonzerelli: I'm normally a live-and-let-live Liberal, but in this case, I'd
Ghoulish monsters...solitary forever is too good...sickening creatures. Their actions and their sentence makes us participate in actions most unpleasant applied to them...crime and punishment is a terrible, terrible thing but must be done. These people are pure evil.
Capitalism_Rocks: Ghoulish monsters...solitary forever is too good...sickening creatures. Their actions and
I'm thinking the reason for the 2nd degree charge is because the DA needs to be sure these animals are convicted? If they don't think they can prove premeditation with the evidence they have, then they're probably going for what they know they can get? Hopefully they will gather more evidence and be able to up the charge.
Of course, nobody can give these people what they actually deserve. Monsters.
LeeLoPink: I'm thinking the reason for the 2nd degree charge is
You're missing my point (which is only a guess). If the authorities don't think they can prove premeditation, they will not go for it. They want to make sure these monsters are convicted.
It has nothing do do with what is obvious (OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony). Unfortunately, these animals get to present a defense.
LeeLoPink: You're missing my point (which is only a guess). If
Comparing evil people to animals is so inaccurate. Where did that idea ever come from? Animals never kill for pleasure. Only humans do that. Only human beings get a thrill from death and destruction. Let's stop perpetuating this wrong idea about God's creatures and describe these horrible people by their rightful names - depraved, sick, monstrous.
eesonne: Comparing evil people to animals is so inaccurate. Where did
William S.Burroughs once wrote that while other animals besides humans kill for pleasure only humans kill for the sheer ugliness of it.to revel in the filth of such an act.
cobraxus: William S.Burroughs once wrote that while other animals besides humans
and only humans will concoct excuses for the depraved monsters, and are then willing to house them in comfort and safety for the rest of their lives, rather than put them to death..........
Carl_E_Cook: and only humans will concoct excuses for the depraved monsters,
I know I am getting old by how stories like this no longer shock me in quite the same way it used to. Evil exists in this world and most of the time it isn't dressed like one would expect or recognize.
lisaman: I know I am getting old by how stories like
Loading comments… 
AP | By LISA RATHKE Posted: 03/28/2012 11:45 am Updated: 03/29/2012 8:32 pm