Wilomeana “Violet” Filkins. Credit: East Greenbush Police Department
One day after police tried to interview school bus driver Jeremiah Guyette about a murder that took place in 1994 in the town he briefly lived in, Guyette fatally shot himself.
His reaction to the interview, phone calls he made immediately after, including to a lawyer, a tip from an ex-girlfriend and a thumbprint left on a coffee table at the crime scene all combined to lead East Greenbush (NY) Police to identify Guyette as the alleged murderer of Wilomeana “Violet” Filkins late last week.
“Over the course of my career, every time there was a changeover in the detective office, there was a promise made from one detective to another to never stop investigative this case in order to find justice for Violet and her family,” said Elaine Rudzinski, Chief of Police of the East Greenbush Police Department, at the press conference on Thursday.
On Aug. 17, 1994, 81-year-old Filkins was murdered in her apartment. Her body was found two days later by her brother and niece. Over the next 20 years, police worked more than 2,000 leads, but the case went cold—until 2009.
In August of that year, around the 15th anniversary of Filkins death, a woman later identified as Guyette’s ex-girlfriend told police Guyette had started crying at her house. She recalled him saying, “That poor old woman. I robbed her, hit her and then just left her there. This can’t be true, I’m sure she’s fine.” According to police, during the interview, the ex-girlfriend revealed aspects of the murder that were unknown to the public.
Investigators then reviewed hundreds of neighborhood canvases that were done in the days and weeks after Filkins 1994 murder. A detective was finally able to locate Guyette, who was a high school senior at the time. He lived in an apartment around the corner from Filkins with his father, but was only in the area for the 1993-1994 school year.
On Oct. 1, 2019, police interviewed Guyette at his home in Rosendale, about 70 miles south of East Greenbush.
“He became defensive, visually upset and stated he would not speak to us without an attorney,” said East Greenbush Police Detective Sgt. Michael Guadagnino.
At 7:30 the next morning, police were called to Guyette’s house for a report of gunshots. They found him dead in his garage, and a subsequent autopsy confirmed the death was suicide by self-inflected gunshot. Post-mortem DNA and fingerprints were taken from and submitted to the New York State Police Crime Laboratory system.
At the same time, all evidence from the original case was re-submitted to the New York State Police, including the corner piece of a wooden coffee table from Filkins’s living room that had an unknown latent print.
After COVID-19-induced delays at the lab, in January 2021, analysts matched the fingerprint on the coffee table to Guyette’s left thumbprint from the fingerprint card obtained after his suicide.
Then, another tip from a family member seemingly confirmed Guyette’s involvement. In October 2022, two years after Guyette committed suicide, a family member told East Greenbush Police that a panicked Guyette had called her right after the police tried to interview him on Oct. 1, 2019. She recalled him saying that when he was younger, he planned to steal a car and rob a bank to get money for college. The family member said Guyette said someone had died, but he didn’t want to talk anymore over the phone, and he didn’t want to go to prison.
The relative made arrangements for Guyette to meet with a lawyer in three days’ time, a fact investigators were able to corroborate with the lawyer.
Guadagnino said Guyette’s name was on the original canvas sheet and he was interviewed at the time, but he was never considered a person of interest.
Guyette left East Greenbush soon after the murder and joined the Air Force, where he was stationed in Florida. Once discharged, he moved back to New York State, settling in Rosendale, about 70 miles south of East Greenbush, where he drove a school bus and a bus for elderly individuals.