CT State Police/Family Photo William Winters Leverett has been charged in the death of Melissa Millan, who was killed while jogging in Simsbury, Connecticut, in 2014.
A 27-year-old registered sex offender has been arrested in the 2014 stabbing death of a Connecticut woman who was killed while jogging along a trail in Simsbury. William Winters Leverett turned himself in at police headquarters on September 19 and confessed to the murder of Melissa Millan, the Hartford Courant reports.
Leverett, a Windsor Locks resident who was convicted of sexual assault of a child in 2011 while living in Colorado, was identified by multiple law enforcement sources as the suspect, the Courant reports. Millan, a 54-year-old insurance executive and mother of two children, was killed the evening of November 20, 2014.
Simsbury Police had spent several years investigating the case with help from other agencies, including the Connecticut State Police and the FBI. A $40,000 reward had been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction and the case was listed on the state’s Cold Case website. Simsbury Police confirmed in a press release Sunday night that Leverett had been arrested and charged with murder.
Here’s what you need to know about William Winters Leverett and the murder of Melissa Millan:
1. Leverett Told Police He Was ‘Searching for Human Contact’ & ‘Went Into a Frenzy’ Before He Attacked & Killed Melissa Millan
Melissa Millan was found on a popular walking and biking trail on Iron Horse Boulevard in the center of Simsbury on November 20, 2014, according to police.
Simsbury Police, “responded to a report of a female pedestrian lying in the roadway on Iron Horse Boulevard shortly after 8 p.m. The initial caller indicated the woman might have fallen off a bicycle,” according to Connecticut’s Cold Case website. “When the first officer responded, several people were standing over a woman lying on her left side covered in blood next to the footpath near the Rotary Park playground. Officers performed CPR on the unresponsive victim who was then transported to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford where she was pronounced dead shortly before 9 p.m. … An autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Ms. Millan died of a stab wound and her death was classified as a homicide.”
No weapons were found. According to the Hartford Courant, it is believed that she was randomly attacked by the suspect, now identified as William Winters Leverett. No one witnessed the assault, which police believe occurred between 7:30 and 8 p.m., the Courant reports.
According to an affidavit obtained by the Courant, Leverett told police he went to the trail to search for “human contact,” after attending a treatment meeting for sex offenders in Hartford. He told police he had met a woman a few months earlier and worried she would find out he was on probation for a sex crime. He said he was, “embarrassed and scared and figured that If I just killed somebody it would make all that go away and I wouldn’t have to explain myself.”
Leverett told detectives he was “getting mentally aroused” after seeing Millan running on the trail. He said he became increasingly angry and realized, “I can’t have her,” and “she was way out of my league,” according to the affidavit obtained by the Courant. He told police he had never seen Millan before. She had already run about 2.3 miles on the trail before she was attacked. Leverett said, “I went into a frenzy,” according to the affidavit.
Leverett said he approached Millan in an unlit area of the trail where lights weren’t worked. He stabbed her once in the chest with a knife and she pushed him away, causing the knife to pull out while he was still holding it, according to the affidavit. She then fell backward over a guardrail and into the road, according to police. He said he heard Millan say, “oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” before falling silent. Leverett told police he drove to a side street where he threw the knife out of his car. He then went back and found it a few days later and discarded it in a trash compactor at work.
FBI, local police back searching for evidence today in the murder of Melissa Millan one year ago @FOX61News
The crime stunned the quiet community of Simsbury, a town in Hartford County with little crime. “It shocked the living daylights out of me,” Simsbury resident Gail Musson told the Courant in 2015. “Simsbury is our sweet little town. It’s so in the forefront of my mind. I think about it a lot and every time I drive down Iron Horse Boulevard. The crime, the situation is a nightmare. It’s frightening.”
In June 2015, Simsbury police announced a $40,000 reward in the case and revealed there was “some physical evidence from the crime scene that will help us identify the person or persons responsible for her death.” Then-Police Chief Peter Ingvertsen said in a statement in 2015, “Based on the initial observations and findings by Simsbury Police Officers, the Connecticut State Police Major Crimes Squad was requested to assist with the identification, collection and preservation of any evidence of a crime. Simsbury Police Investigators have been working with local, state and federal agencies to analyze evidence and follow all leads … This is an isolated act, not common at all to this community. Simsbury is safe and we suggest that you take normal day to day precautions.”
Lisa Heavner, who was at the time the town’s First Selectwoman, said in a statement, “This investigation remains the top priority to the Town of Simsbury and its Police Department. Our approach has been to use all of the resources at our disposal. And I want to recognize and thank the federal and state officers who have been assisting us since the very beginning of this case. … Simsbury is a safe community. The case remains active and ongoing and as you heard from the Chief, we believe this is an isolated incident. We haven’t seen anything like this in the past and we haven’t seen anything like this since.”
2. Leverett, Who Walked Into the Police HQ With Members of a Religious Organization & Said He Couldn’t Live With What He Had Done, Kept ‘Items’ From the Attack
William Winters Leverett.
William Winters Leverett walked into the Simsbury Police Department headquarters the night of Wednesday, September 19, and confessed to killing Melissa Millan, the Hartford Courant reports. Multiple law enforcement sources told The Courant that Leverett was accompanied by members of his church and he told police he could no longer live with what he had done.
Leverett had been attending Open Gate Ministries in Windsor Locks. The church’s pastor, Michael Trazinski, told the Courant that Leverett confessed to a church member he had met months earlier and she brought him to other church members who went with him to police headquarters.
“He came to us on Wednesday night and confessed to the homicide,” Trazinski told the newspaper, “and we immediately told him, ‘You know what you have to do.’ “He said yes, I have to turn myself in.”
Co-pastor Colette Trazinski, told the newspaper “Will” is “very childlike, very trusting of others.” She said, “he opened up to us about his life, his past, what he’s gone through … We never would have expected this.”
According to police sources who spoke to the newspaper, Leverett described what Millan was wearing when she was attacked and killed. Leverett also brought police to where he had hidden some items he kept from the night of the killing, the Courant reports. The sources did not tell the newspaper what those items were and where they were located.
According to the arrest warrant obtained by NBC Connecticut, Leverett wrote confession letters to family members after the crime that he never sent. The letters were given to police by Leverett. Police were also led by Leverett to a glove he told detectives he had been wearing on the night of the attack that contained DNA of both Leverett and Millan.
After Leverett came to the Simsbury Police headquarters, the department requested the State Police Major Crimes Squad detectives help, according to the Courant. Leverett was arraigned Monday at state Superior Court in Enfield.
“We believe he is the sole person responsible for this crime,” Simsbury Police Chief Nicholas Boulter said at a press conference.
3. He Was Arrested in Colorado on Sexual Assault Charges in 2009 When He Was 18 & Pleaded Guilty in 2011, but Was Not Sentenced to Prison Time
William Leverett.
William Leverett has been listed on the Connecticut sex offender registry since 2011, but he has never been arrested or convicted of a crime in the state, online records show. A was arrested in 2010 as an 18-year-old on sexual assault charges while living in Colorado, records there reveal.
According to online records viewed by Heavy, Leverett was charged September 1, 2009, with aggravated sexual assault of a child, sexual assault of a child with a pattern of abuse, sexual assault of a child and sexual assault with no consent using force or a threat.
In May 2011, Leverett pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child and the other three charges were dropped. He was sentenced in August 2011 to probation along with $431 in restitution and more than $6,000 in additional fees.
Further details about the case were not immediately available.
4. Leverett Moved to Connecticut in 2011 – Not Long After His Guilty Plea – & Lived at His Grandparents’ House Near the Crime Scene Before Moving to Windsor Locks
Large amount of crime scene tape along Iron Horse Blvd. as Simsbury Police conduct invest. related to Melissa Millan
Will Leverett lived in Colorado with his mother until moving to Connecticut in 2011, where he lived with his grandparents on Goodrich Road in Simsbury. Goodrich Road is located less than two miles from Iron Horse Boulevard, where Millan was killed. A source told Heavy that Leverett has been working at a grocery store in the Simsbury area for several years. That store, Fresh Market, in Avon, said he had been an assistant manager.
In a statement after Leverett’s arrest, Fresh Market said, “This is a tragic incident and The Fresh Market would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of the victim. We are cooperating fully with authorities on this investigation, but at this time cannot provide further public comment as this is an active investigation. The Fresh Market is committed to providing a safe work and shopping environment for our team members and guests. We are shocked and saddened by this news and our hearts go out to everyone in the community.”
According to the sex offender registry, Leverett has most recently been living in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Simsbury Police said Leverett was arrested on September 23 at his apartment on Seymour Road in Windsor Locks after a warrant was signed charging him with murder.
His mother, Sarah Leverett, a Simsbury native, told the Hartford Courant she didn’t know her son had turned himself in and broke down crying when contacted by the newspaper at her home in Colorado Springs.
Brian Durso, his landlord at the Windsor Locks apartment where he was arrested, told WFSB-TV, “This young man went to the leaders of the church that I had been associated with and he was, and they made a decision after I think a lot of tear and prayer to go to the authorities.”
Durso told WFSB he wasn’t sure why police didn’t hold Leverett in custody after he confessed. “Some of us are asking what is it that prevented them from holding him so that he would be safe and so would everybody else after a confession like that. It’s not like he robbed a bookstore, he knew what he was going to be up against. We are just wondering why it was that he was left alone,” Durso told the news station. “We want everyone to know that our deepest belated condolences to this family who has suffered are first and foremost in our mind. We also want to acknowledge that this young man had to have real moral courage, real moral fiber to realize he’s about to make a decision to spend the rest of his life in jail.”
5. Millan Competed in Triathalons, Was Involved in a Local Children’s Theater & Was Remembered as ‘Extraordinary Human Being’
Melissa Millan.
Melissa Millan, a divorced mother of two, was an avid runner and competed in triathlons, along with being involved in a local children’s theater.
“Melissa was an EXTRAORDINARY human being and touched so many lives in a profound and genuine way. Although her presence will always be missed, her spirit will live on in all the people whose lives she has touched,” Team Training New England said after her death. “Melissa has been a pillar of the TTNE community since she first trained with us in 2006. Regardless of her formidable responsibilities at home and at work, she made every effort to mentor ‘newbie’ triathletes and provide moral and other support to her team members year in and year out, without fail!”
She was also involved in the Connecticut Children’s Theater, which said after her death, “Melissa was kind. She was caring. She was generous. She was witty. She was brilliant. But, most of all, she was a wonderful mother to her two beautiful children.”
Her family issued a statement after Leverett’s arrest.
“The family, friends and coworkers of Melissa Millan are thankful for the outpouring of love and support we’ve received since Melissa’s death in November 2014. Melissa was a loving mother, a devoted daughter, a witty and compassionate sister, a loyal friend, an intelligent, successful businesswoman and mentor to many. The arrest and arraignment of the suspect brings renewed grief, heartache and the knowledge that justice can never be served for the senseless act that robbed us of Melissa’s beautiful presence,” the statement said. “We extend our gratitude to the Simsbury Police Department and other participating law enforcement agencies for all of their work. Now as we confront our individual and collective grief and sorrow, we humbly request respect for our privacy during this difficult and emotional time.”
According to her obituary, Millan graduated from Simsbury High School before attending Middlebury College. She also graduated from Harvard with an executive MBA. She began her career at Sun Life Insurance Company and was a senior vice president for Mass Mutual at the time of her death.
“Melissa Millan was an incredible person and outstanding leader, and we were fortunate to have her as a part of our MassMutual family for more than a decade. We are encouraged to learn that there are developments in her case, and continue to keep Melissa and her family in our thoughts,” MassMutual said in a statement issued to WFSB-TV after the latest developments in the case.
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