In the quiet town of Belvidere, Vermont, the life of Mark P. Benjamin, a 42-year-old Caucasian male, was cut short on a Wednesday afternoon, September 21, 2022. The tragic events unfolded at a seasonal camp on Bog Road, a property belonging to his mother. Mark, who was known to be a kind and generous man, was at the camp with his husband when they encountered Michael Chadwick, a 61-year-old from Brownington.
Chadwick had been in a long-term relationship with Mark's mother, a relationship
that had recently come to an end. During the encounter at the camp around 2:10 p.m., Chadwick fired a handgun, striking Mark in the neck. Despite his grave injury, Mark was able to get into a vehicle driven by his husband, who immediately called 911 and sped away from the scene to seek help. They managed to reach a residence just south of the intersection of Bog Road and Vermont Route 109 before stopping. It was there that emergency medical responders pronounced Mark P. Benjamin dead at 2:40 p.m.
Following the shooting, state troopers responded to the camp on Bog Road to find that Michael Chadwick had barricaded himself inside. A tense standoff ensued for approximately two hours. Crisis negotiators were successful in persuading Chadwick to surrender peacefully. He was taken into custody and subsequently arrested in the early hours of the following Thursday on a charge of second-degree murder.
An autopsy later confirmed that the cause of Mark P. Benjamin's death was a gunshot wound to the neck, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide. Michael Chadwick was arraigned in Hyde Park, where he pleaded not guilty to the charge of second-degree murder and was ordered to be jailed without bail.
