In the quiet town of Woodbury, Vermont, the night of October 30, 2018, was shattered by the glow of two houses burning on Bliss Road. Inside one of the homes, firefighters discovered the body of 48-year-old David Thompson, a White male. An autopsy would later reveal a grim truth: Thompson had not perished in the fire but had died from multiple gunshot wounds. His death was officially ruled a homicide. In an adjacent home, also set ablaze, the body of 29-year-old Carol Fradette was found.
Investigators determined she had been killed by a combination of blunt force trauma and a gunshot wound. The fires, police concluded, were intentionally set to hide the double murder. The brutal scene also included the discovery of Thompson's two dogs, who had also been shot to death.
The investigation into the deaths of David Thompson and Carol Fradette stretched on for years, a joint effort between the Vermont State Police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Their attention eventually focused on Manuel Gomez, a 32-year-old man from Hartford, Connecticut. Investigators uncovered that Gomez had been supplying Thompson with large quantities of heroin and that Thompson allegedly owed him a significant sum of money, possibly more than $20,000. Digital evidence played a crucial role, showing that Gomez had traveled from his home in Connecticut to Thompson's Woodbury residence on the evening of the murders, arriving shortly before a neighbor reported the fires.
In November 2021, three years after the killings, an arrest warrant was issued for Manuel Gomez on charges of aggravated murder and first-degree arson. He was taken into custody upon his release from a federal prison in New York where he was serving time on an unrelated firearm charge. Initially, Gomez pleaded not guilty to the charges. However, in September 2024, he entered a no-contest plea to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson as part of a plea agreement. The agreement resulted in a sentence of 20 years to life in prison, bringing a measure of resolution to the violent end of David Thompson's life.
