Ryan Hanafin was arrested without incident in Vermont hours after authorities identified him as a person of interest.
READING, Mass. — A 22-year-old Massachusetts man was taken into custody in Vermont on Thursday after his mother was found fatally shot in the kitchen of their Reading home, authorities said.
Ryan Hanafin had been identified earlier in the day as a person of interest in the death of his mother, 49-year-old Andria Hanafin. Reading police and Middlesex County prosecutors warned that he could be armed and dangerous while authorities searched for him. Vermont State Police later said troopers found Hanafin driving in Warren and arrested him without incident. Officials have not announced a homicide charge against him.
Vermont State Police said Massachusetts authorities contacted them around 12:15 p.m. Thursday and reported that Hanafin might be in Vermont. Troopers from the Berlin Barracks searched the Warren area, where investigators believed he might be found. At about 2:30 p.m., troopers spotted him driving on Vermont Route 100 south of Sugarbush Access Road. Officers, assisted by the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, stopped the vehicle and took him into custody.
Later Thursday, a Vermont court ordered Hanafin held without bail on a fugitive-from-justice charge, according to state police. He was taken to the Northeast Regional Correctional Facility in St. Johnsbury and was scheduled for an arraignment Friday afternoon in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in Barre. The fugitive charge relates to his detention in Vermont while authorities in Massachusetts continue their investigation.
The investigation began shortly after midnight Thursday in Reading, a community north of Boston. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said Andria Hanafin’s husband, Matthew Hanafin, returned from work and called 911 at about 12:38 a.m. after finding his wife in the kitchen of their Center Avenue home. Responding officers found her with an apparent gunshot wound, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities said one of the couple’s other children, a 13-year-old boy, was also at the home but was unharmed. Investigators said the teenager had last seen his mother around 5 p.m. Wednesday before leaving to spend time with friends. When he returned later, he went to his room and did not see her, according to accounts of the district attorney’s briefing. The family also has a child who is away at college.
During a news conference before Hanafin was located, Ryan described the death as an apparent domestic-violence case, though she said it did not fit the situation people typically associate with that term. Reading Police Chief David Clark urged residents not to approach Hanafin if they saw him and asked the public to contact police instead. Authorities also said Hanafin had held a license to carry a firearm and that the license was suspended after the death was discovered.
Police had been searching for a black 2010 Dodge Charger connected to Hanafin after investigators determined that he and the vehicle were missing from the home. Authorities said the car had been seen Wednesday evening on Interstate 93 in the Tewksbury area. By Thursday afternoon, information developed by Massachusetts investigators led Vermont authorities to focus their search around Warren.
After Hanafin was detained, Middlesex County officials said there was no longer a public-safety threat connected to the search. Massachusetts State Police and Reading police continued investigating Andria Hanafin’s death. Authorities had not publicly identified a motive or disclosed what evidence, if any, directly linked Hanafin to the shooting as of Thursday evening.
Hanafin remained in Vermont custody Thursday night as officials prepared for his court appearance. Any additional criminal charges in Massachusetts, extradition proceedings or other court action will depend on decisions by investigators, prosecutors and the courts as the homicide investigation continues.