Man in killing that led to Vermont DNA law dies

By WILSON RING/Associated Press/December 24, 2013

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) A Vermont man who killed a Stowe woman and remained free for 14 years while the victims parents urged the Legislature to create the DNA database that was used to identify him as their daughters killer, died in prison Tuesday.

Howard Godfrey, 67, of Kirby died in the medical unit of the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, said Vermont Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito. He did not give a cause of death, but said Godfreys death of natural causes was expected.

Godfrey was convicted in 2008 of the sexual assault and killing of Patricia Scoville, 28, and was serving a sentence of life without parole when he died.

Scovilles body was found in a shallow grave at the Moss Glen Falls, a scenic spot outside Stowe village. She had ridden her bicycle there on Oct. 23, 1991. Her body was found several days later. She had been hit in the back of the head and sexually assaulted.

Scovilles death went unsolved for years while her parents, Ann and David Scoville, of Canadaiga, N.Y., lobbied the Vermont Legislature to create a DNA database of people convicted of certain crimes.

David Scoville, reached at his New York home Tuesday, said Godfreys death marks the end of another chapter since the death of his daughter.

We always say there is no such thing as closure other than having Patty back, but this is a closure of sorts, said Scoville, who along with his wife continue to speak in favor of DNA database proposals since the Vermont law led to their daughters killer.

In 2002 the Scovilles received the National Crime Victim Service Award for their efforts. And after Godfreys 2008 sentencing, the Scovilles were honored by state officials for their efforts to enact Vermonts DNA databank. The states DNA laboratory was named in their daughters memory.

Godfrey gave a DNA sample in 2000 after he was convicted of a non-fatal aggravated assault of a woman in 1996 in Morrisville, not far from where Scoville was killed. That sample was not entered into the national database that linked him to Patricia Scovilles killing until 2005. He was arrested several days later.

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Man in killing that led to Vermont DNA law dies