Springfield woman fatally stabbed

A Springfield woman died Monday after police said she was stabbed in the neck and back by a man she was romantically involved with.

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Arnaldo Cruz

Police investigating fatal stabbing
Police are investigating a fatal stabbing that took place at a residence just down the road from Union Street School on Monday.


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Springfield woman fatally stabbed Rutland Herald | March 21, 2017 By SUSAN SMALLHEER STAFF WRITER Springfield Police Sgt. Jeremy Fitzgibbons searches with a metal detector in front of a house near the scene of a woman’s stabbing death. PHOTO BY ERIC FRANCIS Springfield Police Sgt. Jeremy Fitzgibbons searches with a metal detector in front of a house near the scene of a woman’s stabbing death. PHOTO BY ERIC FRANCIS SPRINGFIELD — A Springfield woman died Monday after police said she was stabbed in the neck and back by a man she was romantically involved with. Police Chief Douglas Johnson said Betty Rodriguez, 58, was pronounced dead at nearby Springfield Hospital, where an emergency crew had taken her after the 1:45 p.m. stabbing. Emergency workers were unable to revive her, he said. The suspect in the stabbing, Arnaldo Cruz, 54, also of Springfield, was arrested without incident shortly afterward, while he was laying face down on Union Street, about 150 feet away from the apartment building where the stabbing took place, the chief said. He said that Rodriguez and Cruz were involved in a “boyfriend-girlfriend type” relationship. Police cordoned off 25 Union St., a run- down, greenish- gray, 2 ½ – story apartment house, and could be seen waiting outside the apartment on a debris-stuffed porch for search warrants to continue their investigation. Other police officers, including Vermont State Police troopers, could be seen using metal detectors to scan snow-covered yards nearby in the search for a weapon. Highway crews pulled the covers off street drains to assist police in their search. Johnston briefed reporters at the Springfield Police Department at about 6:30 p.m., about five hours after the stabbing, and said while the assailant had been arrested, no weapon had been located. The police chief said Cruz would be arraigned today in White River Junction criminal court on unspecified homicide charges. He said the exact charges would be up to State’s Attorney David Cahill. He said the charges would also depend on the details turned up by the investigation. He said the case did not involve any element of self-defense. He said that Rodriguez lived in an apartment on Summer Street. Johnston said an altercation broke out between Rodriguez and Cruz in an apartment occupied by Rodriguez’ sister. He said Grace Bentley and her family had recently moved to 25 Union St. after being evicted from an apartment at the head of the Square, at the intersection of Main and Valley streets. Bentley is married to Victor Cruz, who was arrested in April 2016 on heroin and cocaine trafficking charges while the couple lived at the corner of Main and Valley. The police chief didn’t know if the two Cruzes were related, nor would he say if there were witnesses to the attack on Rodriguez. The stabbing and uncertainty surrounding Arnaldo Cruz’ whereabouts prompted police to ask the nearby Union Street School, one of Springfield’s two elementary schools, to “shelter in place,” according to Principal Nancy Wiese. The school pulled the shades and went about normal business, but its 291 students in grades 3-5 received adult escorts when they were in the halls. All outside doors to the school are locked in that situation, Wiese said. “Shelter in place” is less restrictive than another protective order or “lockdown,” she said, when children are locked inside their classrooms and told to remain quiet. The principal said the police lifted the shelter-in-place request after about 20 minutes. Because Union Street was blocked by the police investigation, the principal said local students who lived nearby were walked home by teachers and other adults, while the others took their regular bus home. Johnston said police were regularly called to 25 Union St., but he didn’t know if they had been at the residence as recently as Sunday night, as neighbors said. One neighbor, who asked not to be named out of fear of reprisals, said some of the tenants at 25 Union St. had just moved in — after they lost their home at 47 Union St., a dilapidated building that Springfield school district voters approved for purchase and demolition. The building is currently boarded up, awaiting demolition. “Some of the bad apples just changed barrels,” the neighbor said. The house that sits between the stabbing scene and Union Street School was also the scene of a major drug arrest last November. Frank and Danielle Garceau were arrested and charged with heroin trafficking, and were released on bail. The violence brought Select Board Chairman Kristi Morris to the Union Street neighborhood Monday afternoon. The Park & Union Neighborhood Association has been working to counter the drug and other illegal activity in the area. “This is a setback from whatwe’retryingto accomplish,” said Morris, who came to talk to police after he got out of work. “I think everybody knows the issues in town haven’t gone away.” Morris said he was waiting to talk to the police chief before saying definitively that drugs played a role in the fatal stabbing. Two earlier drug-related shootings in downtown Springfield had galvanized the town to take strong action against drug-related crime. “We know we still have a lot of work to do,” Morris said. “Weknowit hasn’t gone away.”