Jeremiah James Guyette, who killed himself in October 2019 in a Rosendale residence, has been linked to the 1994 murder of Wilomeana “Violet” Filkins of Rensselaer County.

According to the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s office, on August 19, 1994, the 81-year-old Filkins was found dead in her Coventry Lane apartment. She was reportedly bludgeoned to death in the living room; her niece Carol and brother Sterling were the ones to find her body.

“Over the course of my career every time there was a changeover in our Detective bureau there was a promise made from one detective to another to never stop investigating this case in order to find justice for Violet and her family,” said East Greenbush Police Chief Elaine Rudzinski.

New York State Police and the East Greenbush Police Department spent the next couple of decades chasing leads and gathering new evidence, and resubmitting DNA to the state crime lab.

Then several years after the murder, a tip came in from an old girlfriend of Guyette’s, who recalled comments he had made about robbing and hitting an old woman. “The ex-girlfriend that came forward really had never thought about the statements that Jeremiah had made to her,” East Greenbush Detective Sergeant Michael Guadagnino told reporters. “She was watching cold case homicides on Netflix, saw that and it sprung her attention. She started Googling different stuff and saw that Jeremiah had lived in East Greenbush during the time of Violet’s murder, put two and two together and once we got that tip, we were able to basically dissect Jeremiah’s life, the different places he lived and then run with that information.”

After receiving that tip, police tried to interview Guyette, who reportedly refused and told them he wanted a lawyer. That same day, according to Guadagnino, after refusing to talk to police, Guyette then called a family member and mentioned someone dying in relation to a crime and that he didn’t want to go to prison. The family member made arrangements for Guyette to consult a lawyer, but the next day, he was found dead.

On October 2, 2019, at around 9 a.m., Rosendale Police Officer Robert Fischer was called to Ann Lane in Rosendale to investigate the firing of a gun in the neighborhood. Fischer then reported Guyette’s body in a car in the garage at 7 Ann Lane. He was 43 at the time of his death, making him 18 at the time of Filkins’ murder.

Law enforcement officers later cordoned off the Rosendale house and state police declared the location a crime site and commenced an investigation. At the time they did not reveal that Guyette had been contacted by police the day before about the Filkins’ murder.

The house was owned by a woman with two young children. Neighbors told the Shawangunk Journal at the time that after the woman left the house to drive the kids to school, Guyette drove his car, which was usually parked outside, into the garage and killed himself. The woman reportedly found the body upon her return to the house.

After his death, police collected DNA and fingerprint samples from Guyette’s body and submitted them to be compared against the original evidence found at the scene of Filkins’ murder, including an unknown fingerprint that had been found on Filkins’ coffee table, Guadagnino told reporters. However, COVID had put a strain on the state’s crime lab and delayed any findings until recently. But according to Guadagnino, the fingerprint found at the 1994 crime scene ultimately matched Guyette’s left thumb, allowing the police to formally identify Guyette as the suspect in Filkins’ murder.

“The thumbprint was the final bow on the case,” Guadagnino said. “We really only had hearsay information before that. Once we were able to resubmit evidence and resubmit that piece of the table with the thumbprint, investigators from State Police did an amazing job and they didn’t use the computers they used their eyes and were able to link that thumb print to Jeremiah’s left thumb.”

“Each and every lead counts when investigating crime,” said Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly. “No matter how small the detail, it could be useful in an investigation. In this, all of those leads brought us to Jeremiah Guyette.”

In a press conference, Filkins’ niece Carol expressed gratitude to everyone involved in the investigation. "We're all very thankful it has been resolved," she said.

The cold case of the murder of Wilomeana “Violet” Filkins is now closed.