Boston Globe

June 3, 2004

Police Say Husband Confesses in Slaying

New England in Brief / Hyde Park, VT.

The husband of a Johnson woman missing since last week has confessed to killing her, police said last night. Earlier in the day investigators discovered the body of a woman but officials said they could not positively identify it as that of Jodie Whitney. At a late- afternoon news conference held to announce the discovery of the body, Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux described Edgar Whitney as a suspect in the disappearance of his wife. Edgar Whitney tried to kill himself by overdosing on pills yesterday morning, said Marcoux. Marcoux said investigators were still looking for links between the cases of two other missing women from the region. Marcoux and a State Police detective were still planning to meet Friday with New Hampshire detectives to look for links between the cases. In February Maura Murray, a University of Massachusetts student, disappeared after a minor car accident in Haverhill, N.H., about 75 miles from Johnson. In March, Brianna Maitland of Sheldon disappeared after leaving her job in Montgomery.