Governor: Woman is 'alleged perpetrator' in 4 slayings

BARRE, Vt. (AP) — The woman charged in the slaying of a Vermont social worker is also "the alleged perpetrator" of the deaths of three relatives whose bodies were found Saturday, Gov. Peter Shumlin said.

The three women found dead at a Berlin home Saturday morning were an aunt and two cousins of 40-year-old Jody Herring, the governor said at a news conference Saturday night after returning from vacation in Nova Scotia upon hearing of the deaths. Herring was arrested on a murder charge in the death of Lara Sobel.

Sobel was gunned down after work Friday outside a state office building in Barre. She handled a case for the state Department for Children and Families in which Herring lost custody of her 9-year-old daughter, authorities said.