Vermont State Police issued a warrant on Wednesday for the arrest of Randall Swartz on suspicion of second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of his wife, Thea, in their Orleans home on Tuesday night
Swartz, 58, is being treated at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where he was taken on Tuesday night with a gunshot wound. He is reported in stable condition and is expected to survive.
Thea Swartz, 54, was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting. She had phoned 911 just before 9:30 on Tuesday evening, state police said, and told the 911 dispatcher that her husband had been drinking and was pointing a pistol at her.
State troopers were dispatched to the Swartz residence on Irasburg Street. Arriving at the door, police could see a man lying on the floor, apparently unconscious, with a wound to the torso. Later identified as Randall Swartz, he was alive but unresponsive.
They found the body of a woman, later identified as Thea Swartz, on the floor of the same room.
The nature and location of Swartz’s injuries were not determined, police said. Thea Swartz’s body has been transferred to the state medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.
Randall Swartz, a longtime Cabot Creamery Cooperative employee, had been under investigation by state police and the FBI for embezzlement. He was fired from the cooperative in February 2017.
Swartz, who had been the cooperative’s facilities manager, had been using company money to purchase machine parts, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court that was cited in a May 2017 Associated Press report. Swartz used the parts to assemble reverse osmosis systems, which are used in sugaring, the affidavit said. He sold the systems in a side business — including one system he reportedly sold back to Cabot — and also used them in his own sugaring business.
Swartz also was accused of ordering other Cabot employees to work for him on company time, the affidavit said.
The FBI searched Swartz’s Orleans home in March 2017 and seized parts and tools, including stainless steel gauges, clamps and a drilling machine. They also took financial documents, a laptop computer and computer disks. No charges have been filed in the case.
Swartz called his business Kingdom Reverse Osmosis, and on a still-active LinkedIn profile refers to himself as “founder/engineer” of the business, which he said he started in January 2011. “Expertise in Reverse Osmosis system engineering, construction, and implementation,” he says in his profile.
Swartz’s LinkedIn profile also includes his nearly 20-year stint with Cabot Creamery Cooperative, without mentioning the reason for his departure. His job description: “maintain 7/24 hr. operations of a cheese manufacturing operation.”
Before Cabot, Swartz listed himself as facilities manager for another of Vermont’s dairy institutions: Ben & Jerry’s.
Swartz also maintained a Facebook account. His last post, dated Nov. 3, 2017, is a photograph of an unidentified industrial building. “My new job,” is all that is written to accompany the photograph.
Asked in the comment string below where he’s working, he says only that it is in Delhi, New York, “between Albany and Bing on 88.”
He doesn’t respond to the question “What do they produce?” but says only “Thanks, this place keeps me going.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Updated: Police issue warrant for husband in fatal Orleans shooting.