CONNECTICUT/MARYLAND — After six days on the run following the slaying of a Willington man Friday and the killing of a 23-year-old man in Derby Sunday morning, Peter Manfredonia was arrested Wednesday night in the Maryland city of Hagerstown, about 10 miles south of the Pennsylvania border.
According to Maryland State Police, an inter-agency law enforcement team took him into custody when he walked from a nearby wooded area in the parking lot of a travel center shortly after 9 p.m.
He is being held in Maryland as a fugitive, pending extradition proceedings from Connecticut. At a virtual bond hearing Thursday afternoon, Manfredonia waived extradition.
Lt. Michael Pendleton, commanding officer of the Connecticut State Police Central District, said Manfredonia may be returned to Connecticut as early as next week. He did not comment on potential charges.
Since about noon Wednesday, Maryland state troopers assigned to the Maryland State Apprehension Team U.S. Marshal’s Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force had been in the Hagerstown area, following up on information from the U.S. Marshals Service indicating Manfredonia may have been in that region.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Pendleton said a group of investigators was being provided an update at the travel center when a detective noticed a large man about 20 feet away, walking along a woodline. Law enforcement officers drew their weapons and ordered the man, later identified as Manfredonia, to get on the ground.
“He immediately did what he was told, he did not resist and no force was used to execute the arrest,” Pendleton said.
A weapon was located about 200 yards from the scene of Manfredonia’s arrest, contained inside a black bag. The suspect walked authorities to the bag, Pendleton said.
The commander said at the time of his arrest, Manfredonia “was not agitated” and he “followed all directions.”
The arrest team included members of the Maryland State Police, Connecticut State Police, U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, police said.
Manfredonia, 23, is a 2015 Newtown High School graduate and a senior at the University of Connecticut. He has been sought by police since Friday morning, when 62-year-old Theodore DeMers of Willington was killed by an “edged weapon” near his home. Another man, whose name has not been publicly released, was injured during the attack, and state police have reported he is in stable condition.
At some point over Memorial Day weekend, a home invasion in the Turnpike Road area of Willington took place, with a suspect identified as Manfredonia stealing the homeowner’s vehicle and several firearms. On Sunday morning, a high school classmate of Manfredonia, Nicholas Eisele, 23, would found shot to death in his home in Derby. Eisele’s girlfriend was abducted from the scene and driven away in her Volkswagen Jetta; police found the woman and the car abandoned on Interstate 80 in New Jersey, near the Pennsylvania border, police said.
Pennsylvania State Police reported Manfredonia was dropped off by a rideshare service at the Walmart in East Stroudsburg, and he was last spotted carrying a large dark duffel bag walking on railroad tracks behind the store.
Various sightings of the suspect were reported Wednesday, and a man resembling Manfredonia was seen at a Sheetz convenience store in southern Pennsylvania. He then took an Uber to Hagerstown, according to authorities.
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