Holly MatkinEast Stroudsburg, PA – A multi-state manhunt is underway for a University of Connecticut senior who allegedly murdered two people, brutally assaulted another man, and kidnapped the girlfriends of one of his dead victims, according to police.
Peter Manfredonia, 23, is described as a white male who is 6 feet, 3 inches tall and approximately 240 pounds.
He should be considered armed and dangerous, the Hartford Courant reported.
Manfredonia was last seen near East Stroudsburg just after 6 p.m. on Sunday, according to police.
The alleged murderer’s crime spree began on Friday morning in Willington, Connecticut, after 62-year-old Ted DeMers and a friend he was with spotted Manfredonia walking down the road, DeMers’ wife, Cynthia, told the Hartford Courant.
The men stopped to offer Manfredonia a ride back to the area where Manfredonia had his motorcycle parked.
“It could have been anybody who offered him a ride,” Cynthia said. “It could have been any of my neighbors’ husbands. It just happened to be mine.”
Approximately five minutes after DeMers and Manfredonia left on DeMers’ ATV, a neighbor showed up at Cynthia’s home and frantically told her that there had been some sort of accident on Mirtl Road, the Hartford Courant reported.
Connecticut State Police troopers responded to the scene shortly after 9 a.m. and discovered that DeMers and his unnamed friend had been brutally attacked by someone with a machete or sword, police said.
They immediately began CPR.
Both victims were rushed to a local hospital, where DeMers succumbed to his injuries.
Cynthia said that the second male victim is one of their elderly neighbors, the Hartford Courant reported.
According to police, Manfredonia fled the scene on a red motorcycle and was wearing a helmet that may have been white and red.
Investigators said the alleged killer did not know DeMers or the second victim, and the motive for the grisly attack is unknown, WVIT reported.
On Friday night, Manfredonia allegedly broke into a residence on Turnpike Road in Willington and held the male homeowner captive until early Sunday morning, when he took off with the homeowner’s truck, the Hartford Courant reported.
He also stole food, a pistol, and three shotguns.
Manfredonia allegedly took the man’s stolen truck to Derby, Connecticut, and abandoned the vehicle in the Osborndale State Park area, WVIT reported.
Investigators learned that Manfredonia had an acquaintance in the Derby area, 23-year-old Nicholas Eisele, so they responded to Eisele’s Roosevelt Drive home to see if he knew of Manfredonia’s whereabouts.
But when they arrived, they found Eisele dead inside his home.
Police believe he was killed by Manfredonia.
The suspect proceeded to abduct Eisele’s unnamed girlfriend, and took off in the dead man’s 2016 Black Volkswagen Jetta, the Hartford Courant reported.
Investigators later located the stolen vehicle and the kidnapped woman on Interstate 80 near the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border in Knowlton Township, according to WVIT.
The woman told them that Manfredonia was the man who had abducted her.
Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) released a photo of Manfredonia walking along the train tracks in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon.
He was wearing a white shirt and dark-colored shorts, and was carrying a large duffel bag.
According to University of Connecticut spokesperson Stephanie Reitz, Manfredonia has been attending the university since the fall of 2015, WVIT reported.
He is currently a senior in the School of Engineering/School of Business Management and Engineering for Management program, Reitz said.