Double-murder retrial begins next month with prosecution down two witnesses

From left, Christine Sullivan, Timoth Verrill, Jenna Pellegrini (Sullivan, Pellegrini/courtesy; Verrill/police mugshot)

DOVER - More than seven years after he was arrested in the murder of two women in Farmington, a former Dover man accused in their deaths will be tried again next month after his first trial in 2019 ended in a mistrial.
Timothy Verrill, 41, formerly of Belknap Street in Dover, was arrested in the women's deaths on Feb. 6, 2017, in Lawrence, Mass.
He is charged in the killings of Christine Sullivan, 48, who split her time between southwest Florida and Farmington; and Jenna Pellegrini, 32, of Barrington, who were both found dead of multiple stab wounds, according to a coroner's report, with Sullivan also sustaining at least one blunt force trauma to the head.
When Farmington Police arrived at the Meaderboro Road home owned by convicted drug dealer Dean Smoronk in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2017, they found the bodies of the two women under a tarp beneath outdoor stairs that led to a second-floor deck.
Smoronk, who made the call to police that night after returning from Florida to check on Sullivan, did so after seeing blood splatter at the residence, he said.
It was later determined that the women died two days earlier, on Jan. 27, 2017.

Before Smoronk called police he admitted to reviewing surveillance footage from his home security system, which is now part of voluminous evidence files that numbers in the tens of thousands of listed items.
The five-week trial is set to begin on March 19 with a full week of jury selection prior to its start.
Meanwhile, the prosecution filed an affidavit on Wednesday indicating they are unable to contact a key witness, Vanessa Mango, who was a girlfriend of Smoronk at the time of the women's deaths.
Mango testified at the first trial that she dated Smoronk from 2014-2018 during when he was still in a relationship with Sullivan, and that he spent "about 90 percent" of his time in Florida at his Cape Coral condominium.
She testified that in the weeks and months leading up to the killings, Smoronk had grown increasingly frustrated with Sullivan's activities at his home, including increased outsiders visiting her as well as a home business she ran selling items online that he felt cluttered up the house.
Mango, of Fort Myers, Fla., said she got a message from Smoronk soon after he returned home - but before authorities discovered the bodies - that said, "It's very sad. A double homicide of two unsuspecting women."
Meanwhile, Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley filed an affidavit with the court on Wednesday saying he was unable to make contact with Mango and that she had moved from Florida to Ohio and was not returning phone calls or emails.
Hinckley enlisted the help of Florida and Ohio law agencies to try to locate her but they were unsuccessful. In the affidavit Hinckley said she had previously shown she had no interest in returning to New Hampshire and being part of the trial.
Mango was a key witness for the prosecution because she placed Smoronk in Florida at the time of the deaths of Sullivan and Pellegrini.
During the first trial the defense painted Smoronk as an alternative suspect in the killings.
The prosecution lost another witness when Steven Clough died in a motorcycle accident in Arizona last August.
Verrill's defense team argues that Clough's previous testimony should not be allowed as they won't be able to cross-examine him. That issue is not yet settled, according to court documents.

The investigation into the slayings involves numerous witnesses at the house around the time of the murders, some of whom are suspected to have been involved in drug operations headed by Smoronk and Sullivan.
Smoronk has never been mentioned as a suspect by prosecutors. He was listed as both a prosecution and defense witness in the 2019 trial.
He pleaded guilty to trafficking meth in September 2019 and was sentenced to 42 months by the U.S. District Court for the state of New Hampshire.
Smoronk was released from a Residential Re-entry Management center in Philadelphia around Jan. 9, 2021.
Verrill remains held at the Carroll County House of Corrections. He faces life in prison without parole if found guilty. He has been incarcerated since Feb. 6, 2017, when he was arrested as a fugitive from justice in Massachusetts.