Body of Man Accused in Adams Stabbing Found, DA Confirms
SAVOY, Mass. — Police located the body of Jeffrey Cote, who was wanted for a stabbing incident last week, about a half mile from his home on Thursday morning.
District Attorney Timothy Shugrue confirmed that he died by suicide but has not revealed the cause or time of death.
He reported that no weapons were found around Cote and he was believed to have never left the area of his property after the incident.
The body was found by the State Police Special Emergency Response Team and K9 unit around 10 a.m. after nearly continuous searches since June 7, when Cote allegedly broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend and stabbed her numerous times. His body will be transferred to custody of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for a post-mortem examination.
"We had a lot of rain and also I think it affects how we found the body. The weather was cold and rainy, as you know, for the last few days so it made it much more difficult for all these troopers to traverse what is very, very thick terrain," Shugrue said at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
"And he was very familiar with the property in the area around there. He was a woodsman. He was in the woods a lot so we were concerned about that. Again, he was a hunter, so we had no idea where he was going to be. At the same time, we also didn't know if he was armed and dangerous while we were looking through the woods so the officers had to care about their safety as well as trying to search for the individual."
The victim was released from the hospital in stable condition but did not return to her North Summer Street home in Adams, where the incident occurred out of safety concerns.
"As you can imagine, the victim was in fear the defendant was at large. Upon the release from the hospital, a victim advocate then assured the victim was safe. She was placed in an undisclosed location so that the defendant could not locate her," Shugrue said.
"The Berkshire District Attorney's Office takes domestic violence extremely seriously. This case demonstrates exactly why action is required."
He added that this is an "awful tragedy," as a woman almost lost her life and a man is now dead, and that domestic violence is a top priority in the office.
On the morning of the incident, Cote was believed to have fled at a pace of nearly 70 mph from Adams to his Chapel Road home in Savoy and was not been seen since.
Shugrue said Cote raced back home and appeared to have entered the woods because, shortly after, authorities were there searching the property, which is in a "heavily dense area."
Involved in the search were troopers from all over the state and local resources.
"There was one quadrant we hadn't hit yet and that is the quadrant which he was found in today," the district attorney said.
Because Cote was known to have firearms, a "be on look out," or BOLO, was released out of concern for the victim and public safety.
Cote's family and the victim were notified before the information on his death was released by the DA's Office at 2 p.m.
Shugrue also provided some details on the stabbing incident.
At about 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 7, an Adams police officer saw what is now known to be Cote's vehicle in the driveway of the woman's house with the engine and lights on. The assault is believed to have occurred around 5 a.m.
"We know that he kicked the door in, went in there, assaulted her, she was able to escape, went to the neighbor's house, the neighbors called 911, that's when the police responded and found her," Shugrue said.
"And I give the credit to all responders and the Police Department for saving her life. They administered first aid right to her. She had a very bad wound from a clavicle down to her lung area and she had a very bad wound to her neck area. They weren't life-threatening by the time they got her to the hospital, but it was a very scary situation for anybody who was involved."
Shugrue said no one saw Cote since that morning. The area surrounding his home was reportedly quite rural without neighbors in sight.
"It appears to us that he went back to that home. I don't think he ever left that area ever again," he said.
"So I can't tell you when he died but I can tell you that I don't think he left that area. We didn't find any other sightings, any other indicators that he had left that area other than staying in that particular location."
The DA did not comment on whether Cote had a criminal record prior to this and did not provide a motive. The couple had apparently been in a relationship for around 15 years and have no children that Shugrue is aware of.
He explained that the office has a domestic violence unit with specialized advocates who deal with victims and prosecutors who are specifically assigned to these kinds of cases.
A number of the unit's members went to a conference in Atlanta, Ga., in April when they were trained on the nuances of domestic violence.
"Our office is taking it very seriously and we're training. We're doing a lot of training with our advocates and with our ADAs on the issue of domestic violence because it's so prevalent in our community," he said. "This case really highlights why it's such a problem and why we have to address it and make sure that we keep on the forefront and understand that these things happen ...
"It's a reason why we try to force a lot of these cases even when the victims are reluctant to go forward, we try to force these cases to go forward just because we have other victims that person may reach out to and harm. This one was very volatile, it happened real quick. I don't know what set him off, I have no idea at this stage but he obviously was set off and he came flying in and kicked the door down and assaulted her."
Despite Cote's death, the investigation will continue so that the office can understand what occurred and possibly prevent it from happening in the future.
"We have just check into everything at this stage," Shugrue said. "It still is really an active investigation even though there's a death so there's a lot of things that we have to see and learn from it."
This article is a complete write-thru of a the originally posted at 2:30 p.m.
Tags: search, stabbing,
