GUILTY VT - Ligia 'Gia' Collins, 26, Burlington, 5 July 2004

On July 4, 2004, around midnight, Ligia Collins, Gia to her friends, disappeared from her Burlington apartment. Ramon Ryans, according to several press reports at the time, was still living with Collins and was the person who first reported her missing. Burlington police immediately launched an investigation into Collins’ disappearance.

On July 12, they attempted to apprehend a 52-year old man named Moses Robar who, while being pursued in his vehicle by officers, pulled over and shot himself in the head. Two days later, Robar died in the hospital and Ligia Collins was found murdered in the Green Mountain National Forest in Lincoln Gap, Vt.

Click to expand...

Ellen Ducharme sat expressionless during her sentencing this afternoon. She pled guilty to the second degree murder of Ligia Collins in 2004, and had asked the judge for a lenient sentence because of her troubled childhood and her drug and alcohol addiction. But the judge didn't buy it, and gave Ducharme the stiffest sentence he could.

"I think for the protection of the community I have to impose the lengthiest sentence I can from the plea agreement. That's the bottom line. So the sentence of the court is a minimum of no less than 25 years and a maximum of life," said Judge Michael Kupersmith.

Click to expand...