A year after Farmington murders: A sad anniversary for the Sullivans and Pellegrinis

Christine Sullivan, top left, and Jenna Pellegrini, were fatally stabbed a year ago today allegedly by Tim Verrill of Dover, right, At left is Sullivan's longtime boyfriend with whom she shared a drug dealing business, police say. (Courtesy pictures top,

Sometime today Jeff Sullivan and his family will travel to Sandy Hook, N.J., to scatter the ashes of his sister at the beach she loved to visit, to commemorate an anniversary he would love to forget.

It was exactly a year ago today that police say a Dover man fatally stabbed Jeff's sister, Christine Sullivan, and Jenna Pellegrini, her houseguest, inside a Farmington residence owned by Sullivan's longtime boyfriend and convicted drug dealer Dean Smoronk.

"We'll be scattering her ashes where she loved to come," Jeff Sullivan said of his sister earlier this week. At his side will be their mom and his son, who was Christine's Godson.

Timothy Verrill, 35, of Dover, faces first degree murder charges in the Jan. 27, 2017, killing of Sullivan, 48, and Pellegrini, 32, of Barrington.

A possible motive for the killings?

The day before, Verrill told an acquaintance he thought Pellegrini was a drug informant, State Police Detective Brian Strong said at an August bail hearing.

State Police and detectives during an extended search of the 979 Meaderboro Road property in July. (Rochester Voice file photo)

At a second bail hearing in September Strong shed light on Smoronk's vast drug empire, alleged to include ties to drug cartels, gangs, motorcycle clubs and a host of dealers and users both in Farmington and Florida where he owns a home in Cape Coral.

While Smoronk has never been named as a suspect, Jeff Sullivan says his sister's longtime boyfriend is at least partially responsible for her death, leading her into a life of drugs and drug dealing since they met several years ago.

Testimony during the bail hearing indicated that Christine Sullivan was also dealing drugs out of their Farmington home, where police on Jan. 29 discovered the two women's bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting and blankets under a tarp near the house.

At the August bail hearing the grisly details of the two women's deaths emerged when Strong detailed the sequence of events that may have occurred in the victims' final hours.

According to his testimony, Pellegrini needed a place to stay and texted Sullivan around 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 25, and Sullivan agreed to let her stay with her.

Strong said Verrill went to Smoronk's house allegedly to get drugs the next day around 11 p.m., and that a friend of Verrill's told police that when he got to the friend's Farmington home in the wee hours Jan. 27, Verrill said he thought Pellegrini was an informant.
Smoronk told investigators his girlfriend contacted him that Verrill had returned to the house about 2 a.m. Friday, with phone records showing the two were on the phone around that time.

A video recording device installed at the house showed images of Verrill in a flannel shirt and hat with a mesh back. Another camera shows images of Sullivan at 3:34 a.m.
Another video image of Pellegrini was recorded at 6:38 a.m., testimony noted.
An image also shows Verrill leaving the house nine minutes later holding his shoes, Strong said.

Strong said that when Verrill returned to his friend's home later Friday morning, he wasn't wearing either the flannel shirt or hat. Verrill allegedly asked his friend for a pair of pants to change into and had three to four shots of Jameson Irish whiskey.
Receipts and video surveillance show Verrill going to Lowe's and Walmart in Rochester later in the day to buy salt and ammonia cleaner, evidence of which was found at the scene, Strong said.

Verrill was arrested in Lawrence, Mass., about a week after the killings while seeking treatment at a medical facility. He is currently being held without bail at Carroll County Jail.

Autopsies revealed Sullivan had a fractured skull and was stabbed in the neck and lungs, while Pellegrini had been stabbed in the neck, torso and back 43 times.
While the state continues to build its case against Verrill, a case prosecutors characterize as "complex" with thousands of pages of documents and dozens of CDs containing audio recordings and photographs, Smoronk continues to serve a sentence in Virginia for drug possession after a June 11 traffic stop on Interstate 95 there.

Police say the stop yielded a huge cache of drugs. Charges filed included manufacturing and selling steroids, possession of needles, capsules and a pipe; four counts of possession of controlled substances and obstructing justice.

Smoronk ended up pleading guilty to a single count of drug possession in December for which he is expected to serve a year at Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, Va.

However, when he gets out, Smoronk will still face a meth trafficking charge in a South Carolina court in connection with a 2014 case in which he and Christine Sullivan were stopped on I-95 after their car pulled into the lane of a Sumter County deputy and almost sideswiped the cruiser.

During the stop, a K-9 unit was called and suspected methamphetamine was found in Sullivan's purse and a large quantity of suspected methamphetamine was found inside a fake energy drink along with a small amount of marijuana, pills and an unknown white powder inside a black computer bag, according to the report.

A former Sumter County prosecutor said Smoronk could serve up to 10 years in prison if he's found guilty. The current prosecutor did not return phone calls earlier this week.

During one of Verrill's bail hearings this fall, his defense attorney Melissa Davis suggested that Smoronk may have been leery that Sullivan would testify against him on those charges.

And Verrill, who has been incarcerated at jails in Strafford, Merrimack and Carroll counties, reportedly told one inmate "I killed two girls in Farmington, but I'm not taking the blame. Smoronk is," Strong testified.

It was Smoronk who told police he found the bodies of his girlfriend and Pellegrini after returning home late Jan. 28 on a flight from Florida, where he and Sullivan also spent time.

While the state continues building its case against Verrill, it suffered a setback this fall when a New Hampshire's Attorney General's office attempt to seize cash found at his 979 Meaderboro Road home was denied due to a required written forfeiture filing arriving a day late at Strafford County Superior Court.

Meanwhile, the lead prosecutor in the killings, Assistant Attorney General Geoff Ward, said earlier this week he couldn't comment on the case, be the state does recognize "the enormity of the case and the impact on the victims and their families."

For Jeff Sullivan, the heartache and the anger and the pain linger, but what really eats at him the most is the lack of closure.

"I just want the truth to come out and know what happened before and after she was killed," he said, adding he still hasn't been able to recover some of her belongings from the house where she was slain.

Now with what is expected to be a long trial for Verrill set this fall, Jeff Sullivan knows the ordeal is nowhere near over. But he relies on his faith to get him through it.

"I'm a Christian, I've given it up to God," he said. "I want to come to a point of forgiveness, I'll never understand why it happened, but I could say, 'Mr. Verrill, I forgive you' if he would just say why."