Vermont Police are continuing their hunt for the gunman who killed retired academic Honoree Fleming on a hiking trail in the sleepy rural town of Castleton. 

The 77-year-old was found shot dead on October 5, her 45th wedding anniversary, on the Castleton trail which cuts through Vermont State University, where she used to serve as dean.

Now her devoted husband, Pulitzer-prize winner Ron Powers, has said his wife ‘went for a walk in the meadow and America came out and killed her.’

Powers, 81, believes Fleming’s killer may have been mentally unwell and certainly should not have been armed. 

‘One of the ways I’m trying to survive this is to drive home the point that we need to change the way we as a society deal with guns and mental illness. Because, right now, we don’t deal with them’ Fleming told the Boston Globe. 

Fleming’s grieving husband has urged media outlets not to describe Fleming as ‘the wife of Pulitzer prizewinner Ron Powers,’ as this overlooks her significant achievements in academia

Honoree’s body was discovered on a rail trail about a mile south from the university campus. Police combed the area, interviewing witnesses – who described seeing a 5’10” male with red hair heading towards campus

Vermont State Police released a sketch of a ‘person of interest’ with a clean-shaven face and short, spiky hair who had been seen on the trail around the time of the murder

‘This is a woman who suffered so many reversals, but she never gave up, she never gave in,’ Ron Powers told the outlet.

‘She never let life defeat her until life armed itself.’

Powers wrote a book about the plight of those suffering with their mental health in America: No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America.

The couple had two sons, one of whom killed himself after years of suffering with schizophrenia. 

‘She would have tried to help this guy recover from whatever it is that ailed him,’ he said. 

‘Honoree didn’t have an ounce of naivete in her. She knew the evil that was out there. But she had this serenity. Despite everything, all the violations, all the losses, I think she kind of believed in the world.’

Tammy Arruda, a hairstylist and close friend of the Powers family, is among the many local residents who have spoken to investigators.

‘It had to be random,’ Arruda said. ‘Honoree didn’t have a mean bone in her body. She was so unassuming. 

Honoree Fleming, 77, was an accomplished researcher with a long career in academia, teaching at four schools and even serving as the dean at Vermont State University

Fleming and her husband, Ron Powers, 81, settled in Vermont with their two sons before she began her decades-long career in academia

Powers is a successful journalist and non-fiction writer who has received both a Pulitzer Prize and an Emmy Award – but he demands others recognize the accomplishments of his late wife

Fleming fought sexism throughout her career, Powers said, describing her as a ‘visionary’ who was denied tenure at Middlebury College after seven years of teaching

Powers fondly recalled his wife’s dedication to her scientific craft, even completing lab work at the kitchen table in their Carleton home

Fleming’s 40 years of bio research supports the theory of amitosis in cancerous cells and has important implications for our understanding of how the cells divide

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‘You would never have known how brilliant and accomplished she was.’

There were no witnesses to the shooting, which Powers said police suspect was random but have not ruled out that Fleming was targeted. 

Major Dan Trudeau, chief of the State Police criminal division, said investigators are prepared to spend as long as it takes to identify the suspect.

‘This type of case is going to be probably a blend of old-fashioned detective work,’ Trudeau said, ‘along with new age technology-based detective work.’

Police are combing through hundreds of tips that have been called in to a hot line and have released a sketch of a person of interest. 

The sketch depicts a clean-shaven man with short, spiky hair and light eyes. 

Detectives have also been interviewing people who live near the Delaware & Hudson Rail Trail or were in the area between 3pm and 5pm Thursday.

One witness reported seeing a man walking northbound on the trail toward campus after gunshots sounded.

Powers and Fleming met on a flight in 1976. They later married and had children – but both the boys were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and their youngest died by suicide in 2005

The couple’s surviving son, Dean, warmly recalled hearing his mother laugh and described her as someone who ‘wore the cares of the world on her sleeve’

In a touching message posted to Facebook, Powers wrote of his late wife: ‘She has taken far more than half my own heart and soul with her’

He was described as a 5’10” male with short red hair, wearing a dark gray T-shirt and carrying a black backpack.

On Facebook, Powers revealed how the first people to come upon Honoree’s body were a middle-aged husband and wife.

‘The woman ran for help,’ he wrote. ‘The man stayed with Honoree. She was clearly dead, but he stayed with her anyway. He knelt beside her and, I gather, tried to communicate to her that she was not alone.’

He vowed to meet the couple along with his son Dean and ‘say our thanks.’

Powers is a decorated writer whose 2000 book Flags of Our Father was adapted into a movie produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Clint Eastwood.

He also won a Pulitzer for his writing in 1973, becoming the first television critic to do so. This was followed by an Emmy in 1985.

Before arriving at Vermont State University, Fleming was a faculty member at the now-defunct Trinity College in Burlington, Vermont; Middlebury College; and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

In addition to her role as a dean and professor, Fleming was a passionate scientist who authored many papers.

Her 40-year investigation into cell growth and movement had implications for understanding the way cancer cells divide.

Every paper she submitted to peer-reviewed journals was published, according to her husband.