Ryan Hanafin was arrested in Vermont more than 12 hours after his mother was found dead of a gunshot wound in their Massachusetts home, with police still calling him only a person of interest.
Vermont State Police and local deputies took 22-year-old Ryan Hanafin into custody without incident around 2:30 p.m. ET on Vermont Route 100, south of the Sugarbush Access Road near Warren. The arrest came after a manhunt that followed the discovery of his mother, 49-year-old Andria Hanafin, dead in the kitchen of the family’s Center Avenue home in Reading, Massachusetts.
Fox News reported that Reading police got the call from her husband, 48-year-old Matthew Hanafin, around 12:38 a.m. Thursday. He had returned home and found her body. A 13-year-old child was in the house. The couple also has a daughter.
Police described Ryan Hanafin as a person of interest, not a suspect. He was held without bail and due at Vermont Superior Court in Barre at 12:30 p.m. ET on a fugitive from justice charge. Officials said he was expected to face more charges in Massachusetts.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said Matthew Hanafin told investigators he had not spoken with his older son since Wednesday morning. The younger son had been out with friends until around 9 p.m., went straight to his bedroom, and did not see his mother, according to the DA’s account.
Ryan said there was “no significant history” of police calls to the family home.
Reading Police Chief David J. Clark still warned the public while the search was underway. He said the 22-year-old should be treated as potentially armed and dangerous even though he was labeled only a person of interest.
"By all means, please do not approach him," Clark said. "Please contact 911, the local police department, whatever, if you see the vehicle or come across him. We are urging people to stay safe and not put themselves in danger."
Authorities believed Hanafin was driving a black 2010 Dodge Charger with Massachusetts plate 2PSY15. Police described him as 5 feet 10 inches tall, with shoulder-length straight blonde hair, a mustache, and glasses. Vermont troopers found him after about two hours of looking in an area where he had known ties.
The arrest closed a search that stretched more than 12 hours from the moment Matthew Hanafin found his wife. Troopers and deputies took Ryan Hanafin into custody without incident. He was held without bail pending arraignment on the fugitive charge in Barre.
No motive has been stated. No charging documents tying him directly to the shooting death have been detailed in the available official accounts. Police have not publicly resolved whether a weapon was recovered or what, beyond the public safety warning, supported the armed-and-dangerous caution.
What is clear is the sequence: a mother dead of a gunshot wound in her own kitchen, a child in the home, a father calling police in the middle of the night, and a 22-year-old son located the next afternoon across the state line and locked up without bail.
When a parent is found shot dead and a son becomes the focus of a multi-state search, the public deserves a full accounting, charges that match the evidence, and a system that keeps potentially dangerous people off the street until the facts are sorted in court.
