WALLINGFORD – The man being investigated into the 1988 disappearance of his daughter from her Whirlwind Hill Road home is due in court early next month for her February arrest on weapons charges.
Doreen, Mark Vincent’s then 12-year-old daughter, disappeared from her Whirlwind Hill Road home on June 15, 1988. Although the case was reclassified as a homicide, her body was not found. Mark Vincent has not been charged with her disappearance.
Wallingford police arrested Vincent on February 17 in the parking lot of a church in Milford after receiving a tip that he was there with a stolen weapon. Police allege he was found with a Ruger LCP .380 handgun and more than 100 bullets. He was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a firearm and theft of a firearm and has since been held on $250,000 bail.
The arrest came days after police questioned him again about his daughter’s disappearance.
He is then due to appear in Milford Superior Court on September 6. He has not pleaded guilty and is not expected to do so in court, according to his attorney, Michael S. Boynton of Milford Lynch, Trembecki and Boynton.
The charges of criminal possession of a firearm stem from the fact that Vincent is a criminal who is not authorized to be in possession of a firearm. He was convicted of theft and burglary in 1974 and 1984 and was rearrested in 1989 when police, investigating Doreen’s disappearance, found a gun hidden in the wall of his mother’s Bethal home.
Vincent’s most recent case is now in the discovery phase – when information is gathered about him and the circumstances surrounding the arrest, Boynton said. Boynton could not predict how long it would be before Vincent goes to court, but said the case could end without a trial if a plea bargain is reached.
“Most cases are resolved without going to trial,” he said.
On Jan. 23, police went to tell Vincent about his daughter’s disappearance at Teen Challenge, a Christian addiction recovery program in Johnson, Vermont, where he worked and where he and his son Paul lived.
He “provided inconsistent and vague accounts of the events surrounding Doreen’s disappearance and provided no information to advance the investigation,” according to the warrant that led to his arrest.
After the visit, Mark Vincent acted differently and began giving away his belongings, his son Paul told police. On Feb. 10, Paul Vincent notified police that his father had left Vermont after stealing his gun, according to the warrant. He told police he believed his father knew what happened to Doreen and feared his arrest in the case was imminent, according to the warrant.
Paul Vincent later told police his father called him and told him he was heading to the Milford Christian Church at 989 New Haven Ave., where police found him on February 17.
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