By Layla Burke Hastings and Jordan J. Phelan
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
ROCKINGHAM, Vt. — After a lengthy investigation, Vermont authorities have announced an arrest in the November 2019 fatal shooting of a delivery truck driver along Route 103 in Rockingham.
“It was a Herculean effort in many ways and we’re happy to arrive at this stage,” said Johns Congdon, Vermont Deputy State’s Attorney.
An arrest warrant for second-degree murder was issued on Tuesday for 49-year-old Dr. Joszef Piri of Naples, Florida, who is charged in the death of 44-year-old Roberto Fonseca-Rivera of Boston.
On Thursday, deputies with the Collier County Sheriff’s Department assisted the Vermont State Police in arresting Piri on a murder charge.
Rivera was found dead on Nov. 1, 2019, behind the wheel of the Katsiroubas Produce delivery truck he had been driving along Route 103 in Rockingham.
Piri and Fonseca-Rivera did not know each other, according to a report from the Vermont State Police.
Investigators said Piri was driving his 2018 Toyota Tundra from a property he owned in Londonderry to his home in Connecticut in close proximity to Fonseca-Rivera’s delivery truck the day of the fatal shooting.
Review of GPS data, surveillance footage, and photographs by detectives determined that Piri was driving immediately in front of Fonseca-Rivera’s delivery truck just before the shooting happened.
The Vermont State Police Major Crime Unit worked closely with the Windham State’s Attorney’s Office through the entirety of the investigation. Also participating in the case were Vermont State Police’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations, Crime Scene Search Team, Technology Investigation Unit, and Victim Services Unit; the Vermont Forensic Laboratory; the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office; the Boston Police Department; the Massachusetts State Police; the Connecticut State Police; the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Piri’s arraignment in Vermont is pending his extradition from Florida and has yet to be scheduled.
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