Police say Winthrop man killed, buried his friend in 2010

NORFOLK — A 37-year-old Winthrop man allegedly shot a 21-year-old friend during the last week of August or the first week of September 2010 and buried his body at 281 Grantville Road, according to paperwork filed Wednesday night in Norfolk Town Court.

Dustin J. Trimm, 325 County Route 49, was charged with second-degree murder Wednesday following a lengthy investigation into the disappearance of Jason M. Wing 17 months ago.

Trimm was arraigned by Town Justice Donald G. Lustyik and sent to St. Lawrence County jail, Canton, without bail. He is scheduled to return to Norfolk Town Court on Monday for a preliminary hearing.

St. Lawrence County District Attorney Nicole M. Duvé said the case was presented to a grand jury Thursday. Any action taken by the grand jury remains sealed until it is unsealed in court.

Maj. Richard C. Smith Jr. of the state police said the human remains his team is finding are likely those of Mr. Wing, but this has not been confirmed by forensic investigators. He also said his team likely will find the murder weapon, a gun, near the remains.

Maj. Smith would not say what led the investigation to Grantville Road, but said several interviews were conducted.

Neither Maj. Smith nor Ms. Duvé would comment on whether there were any witnesses to the alleged shooting, nor would they speculate on a motive.

State police investigators are expected to stay at 281 Grantville Road — working with an excavator behind a camp in a wooded area to try to locate more of the remains — at least until the weekend, Maj. Smith said.

Roxanne Stratton, Mr. Wing’s mother, drove by the scene Thursday morning. Ms. Stratton said she thinks her son is buried at the site. “I just hope justice will be served,” she said.

She said she will have no relief until Trimm is convicted.

Mr. Wing, Fort Covington, has been missing since August 2010.

State troopers said in December 2010 that Mr. Wing was last seen in the Hopkinton area, but that he may have contacted family members by cellphone in late October 2010.

This past March, Mr. Wing’s family members told a Vermont television news reporter that the last time he was seen was at Franklin County jail, Malone, where he was visiting his girlfriend, Tiffany Barrick, who was incarcerated.

Ms. Barrick told the reporter that Mr. Wing was acting strangely before he left the jail with Trimm, heading to the suspect’s Fort Jackson home.

Ms. Stratton said Thursday that Trimm was a friend of her son’s, but that she long has believed he was responsible for his disappearance.

Trimm has a long rap sheet, including a 1997 felony conviction for sodomizing a 15-year-old boy. He is listed as a Level 2 sex offender in the state registry.

Trimm, the former owner of Triple X Adult Super Store in Fort Jackson, was convicted of impaired driving in 2002 and was charged with felony driving while intoxicated in May 2010.

Nearly four years before his disappearance, in July 2006, Mr. Wing was featured in a Times article about the demolition derby at the Norwood Fourth of July celebration.

Mr. Wing had entered a car that was spray-painted with the words “Crazy Kid” on the side and dedicated to his grandfather, Truman Swinyer, who at the time was in the hospital with throat cancer.

Johnson Newspapers writers Brian Hayden and Matthew Bultman contributed to this report.