Connecticut man charged with murdering Duxbury woman is an

A prosecutor said Cole Werhan, the man charged with murdering a Duxbury, Massachusetts woman inside a Connecticut home, has several open domestic violence cases.

Police say Werhan killed 26-year-old Janina Brooke Murphy inside the Burlington, Connecticut home where she was living. Murphy was found at the bottom of a staircase on March 29, but no charges were filed until Tuesday.

Werhan was arraigned Wednesday in Torrington Superior Court in Connecticut. The judge accepted the prosecution’s request to continue holding Werhan on $5 million bond.

Murphy and Werhan were dating, the woman’s mother said. Beth Murphy told WBZ-TV that a detective said her daughter had wounds “all over her” and police were investigating her death as suspicious.

“It’s just been the worst time of my life as you can imagine,” Beth Murphy said. “He killed my baby.”

In court Wednesday, the prosecutor said Werhan is an “extreme danger to the community.”

Werhan currently has four domestic violence cases with different victims in each, the prosecutor said.

On June 3, Werhan was arrested in one of those cases. He was able to post the $750,000 bail and was released with an electronic monitoring device. Werhan has not been convicted of any crimes.

One of the alleged victims told police in an interview that he hit her, strangler her, and threatened to kill her multiple times.

His defense attorney argued that the $5 million bond was “simply not affordable,” and asked instead for $1 million bond. The judge sided with the prosecution.

In arguing for lower bond, Werhan’s attorney argued that he has always appeared in court for each of his cases and should not be considered a flight risk.

Werhan is next due to appear in court on June 30.

Lindsay Bolduc was a close friend of Murphy’s. Bolduc said Werhan and Murphy met playing video games online, and later moved in together.

“Crazy to think about the pit in my stomach I had. I just knew something was wrong,” Bolduc said.

Bolduc said she doesn’t only want people to remember Murphy as a victim.

“I just want people to remember that Brooke was a person, you know? She was so much more than this. She wasn’t just a victim,” she said.