*Updated 9/18/2025 10:00 PM
Plainfield/Thompson, CT — A 44-year-old Plainfield man was arrested this morning for allegedly disposing of Alicia Balderston’s body on Lowell Davis Rd, Thompson, back in 2023. Balderston was reported missing in October 2023 after not being heard from since March 2023. Her remains weren’t located until law enforcement was prompted to conduct canine searches of the woods along Lowell Davis Road on October 17th and November 8th, 2024.
According to the Connecticut State Police, at approximately 10:50 AM on Thursday, September 18, 2025, Vendetta Robinson, who resides at a Plainfield motel, was arrested and released on a $20,000 non-surety bond. Robinson is already awaiting trial on nearly a dozen drug and motor vehicle charges. The arrest warrant, based on his voluntary statement to police, now charges him with the following offenses:
- Illegal Removal of a Body (C.G.S. 7-69)
- Illegal Disposal of a Body (C.G.S. 7-64)
- Tampering with Evidence (C.G.S. 53a-155(a)(1))
*The affidavit submitted in support of the arrest warrant detailed how Robinson, during a voluntary interview in a Mashantucket Pequot Reservation hotel room, explained that he met a girl named Alicia, whose last name began with a “B,” in January or February 2023. He said Alicia was in a “hard spot,” describing her homelessness and crack use, but emphasized that she did not use fentanyl. Robinson stated that he hired her to package large quantities of drugs into smaller street quantities for sale. He would rent rooms at various hotels for this purpose.
After three or four months of knowing Alicia (around April to May), Robinson rented a room at the Elite Inn, 66 East Main Street, Plainfield, where Alicia stayed. There, she would package the drugs and either sell them herself or provide them to Robinson to sell. According to Robinson, she regularly packaged fentanyl, crack, cocaine, and marijuana, with a primary focus on fentanyl. Plainfield Police determined Robinson rented rooms at the Elite Inn from 1/23/23–1/30/23, 3/17/23–3/24/23, and 4/21/23.
On an unknown date, Robinson said he returned to the Elite Inn after being away for several days and found the door barricaded from the inside with a “Brink’s bar,” a device they commonly used while staying in hotel rooms. After forcing entry, he discovered Alicia dead on the floor, noting signs that she had been deceased for some time. He reported that the room contained a large quantity of drugs Alicia had been in the process of packaging. Robinson said he placed her body into a laundry bag, wrapped her belongings in a sheet, and moved them into his truck. He then broke her phone and threw the pieces into several dumpsters before driving north on I-395. Taking an exit “somewhere near the Massachusetts border,” he found a secluded road and left Alicia’s body propped against a rock in the woods, stating he “believed animals in the woods would help in getting rid of the body.”
On October 17, 2024, skeletal remains were discovered by the Connecticut State Police Canine Unit near a rock approximately 100 feet off Lowell Davis Road in Thompson. Only part of the skeleton was recovered, prompting a secondary search on November 8, 2024, which revealed additional remains showing signs of animal damage. Both sets of remains were tested against the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database maintained by the FBI containing profiles of missing persons, convicted felons, and forensic samples from crime scenes. DNA testing confirmed the remains matched Alicia Balderston, based on a prior sample collected by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement during a previous felony conviction.
*The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and toxicology testing on the remains. According to the affidavit, the autopsy report listed the cause of death as “Undetermined.” Toxicology results showed the tissue tested positive for ibuprofen, theophylline, delta-9 THC, fentanyl, and norfentanyl — despite Robinson’s statement that Alicia did not use fentanyl.
Read our previous article on this investigation here.