GILL — Police have expanded the search for a man who has ties to Franklin County and is wanted in connection with a Plymouth homicide .
Police continued to search Monday for 24-year-old Tyler Hagmaier, who’s suspected of killing 76-year-old Quincy College professor Vibeke Rasmussen.
Hagmaier’s vehicle was found abandoned near the French King Bridge on Friday, and police are still wondering if the man jumped from the 140-foot bridge into the Connecticut River or left his car behind as a decoy as he fled on foot.
Gill Police Chief David Hastings told The Recorder that the search was expanded slightly on Monday based on calls police received throughout the day. Hastings said he’s learned that Hagmaier grew up in Montague and still has family members that live there.
“There are some cabins along the river that we checked today,” he said, adding the department has received calls from friends of Hagmaier from when he lived in the area, giving police potential locations where he could be.
“We’ll check any type of lead that anybody calls in,” Hastings said. “I talked to the Montague chief (Monday) morning and he indicated that the Turners Fire Department was going to be going out on the river daily for at least the week to ensure that if he is out there, we come across him.”
On a Facebook page attributed to Hagmaier, Hagmaier wrote he had attended Plymouth South High School and a photo from 2012 shows him spreading ashes at Laurel Lake in the Erving State Forest.
“My dad and I use (sic) to go there all the time when I was younger,” Hagmaier commented on the photo.
Hagmaier is suspected of stabbing Rasmussen more than 30 times in her Plymouth apartment Thursday. Helives in the apartment across from Rasmussen’s, and authorities say he has a history of mental illness.
Gill Sgt. Christopher Redmond discovered Hagmaier’s vehicle at roughly 9:14 p.m. on Friday. Police in the county had been told to be on the lookout for the suspect, who was believed to be in Franklin County.
Hastings said Redmond ran the vehicle’s license plate number and learned it belonged to Hagmaier. The Northfield Dive/Rescue Team searched the water Friday night and teams from Greenfield and Montague resumed the river search over the weekend, along with the Massachusetts State Police Dive Team and a police helicopter.
The bridge has been the site of dozens of suicides over the years.
“We’ve wanted cameras in that area for quite some time. This is just another example of why they’re needed,” Hastings said. “The resources that we spent in the river are quite extensive, when a simple solution may very well just be cameras.”
Hastings said residents in the area should continue doing what they do every day — locking their doors and windows when they’re not home and keeping lights on during the evening.
Attempts to contact the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office, which is handling the case, were unsuccessful.
Reporters Domenic Poli
and Lisa Spear
contributed to this story.
You can reach Aviva Luttrell at: aluttrell@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 268
On Twitter, @AvivaLuttrell