ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. -
At a status update Thursday in a St. Johnsbury courtroom a new deadline for a court date was set for Allen Prue and a different date is also possible for Patricia Prue.
Both are being charged in connection with the death of St. Johnsbury Academy teacher almost a year ago.
Allen Prue is charged with first degree murder while Patricia Prue is charged with aggravated murder. Both are charged with unauthorized burial or removal of a dead body.
The Prue's weren't in court Thursday and now some new delays could push back their appearances even longer.
"We're going to ask the court to extend the deadline by ninety days," Allen Prue's attorney Dan Maguire said.
They're being tried separately. In the case of Allen Prue, central to his court date being delayed until October are two key pieces of evidence that still aren't ready.
"I think in a case this complicated you're going to run into a longer timeline," prosecutor Kirk Williams said.
Patricia Prue's court date is also up in the air, because of the evidence. One a hair specimen being analyzed by the FBI and the other a computer evaluation in Vermont. No one's quite sure when either will be completed.
"Unfortunately we just don't have control of when those come back to us," Williams said.
It's still not clear where the cases will be tried but Williams said no matter the venue as time passes jury selection could become easier.
"There tends to be a lot of publicity about it and um sometimes the publicity's accurate sometimes it's not and so the longer you get away from the period of intense the more likely you are probably to get a fair jury," Williams said.
