Connecticut Man Charged with Murder After Girlfriend Found Dead at Bottom of Stairs, Separate Domestic Violence Cases Already Pending

Cole Theodore Werhan, 28, of Burlington, Connecticut, was arrested Tuesday on a murder charge connected to the death of Janina Brooke Murphy, 26, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, according to Connecticut State Police.

Murphy, who went by Brooke, was found in March at the bottom of a staircase inside the Burlington home where she had been living with Werhan. State police initially called the death suspicious. This week, the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner officially ruled it a homicide, determining Murphy died from blunt force injury to the head.

Murphy's mother, Beth Murphy, told WBZ-TV that a detective called the family and said, "Your daughter didn't just fall down the stairs. She had wounds all over her." Beth Murphy described her daughter as a kind, artistic woman with "a heart of gold." She told WBZ-TV the homicide ruling confirmed what the family had suspected but dreaded. "It's confirmed, it wasn't an accident. So that part, really, that's tough."

Murphy would have turned 27 on June 17, according to Fox News Digital.

Court records reviewed by Fox News Digital show Werhan was already facing pending domestic violence charges in a separate case out of Torrington Superior Court. Those charges predated Murphy's death.

In that case, a woman told Connecticut State Police she met Werhan on the dating app Hinge. She described their initial communication as appearing normal before he began "love bombing" her, a term for an escalating pattern of excessive attention used to establish control.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, during their first in-person meeting at Werhan's Burlington home, he was drinking and physically assaulted her. She alleged that between May and August 2025, Werhan slapped her, pulled her hair, screamed in her face, held her down, and during one incident ran up behind her as she tried to leave, grabbed her, threw her back into the house, and held her down. In another alleged incident, she told police Werhan strangled her with his hands around her neck while he was on top of her, squeezing until she could not breathe. She said she did not lose consciousness but had bruising on her neck for about a week. She also told police Werhan threatened her and said he wanted to kill her.

The woman told investigators she eventually left because she believed that if she went back to him, "she would end up dead."

Werhan was charged in that case with second-degree strangulation or suffocation, second-degree threatening, and disorderly conduct.

State judicial records also show Werhan had another pending case involving alleged domestic violence-related charges from November 2025, including breach of peace, third-degree assault, disorderly conduct, unlawful restraint, and threatening. That case listed a $75,000 bond.

These are allegations documented in warrant affidavits. No conviction in those separate cases has been reported in available sources.

A man with multiple active domestic violence cases — including allegations of strangulation and repeated assault — was not detained, and a second woman is now dead.

Advocates for domestic violence survivors have long argued that pending charges, especially those involving strangulation, which research consistently identifies as a strong predictor of lethal escalation, should trigger detention or at minimum strict supervision.

Supporters of due process make a legitimate counter-argument: an arrest is not a conviction, defendants retain a presumption of innocence, and pretrial detention based solely on pending charges raises serious constitutional concerns. Courts weigh flight risk and danger to the community against liberty interests, and those decisions are made case by case. That framework exists for real reasons.

Both things can be true. The system has principled reasons for how it operates. And a 26-year-old woman is dead while active domestic violence cases involving the same man were already moving through the courts.

Dating Apps and Risk

At least one of the alleged victims met Werhan through a dating app — Hinge. Fox News Digital's reporting includes commentary from tech personality Kurt Knutsson about dating app safety. The relevant point is narrower: the escalation pattern the second victim described — normal initial contact, then rapid shift to control and violence — matches documented warning signs that domestic violence researchers have associated with dangerous partners regardless of how they meet.

No federal or state investigation into Hinge or any other dating platform has been announced in connection with this case.

Werhan is now being held on a $5 million cash bond in the murder case and was arraigned Wednesday in Torrington Superior Court, according to WBZ-TV. Prosecutors called Werhan an "extreme danger to the community," according to CBS News.

Connecticut State Police said the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Murphy's death remains active. The separate domestic violence cases out of Torrington Superior Court remain pending, according to court records reviewed by Fox News Digital.

The unresolved question is whether Connecticut courts will consolidate the cases or proceed separately, and how the prior alleged conduct will factor into the murder prosecution. Connecticut prosecutors will also face scrutiny over whether the pending domestic violence cases should have resulted in Werhan's detention before Murphy died — a question that no official has publicly answered as of this writing.