Burlington, Vermont - March 22, 2005

Gerald Montgomery was born in New York City in 1972, but has lived in Vermont at least since 1994. During that time he landed on the state's sex offender registry.

On Isham street in June of 1996 is where Gerald Montgomery was convicted of Lewd and Lascivious conduct, a charge reduced from sexual assault on an eighteen-year old woman in a garage. Later he was convicted of failing to register for Vermont's sex offender registry. He's was also implicated in but not convicted of a rape on Peru Street.

But who is Montgomery? Police are still piecing together his background. Channel 3 has learned of a connection with the Champlain school in Burlington. Jonathan Cayole is a parent who recognized Montgomery from a video he took of his daughter at a Parks and Recreation program at the school in February.

"This is some footage of my daughter's basketball game. I saw footage of Montgomery on television and I knew that I recognized him from somewhere. So I played this video and sure enough, it was him," says Cayole.

At a news conference, police and women's advocates grappled with the question of whether the rape and murder that Montgomery is charged with were random. Did he know her or not?

"The message that we heard from the police, that at that point in the investigation they didn't have reason to believe that the general community of women was at risk. And at this point we don't have any reason to question that that wasn't a good judgement. We're interested in hearing more, of course, as we all are as to the details of what happened," says Celia Cuddy of Women Helping Battered Women.

Lawyer and women's advocate Sandy Baird says it appears that the rape-murder was random.

"It's very scary to know the kind of violence and violent feelings that there are out there about women, and this is just kind of in general. It doesn't appear that this was anything personal, this this was in general that this man wanted to probably really hurt somebody. And that's what's scary for all the women of this community," says Sandy Baird, a women's advocate.

As police learn more about Montgomery, there will be more questions such as why he was allowed to coach children with his record as a sex offender.

"Yeah, there's a little bit of concern as a parent. I just don't understand how he would be hired to be a role model for children. So I would question the hiring process at Burlington Parks and Recreation," says Cayole.

Burlington Parks Director Wayne Gross says the city does not currently require background checks for volunteers so city officials did not know about Montgomery's criminal past. Gross says in the wake of this discovery, the department will change it's policy and hopes to have a screening program in place by the fall.

Andy Potter - Channel 3 News