Vermont Standard
6/3016
By Katy Savage
Standard Staff
Kathryn Barry Bellis remembers every detail of the night of July 31. She and her husband Jon left Woodbridge, Connecticut at 6 p.m. They took Interstate 91 and Route 4 to Killington. It was a Friday and they were about to spend a weekend at their condo, just like every weekend for the past 13 years. Jon had a 3 p.m. tee time on Saturday. Kathryn had plans to go shopping and run errands.
They stopped at Outback Pizza in Ludlow at 8:30 p.m. and shared the “The Big Okemo” (an everything pizza). They had three Diet Cokes and Kathryn hurried her husband along at 9:40 p.m., like always. Her favorite show, “Blue Bloods,” a CBS drama about a family of police officers, was on at 10 p.m.
Jon gave his wife a hug as they got into the car and he said what he always said on Friday nights: “I love my life. I love my wife. I love Vermont. Are we ready to have a good weekend?”
That was the last time he said those words.
Twenty minutes later Kathryn blinked and everything went black. When she opened her eyes, her husband was dead. She couldn’t see him because she was surrounded by airbags, but she knew.
He was killed when his car slammed into a bull that had escaped from its pen on Route 4 in Killington.
“It was a massive beast, an enormous beast in the front of our car,” Kathryn said.
Her husband was in the driver’s seat.
“He said nothing to me. He did not moan, he did not groan,” she said. “Jon would have put his arm out in front of me, he would have said, ‘Hold on,’ but the bull was on us before we could see it,” she said.
They were about to turn onto the road where their condo is.
Bellis’ steering wheel crushed his chest. Jon died of a massive head injury after an 1,800 pound Scottish Highlander belonging to Craig Mosher went over the top of the car and crushed the sunroof.
“I was trying to get my cell phone out but my hands were shaking so much,” Kathryn said. She waited on the side of the road for help.
“I just remember holding my eyes and crossing my arms across my chest and praying to God.
“I expected at any moment for my legs to be broken,” she said.
She thought her spine would be broken, she waited for a head injury.
“I just waited for my life to end,” she said.
But it didn’t.
The one-year anniversary of that night is approaching.
“It’s only now that the public knows what I’ve known since July 31,” she said.
The information she’s known since last July was released to the public June 3. The police affidavit said Mosher was made aware of the loose bull before the accident on July 31 when a milk truck driver pulled into his driveway and woke him up by blowing the truck’s air horn. State Police Trooper Robert Rider wrote that a milk truck driver slammed on his brakes, leaving skid marks on the road, to avoid hitting the Scottish Highlander named Rob the night of July 31. The driver alerted Mosher and called state police just before 10 p.m., just as Jon was likely hugging his wife one last time. Mosher told police he went looking for the bull near a spruce tree. Mosher didn’t see the animal and assumed it was behind his shop. He went back inside and fell asleep, the affidavit said.
“I would like people to consider the facts. That’s what I’ve been forced to face as well as my family, my neighbors, my community,” Kathryn said. “All of us would like there to be accountability for Jon’s untimely death.”
Mosher is being charged with manslaughter. He did not make a “reasonable effort to locate the loose bull when he was advised it was out of its pasture,” the police document said.
The case has made national headlines. Farmers rallied around Mosher at a hearing June 6. Locals showed up in support. Some who knew him didn’t believe the police report. They said that Mosher was not negligent like that.
“I wouldn’t venture any judgment until I heard his side of the story because it certainly doesn’t sound like him. It seemed unbelievable,” Killington resident Vito Rasenas said.
The Vermont Farm Bureau is standing behind Mosher. Farmers are concerned about the consequences of their animals escaping.
But, Rutland County State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy has stood by her decisions, saying she’s interested in protecting the public safety.
Mosher’s attorney did not return a phone message.
To Kathryn this was no accident. It was a tragedy that should have been prevented.
Her attorney Jerry O’Neill, a lawyer with the Burlington firm Gravel and Shea, is asking the public to look at the number of times Mosher’s animals have escaped.
“He made the choice not to restrain his animals and that is, from our perspective, what the case is about,” said O’Neill, a horse owner.
Mosher’s’ two bulls doesn’t make him a farmer, he said.
“These are pets. These aren’t farm animals, “he said.
This case, Kathryn and her lawyer have said, isn’t the same as hitting a moose or other wildlife.
“This is entirely preventable. This is a domestic animal on the road,” O’Neill said.
Kathryn’s life has been destroyed, she said.
Kathryn, 61, met her husband in high school.
“Jon was my best friend, “said Kathryn. They have a daughter who’s 26 and a son who’s 30.
Jon and Kathryn were together, always.
“I haven’t made one single life adult decision without him by my side,” Kathryn said.
They’d been coming to Killington almost every weekend for the past 13 years. They played golf in the summer and skied in the winter. Then went back home to work. Jon worked in the outpatient psychology department at Yale. Kathryn has a medical device company.
“My husband and I found Killington to be a place for rest and relaxation,” said Kathryn.
She still comes every other weekend, driving days now instead of nights. She continues to attend the Church of Our Savior in Killington on Sundays.
“I find my own peace up there,” she said.
While her husband’s death has ignited conversation about animal rights, Kathryn is distributing copies of the police affidavit. That night has been all she’s thought about.
“While this criminal indictment has been noteworthy. It has been my life since July 31,” she said. “He chose to go to bed,” she said. “A responsible man would not do that.”
Monday, Jul. 11 State vs. Mosher, Craig at 3:00 PM in Room 2 363-4-16 Rdcr/Criminal Status Conference Plaintiff, State (Rosemary M. Kennedy) Defendant, Craig Mosher (Paul S. Volk)
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