Vanessa Marcotte Update: Jogger's Killing Leaves Princeton Police Clueless As Residents Live In Fear After Massachusetts Attack

It has been a little more than a month since the killing of Massachusetts jogger Vanessa Marcotte, who was reported missing after she failed to come home following an afternoon run on Aug. 7. The Google employee who lived in New York City was visiting her mother in Princeton, Massachusetts, when she was murdered. Although investigators have received more than 1,000 tips in the case, they still do not have a lead, Fox News reported Thursday.

The small town home to about 1,200 families is not used to violent crimes and the 27-year-old’s murder sent residents into a panic. Since the fatal attack, residents have brought attack dogs and many runners travel in groups with pepper spray, or no longer run at all, local news outlet the Telegram & Gazette reported Monday.

Maureen Lynch, the administrative assistant to the police chief, said the department has seen a “slight increase” in firearms permit requests since the murder. One man who lives near the location where Marcotte was killed said he carries his legal firearm while doing yard work. “It’s just so folks can see that people are armed there,” Kevin Laughlin said.

On the day of the young woman’s slaying, Laughlin drove eight hours to be with his family and contacted police for advice. They told him to “use an abundance of caution.” He, like many others in the town, questioned precisely what that meant. Police have said detectives are still investigating the case but failed to address how concerned residents should be about their safety since a suspect hasn’t been arrested.

Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole told Fox News that the lack of answers from authorities was not unusual. "What they are trying to do, particularly at this stage, is not give away information that the suspect can get ahold of," she explained.