A city of Albany employee has been charged with killing his former roommate and another woman within two years of each other.
The Albany County district attorney's office says 29-year-old Edward Mero has been arraigned on two counts each of second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. Authorities say he killed Megan Cunningham in Albany in January 2013 and Shelby Countermine in December 2014. Mero and Cunningham were sharing a house in Albany when Cunningham's remains were found inside after a fire. In May 2015, Countermine's remains were found in a shallow grave outside Albany. Speaking Monday on Time Warner Cable News, Coeymans Police Chief PJ McKenna says Mero was identified as a person of interest shortly thereafter.
"The investigators looked into his [Mero's] background," McKenna said. "And it turned out that just by doing a Google search you'd find that he was listed as having been in a residence which was a place where a person was found dead as a result of a fire. So that requires more investigation. As a result of that, we reached out to Albany [Police]. State Police reached out to Albany [Police] and they were conducting their investigation and we were conducting ours. But, when a person's name comes up twice we're always going to reach out for interagency cooperation and try and find out what connections they have, what investigations they have about anyone for any case."
Mero is being held in the county jail. His attorney says he pleaded not guilty.
