Local leaders call out NYS after Edward Kindt breaks parole in Salamanca

SALAMANCA, N.Y. (WIVB) -- A light blue home two houses down on West Avenue in Salamanca is where Cattaraugus County sheriffs detained Edward Kindt around 1:40 a.m. on Wednesday. Officials told WIVB News 4 that Kindt willingly surrendered.

Kindt, now 41 years old, pleaded guilty 25 years ago to raping and killing wife and mother Penny Brown in Salamanca in 1999 at the age of 15. He was released from prison last year and sent to supervised housing in Dutchess County.

“Our entire criminal bureau was called out,” said Eric Butler, the Cattaraugus County undersheriff. “Our special response team was put on standby because we didn’t know what we were gonna run into with this guy.” 

He was found Wednesday morning in what was his childhood home on West Avenue in Salamanca. According to officials, it’s just around the corner from where the Brown family lived.

“About 10:40 p.m. I got a call from the sheriff who was notified just prior to that and he was in custody at 1:40 a.m., so it was literally three hours or less,” Butler said.

Sheriff's deputies, Salamanca Police and agents from the Department Of Corrections were on hand. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said Kindt didn’t report to his parole officer on Tuesday. Local authorities believe he may have been in town for almost a week before anyone knew. 

“We don’t know if he was here last Thursday or he showed up here Saturday, but he’s been here for a significant amount of time,” Butler said. 

Both New York State Senator George Borrello and Assemblyman Joseph Giglio said the state failed to notify the sheriff's office that he was missing for six days. 

“They did not contact local law enforcement,” Borrello said. “They did not contact Seneca Nations of Indians to let them know, who banned him from ever coming back.”

“This is a breakdown in the system and it is a breakdown in parole, and the fact that again they did not make an immediate call to where he came from to let them know that he was dangerous and out there, there’s no excuse,” Giglio said.

Butler said Kindt was wearing a GPS monitoring device when they found him. He also said they had suspicion he was in the area as of this weekend, but we’re never notified by DOCCS until Tuesday night.

“We were surprised to find it," Butler said. "That the find that device was still intact in fact, but it went dead, and that didn’t happen overnight, certainly not three hours.”

On Wednesday, the Cattaraugus County Legislature adopted a resolution to revoke Kindt's release and called on Governor Kathy Hochul to investigate this failure and remove parole board leaders.

“It is both appalling and outrageous that this murder was not appropriately supervised for six days outside of his geographical jurisdiction, subjecting Cattaraugus County families and the broader community to extreme risk,” said Andrew Burr, chairman of the Cattaraugus County Legislature.

Butler told News 4 the state has taken over the investigation into the incident, telling him it's “ongoing” when he pushed for answers of when exactly Kindt left Dutchess County.

“The genie was already out of the bottle and I think state was trying to put it back in before anyone found out,” Butler said.

“And let the investigation start tomorrow for the New York State Community Supervision and the other failed bureaucracies that let this animal loose in our community,” Burr said.

Butler said Kindt was transferred Wednesday from the Cattaraugus County Jail to the Dutchess County Jail, and will be there until the parole violation process concludes.