WALLINGFORD — The man police have been investigating in the disappearance of his then-12-year-old daughter was sentenced to six years in prison on gun charges stemming from the fallout of a police interview in February.

Mark Vincent, 65, was sentenced last week to six years in prison suspended after three years served after pleading guilty to charges of criminal possession of a firearm. He also faces a fine of $5,000.

Vincent was arrested on Feb. 16 in the parking lot of a Milford church to which he had fled after police traveled to where he was living in Vermont in late January to question him about the 1988 disappearance of his daughter Doreen Vincent from their Whirlwind Hill Road home in Wallingford. Her body has never been found.

At the time Mark Vincent told police Doreen had run away. But he had not notified police his daughter was missing — it was reported when Doreen Vincent's mother came to pick her up and Mark Vincent told her the girl had run away.

Mark Vincent was living in Johnson, Vermont and working at Teen Challenge, a Christian substance abuse recovery program, when police paid a visit Jan. 26 to discuss the girl's disappearance with both Vincent and his son, who also lived and worked at the recovery center. The questioning was prompted by an interview police did with Vincent's ex-wife during the summer of 2021.

Mark Vincent “provided inconsistent and vague accounts of the events surrounding Doreen’s disappearance and did not provide any information to advance the investigation,” according to the warrant. 

Mark Vincent's son Paul Vincent told police he doesn't know what happened to his sister, but "he knows that Mark knows and he believes he will never disclose the truth,” the warrant said. 

On Feb. 10, Paul Vincent contacted Wallingford police to report that his father had fled Vermont and had taken Paul Vincent's Ruger LCP .380 handgun. Paul Vincent told police that his father believed police would soon be making an arrest in his daughter's disappearance and had been giving away his possessions, and that he was headed to the home of the pastor of Milford Christian Church at 989 New Haven Ave.

On Feb. 16 police located Mark Vincent in the church's parking lot. In his possession were the gun and 100 rounds of ammunition, as well as rubber gloves, according to the warrant. 

Vincent was initially charged with theft of a firearm and two counts of criminal possession of a firearm but in a plea agreement he pled guilty to one count of criminal possession, with the other counts dropped. His attorney, Michael S. Boynton, of the Milford firm Lynch, Trembecki and Boynton, couldn't be reached for comment for this story but had previously said the case was likely to end with a plea deal.

Two years ago Wallingford police reclassified Doreen Vincent's disappearance as a homicide and were said to have identified a suspect in the case.

kramunni@record-journal.com