{"id":6536,"date":"2026-04-23T18:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/?p=6536"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:04:26","slug":"suspect-arrested-in-hotel-umass-murder-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/?p=6536","title":{"rendered":"Suspect arrested in Hotel UMass murder identified"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"w-100\">\n<section class=\"body | w-100\">\n<div class=\"article-body-chain | w-100\">\n<div class=\"action-bar row align-items-stretch mb-3 text-center pt-1\">\n<div class=\"action col col-md-auto d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center\">\n<div class=\"d-flex position-relative\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"action col col-md-auto d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center\">\n<div class=\"d-flex align-items-center\">\n<div class=\"google-icon flex-shrink-0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"c2a ms-2 text-md-start\"><span class=\"d-md-none\">Add Us On Google<\/span><span class=\"d-none d-md-block\">Add as a preferred source on Google<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"article-body\">\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Amherst, MA (WGGB\/WSHM) &#8211; A Wilbraham man has been arrested in connection with the murder of his wife who was found dead inside a room at Hotel UMass Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This according to the Northwestern District Attorney\u2019s Office in combination with court paperwork we\u2019ve obtained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Western Mass News cameras were rolling when Jeffrey MacDonald, from Wilbraham, Massachusetts was arraigned Thursday morning in Eastern Hampshire District Court, in Belchertown on a charge of First-Degree Murder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Along with murder, MacDonald was also charged with Assault and Battery on a Police Officer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf &#8212; and he\u2019s being held without the right to bail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">We\u2019re told MacDonald and his wife are not students on campus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Wednesday night Western Mass News captured video of all the police activity outside Hotel UMass in Amherst. This as students on campus also received a text alerting them an active investigation was underway at the hotel.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-item | figure video | media-item-video pb-3 w-100\" data-video-asset=\"e547010d-6371-48b7-8744-ff01393125c9\">\n<div class=\"figure-wrapper img-wrapper figure-img mb-0 position-relative\">\n<div class=\"goldfish-player\" style=\"aspect-ratio: calc(16\/9);\">\n<div id=\"powa-c0fIzdRHEDeG1mg-e547010d-6371-48b7-8744-ff01393125c9\" class=\"absolute powa\" data-ad-bar=\"false\" data-ads=\"true\" data-api=\"prod\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-autoplay=\"false\" data-env=\"prod\" data-debug=\"false\" data-org=\"gray\" data-ping-rate=\"60\" data-preroll-ad-path=\"63316753\/wshm\/web\/news\" data-sticky=\"false\" data-uuid=\"e547010d-6371-48b7-8744-ff01393125c9\" data-promo-image=\"https%3A%2F%2Fgray-wggb-prod.gtv-cdn.com%2Fresizer%2Fv2%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fdo0bihdskp9dy.cloudfront.net%252F04-23-2026%252Ft_22b9a552194046f7ba5c68568b52e21f_name_file_1280x720_2000_v3_1_.jpg%3Fauth%3Db6ff87cde14663c6f04511ff06bda7903474d9c68789dd0ab47f941ba420818d%26width%3D1920%26height%3D1080%26smart%3Dtrue\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"in-body-element mx-auto ibe-engagement-join-the-convo-teaser\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">At this time the incident remains under active investigation by the UMass Amherst Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney\u2019s Office, and the Massachusetts Crime Scene Services Section.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The official cause of death will be determined by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">MacDonald is being held without bail and is due back in court May 22nd.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"copyright |\"><i>Copyright 2026 Western Mass News (WGGB\/WSHM). All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n<section class=\"recommendations | w-100\">\n<div class=\"taboola-feed | w-100 mb-3\">\n<div id=\"taboola-below-article-thumbnails-new\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Add Us On GoogleAdd as a preferred source on Google Amherst, MA (WGGB\/WSHM) &#8211; A Wilbraham man has been arrested in connection with the murder of his wife who was &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6538,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536\/revisions\/6538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}