Dover man gets 35 years in 2018 strangulation deaths of his father, wife

Jeramie Colella (Dover Police photo)

CONCORD - A Dover man was sentenced on Tuesday to 35 years in state prison in the 2018 killing of his wife and father.

On Aug. 20, 2018, Jeramie Colella, 47, approached a Dover Police Officer and confessed to killing his wife and father at his home at 18 Tideview Drive. Police responded to the home and discovered Joanna and Francis deceased in in a hallway closet, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement.

An autopsy later determined that Joanna Colella, 43, and Francis "Frank" Colella, 69, both died as a result of strangulation.

Frank Colella Jr. was from Smyrna, Ga., and was visiting his son at the time of his death, according to his obituary

Jeramie Colella was arrested and indicted for first and second-degree murder for causing Francis' death, and second-degree murder for causing Joanna's death. As part of a negotiated resolution, he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to a concurrent term of 35 years to life in the New Hampshire State Prison.