A former Castleton State College student made regional headlines recently after she and her boyfriend were charged with robbing Citizen’s Bank in Poultney, reportedly to fuel a heroin addiction.

Jill Ludwig, 30, and John Maynard, 30, both of Castleton, were arrested Nov. 2 about 90 minutes after the heist just a few miles from campus at Paul’s Pizza.

Nicole Mallette, a full-time employee at Paul’s Pizza, said that Maynard came into the restaurant and “seemed sort of edgy” and kept asking for a cold drink.

“A girl I work with whose sister was here suddenly said, ‘wow, there are a lot of cops out there,'” said Mallette. “There were at least six out there and a few Stateys.”

The Post-Star reported that the two were charged with three counts of robbery and a count of assault in connection with bank robberies in Poultney, Rutland and West Rutland, Vt.

The article stated that police suspect Ludwig and Maynard also twice robbed a Granville, N.Y. bank in recent days. About $4,600 was stolen in the Granville cases, but more than $10,000 was netted in all of the robberies.

Castleton State College Director of Communications Ennis Duling confirmed that Ludwig attended Castleton from fall 1999 through fall 2000, and again in 2002-2003 studying English Literature.  She did not graduate from Castleton though, he said.

Castleton English professors who worked at the school during the time of Ludwig’s enrollment, said they couldn’t remember her.

“It’s really strange,” said English professor Louis Palmer. “Denny Shramek and I were actually discussing this earlier and neither one of us could remember her,” he said. “And if she was an English Literature concentration, one of us would have definitely had her as a student.”

Additionally, President Dave Wolk, fellow English professor John Gillen and Academic Dean Mark, who all worked at Castleton during this time, could not remember her.

“As far as I’m aware, I never met Jill,” said Mark.

He added that when he heard the news report, he was not even aware that she had been a student here.

For the past year though, Ludwig has been working as a sales representative for a number of weekly papers both in Vermont and New York, according to Mark Brady, General Manager of the Addison Eagle in Middlebury.

Brady said that Ludwig also works at and travels to Middlebury a couple times a week to work as a representative there as well. He said he has worked closely with Ludwig for the past year, and was shocked to learn of the robberies.

“I hired her originally, and worked very closely with her,” said Brady. “We thought she was excellent. We all were very fond of her and liked working with her very much … I can assure you that what she is accused of came as a shock to all of us.”

Brady noted that he and his colleagues noticed no suspicious behavior from her whatsoever.

According to the Burlington Free Press, Ludwig walked into the bank, presented a note to the teller demanding money and left with an undisclosed amount of money. The article noted that after Ludwig left with the money, a local barber said he saw her park, walk from her car through an alley, and return to the vehicle with the bag of money – which was then emitting a purple smoke from an exploded dye-pack placed in the bag by the teller.

The barber then reported the car’s license plate to police, which was found less than two hours later at Paul’s Pizza.

The Post-Star reported that the two are currently being held in Marble Valley Correctional Facility in Rutland, Vt., since their arraignment in Rutland District Court. They will also be charged in New York for the Granville robberies, although no timetable is currently available.