Police have identified the woman accused of holding up banks in Cromwell, East Hartford, Vernon, Wallingford and Wethersfield as 27-year-old Jennifer Labbe, who was recently released from prison and escaped custody.
Cromwell police said during a news conference Monday afternoon that DNA evidence has linked Labbe to the crimes. She was released from the York Correctional Institution in Niantic on Jan. 20 and disappeared days later from a Hartford residential facility.
Labbe, a convicted felon, was imprisoned for committing a home invasion and is wanted by Connecticut State Police for escaping custody, according to the Cromwell Police Department.
She is held responsible for nearly half a dozen robberies in the capitol region since Feb. 6 and is believed to be working alone. Cromwell police said Labbe has never shown a weapon but implied to bank tellers that she was carrying a gun.
Police have described Labbe as transient and said she's known to frequent Waterbury, Thomaston and Hartford.
The Mid-State Detective Squad is investigating, and the Connecticut Bankers Reward Association is offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to her arrest.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to call Cromwell police at 860-635-2256.
