Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / Helle Crafts - The Woodchipper Murder - Part 1

Transcript

Helle Crafts - The Woodchipper Murder - Part 1 · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: In November of 1986, a 39-year-old flight attendant named Hella
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Crafts returned home to Newton, Connecticut during a very powerful snowstorm,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and then seemingly vanished without a trace. Her husband claimed
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: that she left him, maybe going to Denmark or the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Canary Islands. But as investigators began to look closer, they
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: discovered a newly purchased freezer that had disappeared and blood
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: inside the family home. along with a receipt, for a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: commercial wood chipper that was rented just days before Hela
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: was last seen. What they would eventually uncover would turn
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: her disappearance into one of the most extraordinary murder investigations
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: in American history, and it would inspire an iconic Hollywood
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: cult classic film. This is the story of the murder
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of Hela Crafts. My name's Ben.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: A true crime podcast.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Warning.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: The following podcast contains graphic content and material intended for
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: a mature audience. Listener discretion is advised. Today's a pretty
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: big day for a lot of parents. At least I
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: know here in Canada, it's the first day back to school.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I saw a school bus drive by.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: There we go. So to all those parents who are
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: out there finally feeling relieved from all the stress of
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: having your children at home while you're working and juggling everything,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you know what? Kudos to you for making it through.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: They're back at school.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: A lot of parents I've talked to though, they say
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: it's like they want that, but then it's also bittersweet
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: because the summer, like you create some pretty cool memories, right?
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: For sure. So I get it.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah. There's a flip side to everything, isn't there?
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Which is why I think it's great that it doesn't
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: last forever. You know, it's like get a good stint
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: of good memories and getting annoyed. And then you can
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: go back to being a little bit less stressed of
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: having to handle with hormonal teenagers and screaming children, you know?
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: And you know, I was going to do some sort
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of cool transition to Patreon today, but I'm just not,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not feeling it. My brain's not thinking of a
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: cool one to do. So I'm just going to jump
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: in and thank some cool Patreon people. How's that sound?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Hey, that sounds good to me.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: So shout out to Jen Bug, Rena Bright, Kathy, Deanna,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: and Jay, who are all new patrons over on Patreon.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: They signed up. They're getting that exclusive behind the scenes
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and all that good good that comes along with it.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: The good good. I feel like that should be our
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: damn slogan for Patreon.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: The good good. We don't have that in any of
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: our descriptions, but I might have to put it in.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: We've been saying that for a long time, but I
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: do also have to say I think that there's some
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: negativity around good good recently. If you're in the golf world. Oh, shit.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: There's a YouTube channel called Good Good Golf, and there's
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: some controversy around them because they put out an ad
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: with Callaway Golf, and they– they body checked a woman
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: and they, hence potential abuse. Yeah. It just was in
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: bad taste. Let's put it that way.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: So yeah, they, they didn't make the right decision there
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: with that ad.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: No, it was definitely not the best call.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: They didn't read the room.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So when I say good, good, I just want
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: to clarify. It's not, it has, it has nothing to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: do with them. I said good, good before that.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, we did. We very much so did.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: But I think all in all, I think we should
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: just jump right into the case. This is a very,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: very famous story. This has inspired a Hollywood movie, a
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Hollywood movie you have probably seen, you've at least heard
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: of or heard people quote or talk about, even if
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: you haven't seen the film itself. I'm not going to
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: tell you what the film is until we're done this case, though,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: because I don't want you already drawing conclusions and, you know,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: having the story in your head before you hear it.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Because I was just going to ask. But I have
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: a feeling I may know, but I'm not certain. But anyway, yeah,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: we'll talk about it at the end.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Well, if you may, okay.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: No, no, because I could be so wrong and then
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: it's kind of like weird, you know?
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. But I will say, if
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you know, you do know. I will say that. But
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: without further ado, I guess let's just jump into the story.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's, oh my gosh, let's do it.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: By November, Newton, Connecticut, USA. had already settled into its
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: long transition between autumn and winter. Most of the brilliant
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: fall colors that New England was known for had disappeared.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: The maples and oaks had shed their leaves, leaving bare
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: branches stretching over narrow roads and old stone walls. What
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: was left gathered in wet brown piles along lawns and driveways,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: breaking down beneath the wet rain and weeks of cold.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: The air smelled of damp earth, fallen leaves, and wood
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: smoke drifting from chimneys as temperatures dropped after sunset. Newton
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: was still a relatively quiet place in the 1980s. Beyond
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: its small commercial areas, roads wound through woods, farmland, and
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: residential neighborhoods, where houses could sit well back from the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: pavement for privacy. At night, once traffic thinned, much of
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the town became genuinely dark. And this was still an
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: era before that darkness could be filled by the glow
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: of technology and phone screens. There was no internet in
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the average home. No GPS showing exactly where someone had gone.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: No text messages arriving throughout the day. No location sharing
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and no security cameras mounted over seemingly every doorway. And
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: if you wanted to reach someone who wasn't home, you
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: called their landline and you hoped that they answered. But
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: if they didn't, you'd try it again later. Now by mid-November,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Thanksgiving was quickly approaching. Grocery stores were filling with turkeys
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: and everything that went with them. Furnaces were running again
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and firewood was being stacked. Heavy coats were hung by
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the door on the hook. And people were beginning to
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: think that the first real snowfall of the season was
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: on its way. And then on November 18th, 1968, that
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: weather changed. A winter storm moved into Connecticut, bringing heavy,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: wet snow with it. Roads became dangerous to travel. Tree
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: limbs sagged beneath the weight. And as branches came down,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: so did power lines. Homes that had been warm and
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: brightly lit only hours earlier suddenly went dark. Without electricity,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: TVs went silent. Lamps went black. While outside, the wind
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: howled and snow smothered the landscape. By nightfall, Newton looked
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: very different than it had that morning. Bare trees stood
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: against a dark November sky, snow-blanketed rooftops and roads. The
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: houses disappeared into the dark, blending into the surrounded woodland.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: And their occupants hoped for the power to come back
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: on at any moment. But somewhere beneath all that fresh
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: snow and darkness, Newton was about to become the setting
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: for one of the most memorable murder investigations in American history.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: And it starts with Hella. Helle Lork Nielsen was born
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: on July 7, 1947, in Charlton, Denmark, a coastal community
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: just north of Copenhagen. She grew up as an only
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: child and was remembered as bright, outgoing, and eager to learn.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Languages came especially naturally to her. In fact, by the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: time that she was just a young woman, she knew several,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: including English and French, and was also familiar with German
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and other Scandinavian languages as well. And that ability suited
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the life Hela seemed determined to build for herself. See,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: after finishing school in Denmark, she left home to continue
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: her education in England. Then she later moved to France,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: where she worked as an au pair, which is kind
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: of a live-in nanny. It was the beginning of a
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: pattern that would define much of her adult life. Hela
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: wanted to see the world rather than remain in one place. Now, eventually,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: she found work as a flight attendant with Capital Airways.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: The job gave her exactly what she'd been looking for. Travel, independence,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: and regular exposure to different countries and cultures. From there,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: she set her sights on the Pan American World Airways,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: one of the best-known international airlines of the era. The
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: competition was intense for the job she was applying, though.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Roughly 200 women applied for this job. But thankfully, Hella
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: was one of only eight applicants who was selected.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: That's really impressive. It is. I mean, it's also surprising
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: that many people applied for it. Holy heck.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, I can imagine it's a sought after position
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: going traveling the world.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I guess. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she wanted to be adventurous.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: So I guess it's kind of like an adventurous soul.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Wants that job.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Not to mention that I'm pretty sure traveling in the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: air on airplanes in the 80s was a little bit
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: more luxurious than it is today. You know, with commercialism
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: and cramming as many people as they can in today
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and spending less money.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: No, you're absolutely right about that.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Now, Hela's previous experience as a flight attendant was predominantly
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: at least a portion of what got her this position.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: like her her language skills the previous experience and her
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: ability to actually work comfortably with people from different backgrounds
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: it made her that very strong candidate and after that
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: pan am sent the successful applicants to miami florida for
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: training bringing hella to the united states into her next
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: major phase of her life and it was in miami
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: that she met Richard Crafts on May 24, 1969. Hella
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: was only 21 years old, just weeks away from her
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: 22nd birthday. Richard was 31. He was already an experienced pilot,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and by then had built much of his own life
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: around aviation. Richard had been born in New York City
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: on December 20, 1937, and was raised in Connecticut. As
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: a young man, he joined the United States Marine Corps,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: where aviation became a part of his life. After his
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: military service, he continued flying professionally and at one point
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: worked for Air America, the airline closely associated with covert
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: American operations in the Southeast Asian area. Some accounts later
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: describe Richard as having flown secret or CIA-connected missions even,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: although the exact scope of that work was often filtered
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: through Richard's own stories about his past. So it's hard
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: to say what is truth, what is, you know, inflected
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: upon or anything like that. Yeah. I guarantee you the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: CIA isn't about to exactly disclose everything about their files.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: So all we have is from Richard, but by 1968,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: he had joined Eastern airlines as a commercial pilot and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: he met Hella while she was in Miami for Pan
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Am training. Now, Richard was definitely a confident man. He
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: is often described as being very experienced and comfortable around women.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Hella's friends would actually later say that they never fully
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: understood what attracted her to him, but whatever it was,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: their relationship continued. I do need to say, though, that
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: this wasn't a quick courtship between the two of them. Sure,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: they might have connected quickly, but they dated on and
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: off for roughly six years. There was a lot of
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: that pendulum swinging back and forth. There was also an
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: uncomfortable complication from the very beginning. See, Richard was reportedly
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: already engaged to another woman when he met Hella. But
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: even so, he and Hela continued seeing each other, and
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the relationship was not always smooth. Friends later remembered arguments
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: between the two of them, sometimes even in the public,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: but the two just continued to reconcile. Hela continued working
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: for Pan Am, while Richard flew for Eastern. Their jobs
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: regularly meant that there was irregular schedules, long absences, and
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: frequent travel, but aviation was also the thing that had
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: brought them together in the first place. They both had
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: a passion and a love for it. By 1975, the
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: relationship had lasted long enough that it was no longer
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: a temporary romance, and by that fall, Hella became pregnant.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: In November of 1975, Hella and Richard married in New Hampshire,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and after years of dating and moving between countries and
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: airline schedules, Hella Nielsen became Hella Crafts. The couple then
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: settled into Newton, Connecticut, at 5 Newfield Lane. It was
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: a quiet, largely rural community of wooded roads, streams, lakes,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: and open land. In the mid-1970s, Newton had a reputation
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: as being a very safe place to raise a family,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: as serious violent crimes were rare. And the property had
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: sat on large, wooded lots. This one sat in a
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: quiet part of town, giving the family plenty of privacy,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: while still placing them within a community where both Ella
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: and Richard became very well known. Now, their first child
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: arrived not long after their wedding. and eventually they had
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: three children together, Andrew, Thomas, and Christina. Hella continued working
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: as a flight attendant for Pan Am, meaning she was
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: regularly away on international flights, while Richard continued flying as well,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: commercially for Eastern Airlines.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, that would be very tough to figure out their
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: schedule with kids like that, hey?
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: It would be extremely difficult.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Man, I can't even imagine.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: But there was some bonuses to it though, because like,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Between the two of them and their airline careers, like
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: their house earned a substantial income. And so we're talking
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: 1986 right now. And Richard alone was reportedly making around $ 120, 000
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: a year. Oh, okay. This is mid 80s.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a lot.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: So they were quite financially comfortable, which means like hiring
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: nannies and stuff. And that's a reality of what you
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: can afford. Doesn't mean that you don't, you know, miss
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: time with your child, but at least you have someone
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: caring for your kids.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Right, right. Right. That makes sense. Yeah.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: So that brings us to 19-year-old Dawn Marie Thomas, who
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: was in fact living with the Kraft family in their
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: home and working as their nanny. She helped care for
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the children when both of them were off working. And
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: because she lived inside the house, she was quite familiar
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: with the family's routines in ways that few outsiders ever
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: would be. Now, Richard's life outside Eastern Airlines was unusually busy.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: He had accumulated a substantial collection of firearms and had
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: an interest in machinery, tools, and equipment, but aviation remained
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: his primary profession. Policing, however, increasingly became another part of
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: his identity too. In fact, in 1982, Richard became an
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: auxiliary officer with the Newton Police Department, which was essentially
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: a supporting part-time role. His duties were relatively routine as
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: he was doing things like help directing traffic, assist at
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: accident scenes, visit schools, and check vacant homes while their
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: owners were away. He took great pride in what he
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: was doing, and even invested some of his own money
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: into police training and seminars, and even equipped a Ford
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Crown Victoria that gave him the appearance and functionality of
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: a real police vehicle. Then, by 1986, Richard was also
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: working part-time as his police officer in the nearby Southbury.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: The money was hardly the attraction to the job for him, though.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Compared to his airline salary, his police earnings were minimal. Instead,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the work gave him another position within the local community
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: and another area in which he could pursue his interests.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: But aside from their income, hobbies, and everything else, inside
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the marriage, things had continued to be increasingly difficult for
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the couple. Friends said Richard could be controlling, particularly when
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: it came to their money. Despite Hela earning her own salary,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Richard reportedly maintained significant control over the household income and finances.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: He was also described as a heavy spender who regularly
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: bought things for himself, including those guns and equipment for
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: his policing. But his absence became another problem. Richard could
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: disappear for extended periods of time, some time without even
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: giving Hilla a satisfactory explanation for where he'd been. And
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: with both of them working for airlines periods apart were
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: already normal for their marriage, but Richard's unexplained absences were... well,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: they were different. Now, even beyond that, there were also
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: some more serious allegations. See, people close to Hella later
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: described seeing bruises on her body, and several people said
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Richard had physically assaulted her during their marriage. Now, in
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the mid-1980s, there was something of a bit of a
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: turning point that may have played a very big part
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: in this couple's breakdown. See, health can be a very
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: big turning point for some people, and in 1984... Richard
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: was diagnosed with cancer. Now, I couldn't actually specifically find
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: whether it was colon cancer or stomach cancer. Some reports
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: describe it differently. But either way, his illness was serious
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: enough to require treatment. Now, Richard survived, and it became
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: another difficult period the family had managed to get through together.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: But the marriage didn't improve as a result. Hela was
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: becoming more and more unhappy with Richard's behavior. His spending
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and the amount of time that he was spending away
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: from home She had also had reason to question whether
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: she was the only woman in his life. In fact,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Richard's relationships with other women were not entirely new territory
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: for Hela. Their own relationship, if you remember, started while
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Richard was engaged to someone else. And over the years,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Hela became more and more suspicious that he continued seeing
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: other women. One clue in particular really began to bother her. See,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: while looking through the household telephone records... Hela noticed repeated
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: long-distant calls to a number in New Jersey. She didn't
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: recognize that number, but Richard had apparently been calling it
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: quite regularly. Now, rather than confront him on that suspicion,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Hela decided she wanted to know exactly who was on
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: the other end of those calls before she approached him.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: So she contacted Keith Mayo, who was a private investigator.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: So Keith began following Richard. His surveillance took him to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: New Jersey. where Richard met with another woman. Keith watched
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the two together and photographed them as they were showing
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: affection to one another, including kissing.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, what a complete piece of shit. Yeah.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: So just like that, her suspicions were confirmed.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And he's also, he almost seems like he's just
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: living like he's single because he doesn't tell the family
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: wherever he's like going and he just disappears for days
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: and shit when he has like a family.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: He's, I think that, His confidence about him is not
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: necessarily confidence, but maybe it's ignorance and arrogance and there's
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: a lot of different words we can use to describe it,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: but I don't think confidence is exactly the word I
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: would use.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not a good person. No.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Now, after photographing this, Keith met with Hela in his
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: car and he showed her the photos. But even though
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: she suspected this before even hiring Keith, seeing the evidence
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: in front of her was different. Hela held the photos
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: in her hand and looked through them and quickly began
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: to cry. For somewhere between five and ten minutes, Keith
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: simply sat with her in his car while she processed
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: what she was seeing. That Richard was in fact having
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: an affair. And after that, she began working with Diane Anderson,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: a Connecticut divorce attorney. And during their conversations, Hella described
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: more than Richard's infidelity. Diane later recalled that Hella was
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: concerned about physical violence in the marriage as well. Now,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: this divorce would mean untangling a marriage involving three children,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: a house, two substantial careers, and money. Well, it was
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: also a big issue because Richard, he had considerable control
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: over the family's finances. So there was a lot of
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: deep roots that this was going to have to untangle.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Hella began the legal process during the summer of 1986.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: And by the fall, efforts were being made to actually
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: formally serve Richard with the divorce papers. but doing so
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: proved difficult. Richard was frequently away because of his work
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: as a pilot, and Hella and her attorney believed he
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: was actually deliberately making himself unavailable because he may have
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: saw it coming. At one point, arrangements were made for
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Richard to meet with a sheriff so the documents could
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: be served at that moment, but he never appeared. And
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: so without the papers served, the divorce therefore remained unresolved.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Now around this same period, Hela told friends that Richard
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: had begun claiming his cancer had returned after about two
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: years of remission. But according to Hela's friends, she believed
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: this new claim was false, that Richard was using this
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: possibly as another way to discourage her from leaving him.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: But she wasn't persuaded. However, she was becoming scared. Hela
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: began making comments to people close to her about what
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: they should do if something should happen to her, Her
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: divorce attorney, Diane, remembered one particular disturbing conversation where Hella
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: told her that if she disappeared or if anything happened,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: not to assume it was an accident. And friends remember
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: hearing similar warnings too. Now, Richard's background complicated a lot
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of the matter. He was an experienced pilot. He had
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: served in the Marines. He worked in aviation connected with
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Air America. He'd become involved in local law enforcement. This
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: all worried Hela because all that experience and connections could
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: make it very difficult for her to simply disappear from
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: his life and start somewhere else if she, you know, tried.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: He could track her down pretty easy.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. See, this is just not okay. Like, this is
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: a huge problem because he obviously has moved on kind
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: of in a way, right? Yeah. But he isn't willing
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: to let her go.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a lot of people in that sort of situation.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: It's very controlling. It's okay if I do it, but
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: you can't.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: You know, that's their attitude.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: So disturbing.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Now, by November of 1986, the divorce had reached a
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: very critical stage. On November 11th, formal divorce papers were issued,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: although Richard had still not been successfully served with these papers.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: But despite everything happening at home, Hella continued working and
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: remained focused on her children. She left Connecticut as part
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: of a Pan-American flight crew bound for Europe with a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: return flight schedule from Frankfurt, West Germany to New York.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Thanksgiving was approaching too, and according to the flight attendants
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: working with her, Hella was looking forward to getting back
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: to Newton and spending the holiday with her family, particularly
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: her children. But even with the unresolved divorce still waiting there,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: she was excited. On Tuesday, November 18, 1986, Hella Crafts
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: was on her way home. After landing at the JFK
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: International Airport in New York City, she got a ride
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: with a fellow flight attendant to Newton, which was roughly
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: 70 miles from the airport. Hella had her luggage with
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: her along with items that she brought back from Europe,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: but she left her own Toyota Tarsal car parked in
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the Pan Am employee parking area at the airport. By
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: the time the women reached 5 Newfield Lane, it was late.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: The house was lit, and Hela could see that someone
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: was home. According to recollections from flight attendants, who were
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: all in the vehicle when she was dropped off, she
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: appeared rather pleased, saying, Oh, Richard's home. Then she gathered
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: her things and went inside. But it was the last
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: time anyone outside the Crafts' household was known to have
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: seen her. Weather conditions deteriorated rapidly that night. and a
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: very powerful storm moved through the western Connecticut area, bringing heavy,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: wet snow that damaged trees and power lines alike. Roads
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: became difficult to travel, and widespread electrical outages followed. Newton
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: was among the communities affected. At the Crafts' home, the
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: electricity went out. Thankfully, though, the family had kerosene heaters
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: that could be used during the outage, because without normal power,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the house would turn to be very cold and uncomfortable
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: without them. Dawn Marie Thomas, the craft's 19-year-old live-in nanny,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: was not home when Hela arrived. She had been working
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: a McDonald's shift in Danbury that evening, and the storm
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: made getting back to the home rather difficult. You have
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: all these scary roads and storms, and it's slippery, bad visual,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: it's dark. Of course she's going to be late, and
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: she didn't return home until approximately 2 a.m. But by then,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: the house was quiet. So Don came into the dark
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: home and went directly to bed. At around 6 a.m.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday, November 19th, Don woke up to find Richard
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: at the home, but there was no sign of Hela.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: The power was still out from the storm, and Richard
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: told Don that he wanted to take the children to
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: his sister's, Karen's, home in Westport, where they would have
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: electricity and heat. He said Hela was traveling there separately.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: They would meet her at Karen's home. At approximately 6.30am,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Richard left Newfield Lane with Dawn and the three children.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: When they arrived in Westport, however, Hela wasn't there. Richard
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: dropped Dawn and the children off and left again almost immediately,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: returning towards Newton alone. Hours passed without Hela arriving, and
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Richard didn't return to collect the children or Dawn until 7pm.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: And Hela had not appeared at all. Later that evening,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Dawn finally asked Richard where she was, and he said, quote,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Dawn was beginning to realize that something
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: wasn't adding up. Richard had told her Hela would meet
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: her in Westport, but she never arrived. And even more,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: there were some details in the house that now caught
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Dawn's attention.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: What I just want to say too, I feel like
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: Hela is probably the more reliable one of the two, right?
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: That Dawn knows that?
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I can confirm or deny that.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, I feel like that would be an assumption though.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I would assume, but I don't know for certain.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Now, one thing that she did see, though, was in
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the master bedroom. Dawn noticed a dark spot on the carpet.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: She later described it as a large, dark stain approximately
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the size of a grapefruit that had not been there before.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Jeez.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: But that's all it was, was a stain. It was
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: something unexplained, though. Now, Pan Am expected Hela to report
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: back for another flight assignment, but she never arrived. And
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: as November 19th turned into November 20th, people who knew
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Hella began trying to determine where she had gone. Her
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: friends knew Hella well enough to understand how serious she
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: took her work, and simply failing to appear without contacting
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: anyone was not like her. So as people began calling
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: the Crafts home looking for her, Richard was saying that
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Hella had gone to Denmark. One of the people who
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: spoke with him was Hella's friend and fellow flight attendant,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Gertrude Horvath, or also known as Trudy. Richard told Trudy
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: that Hela's mother was sick, and Hela returned to Europe
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: to be with her. Sounds very plausible. But there was, however,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: a problem. At JFK Airport, Hela's Toyota Tarsal was still
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: parked in the Pan Am employee lot. Her friends knew
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: that her car was there, and they began watching it.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: If Hela had taken another Pan Am flight to Europe,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: she might reasonably have left her vehicle there. That makes sense.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: But as the days passed, the Toyota never moved. Like
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: she never came home. There were also her belongings inside
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of it. Among them were boots Hela had worn when
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: she returned from Frankfurt on November 18th. Other items from
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: the trip she had also left behind too, and the
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: car appeared to have just remained untouched since she had
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: ever arrived back in the United States. Meanwhile, Richard's accounts
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: of where his wife had gone, well, they became increasingly
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: difficult to follow. See, the Denmark explanation was not the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: only one he gave. At various times, Richard said Hela
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: had traveled to the Canary Islands. He also suggested she
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: might be staying with a friend. And on other occasions,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: he straight up said that he didn't know where she was.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: The people closest to Hela began comparing what they'd been told,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: and they realized that the stories weren't matching. So one
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: of Hela's friends, Lina Jonasson, decided she was going to
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: check the Denmark story directly. So she contacted Hela's mother.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: And that's when she realized that Hela was not in Denmark.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: And that Hela's mother wasn't even sick. In fact, Hela's
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: mother had not heard from her daughter since November 17th,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the day before Hela returned from Frankfurt. This all brought
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Hela's earlier warnings back into focus. Lena knew Hela had
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: been preparing to divorce Richard. She knew about the problems
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: in the marriage, and she remembered Hela telling her that
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: if something happened to her, not to assume that it
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: was an accident. Diana Anderson knew Hela had made similar
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: warnings to her, too. Keith Mayo knew Hela had hired
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: her to document Richard's affair, and had seen how devastated
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: she was when he showed her the photographs. And none
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: of them could find her.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Dang, this is not good.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: As the days passed, another important date arrived. Thanksgiving. Hela
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: was really looking forward to spending it with her kids,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: but instead it came and went without her. Instead, Richard
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: and the children spent time with his sister Karen, while
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: no one heard from Hela at all. Richard continued to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: maintain that she had left voluntarily, but her friends increasingly
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: believed something else. By December 1st, 1986... Hella had been
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: missing for nearly two weeks. Keith Mayo, the private detective
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Hella hired, he was convinced her disappearance needed to be
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: treated seriously. So he contacted the Newton Police Department and
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: told officers not only that Hella was missing, but that
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: he suspected Richard might have harmed her. Now, Keith later
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: criticized the department's initial response, saying police had essentially ignored
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the concerns at the time. And Richard's position as the
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Newton auxiliary officer inevitably raised questions about whether the relationship
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: affected the complaint and how it was handled, too.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I forgot about that. That really is an
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: added layer.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: But that was primarily Keith's belief at the time. What
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: is clear is that the case was not immediately treated
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: as a missing persons or homicide investigation. Hella was a
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: 39-year-old adult with an international career. and police initially considered
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the possibility that she simply left voluntarily. But Keith refused
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: to leave it there. Keith then did what private investigators
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: do best. He began looking into it himself. He began
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: gathering information and spoke with Dawn Marie Thomas, the Crafts'
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: live-in family nanny. Now, Dawn told him, about something that
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: she noticed after that Hella disappeared, that dark stain on
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: the carpet in the master bedroom. The stain was not
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: there before Hella returned from Frankfurt. In fact, soon after,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Richard actually even began removing portions of that bedroom carpet
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: to get rid of the stain. When Don questioned him,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Richard offered what seemed to be a simple explanation. He
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: said that during the November 18th snowstorm and power outage,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the family used those kerosene heaters. He said kerosene had
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: spilled onto the carpet. Damage section needed to be removed
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: and replaced. But Don also noticed something else. See, just
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: days ago, he had acquired a large freezer. And that
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: large freezer was now missing. Keith took the carpet incident
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: particularly serious. He learned that Richard had cut out strips
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and disposed of it into a landfill. Keith tried to
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: trace the material and went to Canterbury Landfill. and spent
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: hours searching through discarded carpeting and garbage. Eventually, he located
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: pieces that he believed could have came from the craft's home.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: They were sent for examination, but the results were disappointing.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Despite the suspicious circumstances surrounding its removal, the removed carpet
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: did not test positive for blood, and investigators found no
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: physical evidence that could connect it to Hella's disappearance. So
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: while Keith continued digging, Police began getting more involved as
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: they questioned Richard. On December 2nd, Richard told investigators that
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Hela had left the house on the morning of November 18th.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: He said that she had been happy the previous evening
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: and nothing seemed wrong. According to his account, she was
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: an adult who had simply gone somewhere on her own.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: But investigators had learned about all the different stories that
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: he'd given to other people. How he said Hela went
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: to Westport or Denmark because of her sick mother or
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: the Canary Islands or even admitting that he didn't know
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: where she was. So when questioned about those contradictions, Richard
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: eventually acknowledged that the story about Hela traveling to Denmark
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: to care for her mother was fake. He explained that
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: he lied about these different stories because he didn't want
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: people knowing the details about his troubled marriage or that
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: his wife might have hopped on a plane and left him.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: This is a damn mess.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: It is a mess.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: I also feel like She's pretty lucky to have Keith, hey?
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: Because he doesn't have to be doing this, does he? No.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: So obviously she, you know, left a mark on him,
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: probably like being so emotional together and figuring all this
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: stuff out. And now he's just like this kind soul
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: that's trying to figure it out as well when no
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: one else is freaking taking it as seriously as it
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: should at first.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he definitely took those first steps. And I'm not
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: too sure what their relationship was. Maybe they knew each
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: other prior to her hiring him. Or maybe, yeah, she
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: just left that much of an impact. Maybe she still
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: quite hadn't paid and Keith was tracking her down to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: get his money.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: Who knows?
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know the situation. But whatever the reason, Keith
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: is definitely doing what needs to be done.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah. But honestly, think about if you had just
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: given someone terrible news and then you're literally in the
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: car while this person's like crying for 15 minutes. That's
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: going to leave a mark on your heart for sure.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: It definitely would. Now, police thankfully kept pushing Richard. They
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: also questioned him about Hella's divorce plans and about Keith himself.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Richard initially denied knowing that Hella had hired a private
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: investigator or that Keith had photographed him with another woman.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: And eventually, police got nothing out of the questioning and
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: let Richard go. But investigators continued to interview him over
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the following days, including a more extensive interview on December 11th. Now,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: he maintained he had not killed Hella. He maintained he
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: didn't know where she was. He repeated the kerosene explanation
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: for the removed bedroom carpet, and he said he discarded
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: it in a landfill. Richard then even agreed to take
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: a polygraph examination on the issue, and on December 4th,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Connecticut State Police polygraph examiner Joseph Palabizo questioned him extensively.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Richard was asked directly whether he had killed his wife.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: He was asked whether he knew where Hella was. and
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: whether he had arranged for someone else to kill her even,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Richard denied all of it. And according to the examiner,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: there was no indication of deception. Richard passed the polygraph test.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Huh. Fake confidence can do that, I feel like.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: For investigators already working with limited evidence, the result mattered
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: a lot. Even though polygraph examinations could not establish innocence
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: on their own, its results were not You know, equivalent
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: to physical evidence, that's for sure. But still, investigators administering
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Richard's examination, they believed the results.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: But back then, they took them more seriously, right? Those
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: kind of tests?
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: They did. Now, this meant the case had reached a
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: very uncomfortable standstill position. And if investigators were going to
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: determine what had happened to Hella, they needed something more
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: substantial than just suspicion alone. So they began looking closely
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: at Richard's purchases and financial records. and the purchases surrounding
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Hella's disappearance immediately caught their attention. See, on November 13th, 1986,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: five days before Hella was last seen, Richard arranged to
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: purchase a large freezer. He paid approximately $ 375 in cash,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: and according to accounts of the transaction, he was reluctant
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: to provide the dealer with his name or address. Also,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Richard didn't take the freezer home immediately. He returned to
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: pick it up, on November 17th. That was the day
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: before Hella returned home from Frankfurt. The timing gave new
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: significance to what the nanny, Dawn, had said, because if
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: you recall, she remembered that the family had recently acquired
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: this freezer, but after Hella disappeared, the freezer was no
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: longer there. Investigators continued working through Richard's spending, and they
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: found that after November 18th and that snowstorm, he purchased
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: new bedding, including pillows and a comforter. That, along with
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: the large dark stain... You know, it seems suspicious. Richard
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: subsequently then cut out that carpet, that dark stain. Seems
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: like he removed or replaced things in the bedroom for
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: a potential reason. Now, this didn't prove anything, though. The
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: financial records also revealed a much larger transaction still. Richard
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: had spent approximately $ 900 at Darien Rentals, which is an
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: equipment rental-based business. Wanting to know what he had rented,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: investigators checked the records. And the answer was unusual enough
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: to change the entire direction of the investigation. Because you see,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: on November 20th, 1986, Richard had rented a commercial wood chipper.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Gosh.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Now this is a machine that's designed to reduce trees
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: and limbs and other heavy vegetation into tiny small pieces
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: of wood chips. And it's not something that's small and
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: easily transportable in the trunk of a car. You can't
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: pick this thing up or use a wheelbarrow or anything
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: like that. This needs to be moved or towed behind something.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: And so the rental equipment, history also showed that he
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: got a truck with it.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: Jesus.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Now, there was an obvious and innocent explanation available for
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: renting a wood chipper at that exact time, according to Richard.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: Like what?
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Well, you see, November 18th had that snowstorm. It had
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: caused extensive damage throughout the area. Heavy snow brought down
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: big branches and trees alike, leaving homeowners and municipal crews
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: with enormous cleanup jobs ahead of them. And that's the
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: explanation Richard gave. He said he rented the machine... to
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: clear storm-damaged limbs from the property. In the context of
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: everything else investigators knew, though, they understood something wasn't right.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: So investigators checked Richard's property for storm damage, and evidence
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: that might explain this rental. And wouldn't you know it,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: they found no downed trees or any place where limbs
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: could have broken off on the craft property that accounted
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: for Richard's need for this machine. And you might be saying, well,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: of course they didn't find any broken branches or downed
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: trees because he chipped them all. Well, they didn't find
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: any chips either. This made the rental very hard to justify.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: The freezer presented another problem. Police knew Richard had picked
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: up a freezer, a brand new freezer, on November 17th,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: just one day before hella was last seen. Don noticed
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: it even. But as investigators began looking closer at the
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: craft's property, that freezer was nowhere to be found. The
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: case at this point was beginning to move beyond Newton's
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: local police department. As concerns about Hella's disappearance grew, the
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: investigation expanded to involve Connecticut State Police and the Office
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: of the State's Attorney. Forensic expertise would also be needed
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: if police were going to determine whether anything violent had
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: actually occurred inside the Crafts' home. So by late December,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: investigators had assembled enough information to seek judicial authorization to
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: search the home on 5 Newfield Lane. And this timing
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: presented a very unique and interesting opportunity. See, Christmas was approaching,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: and Richard planned to take the children to Florida for
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: the holiday. So with him and the kids away from
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the family home, investigators could conduct a very detailed search
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: of the property without Richard or the children inside or
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: even nearby. The warrant gave him the chance Keith had
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: been pushing for since the very beginning. to stop relying
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: on Richard's explanations and examine the house itself. So on
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Christmas Day, December 25th, 1986, investigators arrived at 5 Newfield
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Lane with a search warrant in hand. And among the
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: people accompanying them was one of Connecticut's leading forensic scientists, Dr.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Henry Lee. This time with his help, they would be
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: able to examine the bedroom for themselves. And that's where
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: we're going to end part one.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm like literally just getting fired up here and
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: you're okay. Okay. Like I'm fired up.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. There's a lot to this story. It's a
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: two parter. I didn't say it at the beginning, but
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: it is in the title of this. This is a
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: part one.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, this is what the actual shit is happening here.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: You're going to want to know about part two. Let's
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: put it that way.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: No kidding. Wow.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: And I'm not going to do any sort of outro
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: today because if you're wanting to just listen to two
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: episodes back to back, then do it. We'll see you
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: in the next episode.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: You're putting your tail between your legs and just, bye.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: See you next time.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, kinda. I'm not putting my tail between my legs.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: I'm turning away smiling and cackling evil in the corner. Holy.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: Okay. Well, just really, really quick. The fact that they're
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: like doing this on Christmas day is like pretty impressive
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: to me. Yes. They're very much so taking this quite
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: seriously now.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: And can you see now why this didn't turn into,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: but definitely heavily inspired a Hollywood movie?
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: Uh-huh. Because it's a literal nightmare?
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Yes, it definitely is. And yeah, we'll just leave it
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: at this. We'll see you in the second part.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Okay. Which isn't too far away. We'll see you on Friday.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: And until then.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: Stay wicked. Thank you. Thank you.