Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It was a gruesome and shocking crime that thrust the
state of Connecticut into thenational headlines and
ultimately became theinspiration of the award-winning
1997 movie Fargo.
Welcome to this episode ofHuman Wreckage.
Let's get into it.
So ellie crafts was a danishair stewardess for pan-american.
(00:42):
Richard crafts was a pilot forEastern Airlines.
This was how the future couplemet.
They married in 1979 beforesettling down in Newtown,
connecticut, where they hadthree children.
Richard took on a secondpart-time job as a police
officer, while Helly continuedto see the world as an air
stewardess.
The relationship was rocky fromthe beginning, with Richard
(01:03):
cheating on Helly even beforethey were married.
When asked why he had marriedHell, richard unromantically
replied Hell was pregnant.
At the time we were married, weknew she was pregnant.
It was far too advanced for adoctor to perform an abortion
and we decided to get married.
On the 18th of November 1986,helly Crafts landed in New York
(01:26):
after attending a flight fromFrankfurt in Germany.
She and two other stewardessesdrove to Newtown and pulled up
outside Hell's home Richard'shome.
She sighed it was the last timeanybody saw her alive.
As it turned out, helly hadrecently discovered that her
husband had once again beenhaving an affair behind her back
.
After discovering phone callsto an unknown number, she
(01:51):
decided to hire a privatedetective to watch her husband
and to confirm her fears.
As he handed Hell photographsthat corroborated her fears of
infidelity, she wept.
She filed for divorce shortlybefore her disappearance and
expressed fear for her life toher friends.
Helly's divorce lawyer said shetold them that if anything
happened to her, we should notbelieve that it was an accident.
She also divulged to her lawyerthat Richard had a lot of guns
(02:14):
in the house and that he hadphysically abused her in the
past.
Despite the fact that Richardwas cheating on Helly, she
decided to obtain a no-faultdivorce as opposed to charging
her husband with adultery.
She was concerned about thechildren as well as what the
community would think.
The right was dated November11th, but the papers were never
served.
(02:34):
Following her disappearance,richard gave varying reports as
to where Helly was.
First of all, he told Hell'sfriends that she was on another
flight.
Hell's co-workers wereimmediately suspicious due to
the regulations that restrictedher from flying again so soon
without having a proper restperiod.
Then Richard changed his storyand said that she was in Denmark
visiting her sick mother.
(02:55):
This lie soon crumbled when hermother said no such arrangement
had been made and that shewasn't sick.
He then told concerned friendsthat she was in Florida or the
Canary Islands visiting with afriend.
Just days after herdisappearance, richard
dismantled and redecorated theirbedroom and purchased a new
freezer An odd thing to do whenyour wife is missing.
(03:16):
One of Helly's co-workers, ritaBuonanno, had become
increasingly worried about herfriend and ultimately reported
her missing on the 1st ofDecember, two weeks after she
went missing.
The fact that her husband hadnot even reported her missing
set off alarm bells.
As a matter of fact, richardhad been having numerous affairs
behind his wife's back.
These affairs continued afterHelly's disappearance and never
(03:39):
once did he mention to thesewomen, who knew he was married,
that his wife had vanished.
Investigators consideredsomething sinister had happened
to Helly and zoned in on Richard, who had been acting very
peculiarly.
The following month theydiscovered that he had rented a
2,700-pound wood chipper and aU-Haul truck.
Shortly before Hellydisappeared, he told the rental
(04:00):
service that he had cut downsome trees at his property.
Highway worker Joseph Hinessoon came forward to inform
police that he had seen Richardparked at the side of the road
alongside the Southbury shore ofLake Zora with the wood chipper
in tow at around 3 am, a day ortwo after Hale disappeared.
He said he recalled the dayvery clearly, as it was the date
that he was called to work toplow roads during the season's
(04:22):
first snow.
Police rushed to the scene,where they uncovered clumps of
scattered wood chips underlayers of dead leaves.
Among the wood chips they foundsomething much more sinister A
human thumb, a fingertip with anail attached, strands of blonde
hair, a big toe, bone fragments, lacy material from underwear,
a mailing label with HeliCraft's name on it and a crowned
(04:43):
tooth with a piece of jawboneattached.
An anthropology expertdetermined that the bone
fragments belonged to a human,and a forensic odontologist was
able to identify the tooth asbelonging to heli crafts.
In addition, they uncovered asubmerged chainsaw in the
Housatonic River.
The chainsaw had blonde hairsintertwined in the chain.
Investigators were also able toretrieve a bloodstained carpet
(05:07):
from inside the home.
Inside the rented U-Haul vanthey also found a clump of
tissue-like material that testedpositive for human blood.
Based on this information,helly Crafts was pronounced dead
and the net was quickly closingin on Richard.
He was arrested when he arrivedhome from a ski trip.
(05:29):
As the trial date loomed.
The location had to be moved asit was impossible to find
jurors that had not yet heard ofthe case.
Every juror in Danbury knewsomething about the case.
They talked about it constantlyand made jokes about it
frequently, said one local Two.
It was decided the trial wouldbe moved to New London.
After questioning 46prospective jurors over the
course of five days, 10 men andtwo women were selected.
(05:50):
Prosecutors faced a doubleburden because not only did they
have to convince the jury thatHelly was actually dead, they
also had to convince the jurythat Richard was the one who
killed her.
There was no physical bodyafter all.
The motive they argued was thatRichard didn't want to get a
divorce.
He killed Helly beforedismembering her body with a
chainsaw and feeding her throughthe wood chipper, they
(06:11):
contended.
During his trial, the couple'shousekeeper, dawn Marie Thomas,
told the courtroom that on theday of Hellie's disappearance
Richard had allowed her to gohome early.
She also said how she hadwitnessed the couple have an
argument just several daysbefore the disappearance.
Dawn also testified that Richardhad removed a freezer and a
carpet with a large black stainfrom their home just a couple of
(06:33):
days after Hallie disappeared.
When Don asked about thepeculiar stain.
Richard told her that he hadspilled kerosene on it and that
he didn't want her to clean it.
Richard was clearly unawarethat kerosene does not leave a
stain.
It would leave an odor, sure,but it would be like spilling
water.
The following day the carpetwas gone.
She also told the court thatthe freezer was working just
(06:56):
fine when Richard decided to getrid of it, was this where
Richard had kept Helly's bodybefore disposing of it?
The prosecution argued so.
However, the freezer was neverretrieved to be DNA tested.
Also to take the stand wasHelly's mother, elizabeth
Nielsen.
When Hallie disappeared,richard had told people that she
was visiting her mother.
The last time she saw herdaughter was in Denmark for her
(07:20):
80th birthday on the 26th ofJuly 1986.
She stayed for three days and Inever saw her again, she told
the courtroom.
A piece of evidence was aletter that Hallie had written
to her mother in which she saysI told Richard I want a divorce.
This letter also referencesthat Richard was seemingly
unhappy about the idea.
(07:41):
Southbury policeman, richardWildman, told the courtroom that
he had seen Richard on the 21stof November.
Wildman said that he had beenleaving work at around 4am when
he saw Richard.
He was parked in a schoolparking lot near the police
station with a U-Haul truck anda wood chipper.
Wildman knew Richard as theyworked together in the police
station.
I asked him what the hell areyou doing with the wood chipper?
(08:04):
And he said some limbs had comedown around his house during
the previous snowstorm and hewas cleaning them up.
Wildman said the chainsaw thatwas discovered submerged in the
Housatonic River connectingNewtown and Southbury was
entered as evidence.
The manager of Darien RentalService, peter Grosbeck, was the
man who hired the wood chipperto Richard.
When on the stand he told thecourt that when Richard returned
(08:27):
the wood chipper he couldn'thelp but notice a chainsaw
inside the truck.
I can't be sure it's thischainsaw, but it looked like
this one, he said.
The prosecution contended thatHellie was terrified of her
husband and that she feared forher life.
Testimony from Hellie's friend,susan Lawston, said that she
had expressed fear for hersafety from conversations and
(08:48):
dealings she had with Richardand was concerned that he may
harm her.
Lofton also told the court thatRichard had physically abused
Hellie before and that he liedabout his colon cancer returning
as a ploy to make her cancelthe divorce.
Hellie, however, had calledRichard's doctor regarding the
cancer and he told her that itwas untrue and that Richard was
(09:08):
very much well.
A silence fell as RichardCrafts took the stand in his own
defense, dressed in a blueshirt and a striped tie.
50-year-old Richard staredtowards his attorney as he
answered questions about hiswife.
When asked if he had used achainsaw or a wood chipper to
kill his wife, he calmly repliedno, sir, I did not.
The jury were sent away to maketheir decision, but after 17
(09:32):
days of deliberation the judgedeclared a mistrial.
One of the 12 jurors refused tocontinue marathon deliberations
.
A second trial was scheduled forthe following year.
This time the prosecution wasable to successfully argue that
Helly had been murdered From thehair intertwined in the
chainsaw to the blood-stainedcarpet inside Richard's home.
(09:52):
The evidence against him wasdamning and ultimately the jury
found that Richard was guiltybeyond a reasonable doubt.
He was sentenced to 50 years inprison.
The infamous Woodchipper murdercase was the first case in
which somebody was convicted ofmurder with no body in the state
of Connecticut.
Thank you again for joining meon this episode.
If you like what I do, pleaselike and subscribe.
(10:14):
Please take care of yourselves.
See you next time.
Thank you.
It was a gruesome and shocking crime that thrust the
state of Connecticut into thenational headlines and
ultimately became theinspiration of the award-winning
1997 movie Fargo.
Welcome to this episode ofHuman Wreckage.
Let's get into it.
So ellie crafts was a danishair stewardess for pan-american.
(00:42):
Richard crafts was a pilot forEastern Airlines.
This was how the future couplemet.
They married in 1979 beforesettling down in Newtown,
connecticut, where they hadthree children.
Richard took on a secondpart-time job as a police
officer, while Helly continuedto see the world as an air
stewardess.
The relationship was rocky fromthe beginning, with Richard
(01:03):
cheating on Helly even beforethey were married.
When asked why he had marriedHell, richard unromantically
replied Hell was pregnant.
At the time we were married, weknew she was pregnant.
It was far too advanced for adoctor to perform an abortion
and we decided to get married.
On the 18th of November 1986,helly Crafts landed in New York
(01:26):
after attending a flight fromFrankfurt in Germany.
She and two other stewardessesdrove to Newtown and pulled up
outside Hell's home Richard'shome.
She sighed it was the last timeanybody saw her alive.
As it turned out, helly hadrecently discovered that her
husband had once again beenhaving an affair behind her back
.
After discovering phone callsto an unknown number, she
(01:51):
decided to hire a privatedetective to watch her husband
and to confirm her fears.
As he handed Hell photographsthat corroborated her fears of
infidelity, she wept.
She filed for divorce shortlybefore her disappearance and
expressed fear for her life toher friends.
Helly's divorce lawyer said shetold them that if anything
happened to her, we should notbelieve that it was an accident.
She also divulged to her lawyerthat Richard had a lot of guns
(02:14):
in the house and that he hadphysically abused her in the
past.
Despite the fact that Richardwas cheating on Helly, she
decided to obtain a no-faultdivorce as opposed to charging
her husband with adultery.
She was concerned about thechildren as well as what the
community would think.
The right was dated November11th, but the papers were never
served.
(02:34):
Following her disappearance,richard gave varying reports as
to where Helly was.
First of all, he told Hell'sfriends that she was on another
flight.
Hell's co-workers wereimmediately suspicious due to
the regulations that restrictedher from flying again so soon
without having a proper restperiod.
Then Richard changed his storyand said that she was in Denmark
visiting her sick mother.
(02:55):
This lie soon crumbled when hermother said no such arrangement
had been made and that shewasn't sick.
He then told concerned friendsthat she was in Florida or the
Canary Islands visiting with afriend.
Just days after herdisappearance, richard
dismantled and redecorated theirbedroom and purchased a new
freezer An odd thing to do whenyour wife is missing.
(03:16):
One of Helly's co-workers, ritaBuonanno, had become
increasingly worried about herfriend and ultimately reported
her missing on the 1st ofDecember, two weeks after she
went missing.
The fact that her husband hadnot even reported her missing
set off alarm bells.
As a matter of fact, richardhad been having numerous affairs
behind his wife's back.
These affairs continued afterHelly's disappearance and never
(03:39):
once did he mention to thesewomen, who knew he was married,
that his wife had vanished.
Investigators consideredsomething sinister had happened
to Helly and zoned in on Richard, who had been acting very
peculiarly.
The following month theydiscovered that he had rented a
2,700-pound wood chipper and aU-Haul truck.
Shortly before Hellydisappeared, he told the rental
(04:00):
service that he had cut downsome trees at his property.
Highway worker Joseph Hinessoon came forward to inform
police that he had seen Richardparked at the side of the road
alongside the Southbury shore ofLake Zora with the wood chipper
in tow at around 3 am, a day ortwo after Hale disappeared.
He said he recalled the dayvery clearly, as it was the date
that he was called to work toplow roads during the season's
(04:22):
first snow.
Police rushed to the scene,where they uncovered clumps of
scattered wood chips underlayers of dead leaves.
Among the wood chips they foundsomething much more sinister A
human thumb, a fingertip with anail attached, strands of blonde
hair, a big toe, bone fragments, lacy material from underwear,
a mailing label with HeliCraft's name on it and a crowned
(04:43):
tooth with a piece of jawboneattached.
An anthropology expertdetermined that the bone
fragments belonged to a human,and a forensic odontologist was
able to identify the tooth asbelonging to heli crafts.
In addition, they uncovered asubmerged chainsaw in the
Housatonic River.
The chainsaw had blonde hairsintertwined in the chain.
Investigators were also able toretrieve a bloodstained carpet
(05:07):
from inside the home.
Inside the rented U-Haul vanthey also found a clump of
tissue-like material that testedpositive for human blood.
Based on this information,helly Crafts was pronounced dead
and the net was quickly closingin on Richard.
He was arrested when he arrivedhome from a ski trip.
(05:29):
As the trial date loomed.
The location had to be moved asit was impossible to find
jurors that had not yet heard ofthe case.
Every juror in Danbury knewsomething about the case.
They talked about it constantlyand made jokes about it
frequently, said one local Two.
It was decided the trial wouldbe moved to New London.
After questioning 46prospective jurors over the
course of five days, 10 men andtwo women were selected.
(05:50):
Prosecutors faced a doubleburden because not only did they
have to convince the jury thatHelly was actually dead, they
also had to convince the jurythat Richard was the one who
killed her.
There was no physical bodyafter all.
The motive they argued was thatRichard didn't want to get a
divorce.
He killed Helly beforedismembering her body with a
chainsaw and feeding her throughthe wood chipper, they
(06:11):
contended.
During his trial, the couple'shousekeeper, dawn Marie Thomas,
told the courtroom that on theday of Hellie's disappearance
Richard had allowed her to gohome early.
She also said how she hadwitnessed the couple have an
argument just several daysbefore the disappearance.
Dawn also testified that Richardhad removed a freezer and a
carpet with a large black stainfrom their home just a couple of
(06:33):
days after Hallie disappeared.
When Don asked about thepeculiar stain.
Richard told her that he hadspilled kerosene on it and that
he didn't want her to clean it.
Richard was clearly unawarethat kerosene does not leave a
stain.
It would leave an odor, sure,but it would be like spilling
water.
The following day the carpetwas gone.
She also told the court thatthe freezer was working just
(06:56):
fine when Richard decided to getrid of it, was this where
Richard had kept Helly's bodybefore disposing of it?
The prosecution argued so.
However, the freezer was neverretrieved to be DNA tested.
Also to take the stand wasHelly's mother, elizabeth
Nielsen.
When Hallie disappeared,richard had told people that she
was visiting her mother.
The last time she saw herdaughter was in Denmark for her
(07:20):
80th birthday on the 26th ofJuly 1986.
She stayed for three days and Inever saw her again, she told
the courtroom.
A piece of evidence was aletter that Hallie had written
to her mother in which she saysI told Richard I want a divorce.
This letter also referencesthat Richard was seemingly
unhappy about the idea.
(07:41):
Southbury policeman, richardWildman, told the courtroom that
he had seen Richard on the 21stof November.
Wildman said that he had beenleaving work at around 4am when
he saw Richard.
He was parked in a schoolparking lot near the police
station with a U-Haul truck anda wood chipper.
Wildman knew Richard as theyworked together in the police
station.
I asked him what the hell areyou doing with the wood chipper?
(08:04):
And he said some limbs had comedown around his house during
the previous snowstorm and hewas cleaning them up.
Wildman said the chainsaw thatwas discovered submerged in the
Housatonic River connectingNewtown and Southbury was
entered as evidence.
The manager of Darien RentalService, peter Grosbeck, was the
man who hired the wood chipperto Richard.
When on the stand he told thecourt that when Richard returned
(08:27):
the wood chipper he couldn'thelp but notice a chainsaw
inside the truck.
I can't be sure it's thischainsaw, but it looked like
this one, he said.
The prosecution contended thatHellie was terrified of her
husband and that she feared forher life.
Testimony from Hellie's friend,susan Lawston, said that she
had expressed fear for hersafety from conversations and
(08:48):
dealings she had with Richardand was concerned that he may
harm her.
Lofton also told the court thatRichard had physically abused
Hellie before and that he liedabout his colon cancer returning
as a ploy to make her cancelthe divorce.
Hellie, however, had calledRichard's doctor regarding the
cancer and he told her that itwas untrue and that Richard was
(09:08):
very much well.
A silence fell as RichardCrafts took the stand in his own
defense, dressed in a blueshirt and a striped tie.
50-year-old Richard staredtowards his attorney as he
answered questions about hiswife.
When asked if he had used achainsaw or a wood chipper to
kill his wife, he calmly repliedno, sir, I did not.
The jury were sent away to maketheir decision, but after 17
(09:32):
days of deliberation the judgedeclared a mistrial.
One of the 12 jurors refused tocontinue marathon deliberations
.
A second trial was scheduled forthe following year.
This time the prosecution wasable to successfully argue that
Helly had been murdered From thehair intertwined in the
chainsaw to the blood-stainedcarpet inside Richard's home.
(09:52):
The evidence against him wasdamning and ultimately the jury
found that Richard was guiltybeyond a reasonable doubt.
He was sentenced to 50 years inprison.
The infamous Woodchipper murdercase was the first case in
which somebody was convicted ofmurder with no body in the state
of Connecticut.
Thank you again for joining meon this episode.
If you like what I do, pleaselike and subscribe.
(10:14):
Please take care of yourselves.
See you next time.
Thank you.
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