Missing From Connecticut

Join Steph as she discusses two missing persons cases from Connecticut.

Episode Transcript

(00:34):
Dark cast Network, the light Shine'sbrightest on our indie podcasts. Hello everybody,
my name is Steph and this isSinister Story Hour, the podcast where
I share all kinds of creepy andcrime topics. You sit back and relax
and listen to my stories. Rememberto follow me on social media. I'm

(00:56):
on all of them as Sinister Ouror Sinister Story Hour. I also have
an account on buy meacoffee dot com. That's of course at one time donation.
I also have a Patreon account andyou become a patron for only three
dollars a month. You'll get allthe benefits such as ad free episodes,
extra content, and some little extragoodies along the way. As always,

(01:19):
the best way to support your favoriteindie podcaster is to like subscribe and leave
a five star review. So Iwould be forever grateful if you would do
that. Now, with that elgo ahead and get into our episode for
today. For the month of October, I didn't do missing Persons episodes,
so we are back with those.And of course I've been traveling through the

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US in alphabetical order and covering twopeople per state. The first case we're
going to talk about tonight is thatof sky Lynn Budnick. Sky was originally
from Southington, Connecticut. Out ofall the missing persons cases that I've covered,
this was one of the most bizarreand mysterious. On March thirty first,
two thousand and eight, Sky visitedher family. She told him then

(02:06):
that she was going to be goingto visit a friend. They didn't think
much of it until they didn't hearfrom her for a few days, so
they tried to make contact and theydidn't have any luck getting in touch,
so they ended up reporting her missingon April fourth, two thousand and eight.
Later that day, Sky's family wasable to get into her personal email,

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and what they found there was thebiggest mystery of this entire case.
Sky had actually purchased a ticket toJapan, a one way ticket. Also
in her email was a letter toa friend that hadn't been sent, which
appeared to be somewhat of a suicidenote. According to Sky's sister, Megan,
Sky had been showing some signs ofclinical depression. She had been struggling

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in school. She'd been failing someof her classes. She had also been
sleeping a lot, and they hadtried to convince her to go see a
doctor, but Sky didn't want togo. Sky's sister and mother went to
Japan right away to look for her, which in my mind is seriously like
searching for a needle in a haystack, but they were able to find some

(03:13):
small clues along that journey. Skyhad booked a stay for the night of
April seventh at an inn, whereshe shared with the staff there that she
was planning on traveling to Supporto Japan. In those few days that she had
been there. In Japan, shehad traveled to some spas and a hot
springs resort, which are just normaltourist type activities, right, But given

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all of the other circumstances, itwas very odd. Sky was last seen
on April seventh, two thousand andeight, by the inn staff. Nothing
more was ever reported, and ifshe were living in Japan, she would
have most likely obtained a visa todo so. Her family did say that
in her younger years she did havean interest in the Japanese culture, and

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she had taken three years of Japaneselanguage classes, but she wouldn't have still
been fluent enough to really live onher own there. She also didn't pack
any bags and took nothing besides hercomputer, which has also never been found.
If she'd planned on staying, itseems like she would have taken some
of her possessions. It really seemsas if suicide is the most accepted theory

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of what happened to Sky. Butif that's the case, where's her body
and why has it never been locatedand recovered? The family of skybud Nick
is left with nothing but a tonof unanswered questions, unfortunately, which makes
this story extremely sad. Sky wasonly twenty one years old when she went
missing, and she would now bethirty five. I'm going to take a

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quick pause to tell you about oneof the other amazing podcasts from the Dark
Gast network, and I'll be backin just a moment with another missing person.
I'm Edreduct. Ask any bold individualistsand they'll tell you. All you
need for a perfect eggnog is tocombine egg yolks beaten until creamy, egg
whites beaten until fluffy, heavy cream, a generous portion of fresh ground nutmeg,

(05:14):
and an even more generous portion ofliquor. Most people use dark grung
I prefer bourbon. The final twoingredients are essential a cozy seat by the
fire to sip it and a ghoststory told as only October Pod can tell
it. This year, October POD'sgift to You is a Christmas ghost story
that can easily be called a classicof the medium. It drops on December

(05:36):
twenty fifth, Christmas Day. Findit on our YouTube channel, October Pod
Home Video, or on October PodAm wherever you get podcasts. You can
find all of our links at Octoberpodvhs dot com. Listen by the fire
and we guarantee it will be thecrowning pleasure of your busy holiday season.

(05:57):
After all, egg nog without abelt of good who is hardly agnared,
and Christmas without an October Pod ghoststory is hardly Christmas. October Pod Yule
Tide horror for bold individualists. Hey, welcome back to Sinister Story Hour.
Our next person that we're going totalk about is William or Billy Smolensky Junior.

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William was a thirty one year oldsingle man who owned a home in
Waterbury, Connecticut when he went missing. At first, police assumed that Billy
had gone somewhere voluntarily, but thatvery eventually changed as they further investigated.
He was last seen outside of hishouse on August twenty fourth, two thousand

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and four, asking his neighbor tocare for his dogs for just a few
days because he was going to lookat a car. The suspicious part,
however, was that out of allof Billy's possessions, it seemed like everything
had been left behind. He hadn'ttaken a single thing that they could see,
including his car, which if hewere going on a trip he would
be needing. There has been aman named Chad Hanson that has been involved

(07:09):
in the case by claiming that aman named Scott murdered Billy and that Chad
had helped Scott to HiPE Billy's body. The story, honestly just seems so
frustrating to me because it's so murky. Nothing seems cut and dry at all.
In two thousand and eleven, ChadHanson was charged with making a false

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statement to police that didn't seem toeffect their belief that Billy had been a
victim of foul play. Hanson hadapparently led police on a ten day search
for evidence, which turned up nothingand cost over one hundred thousand dollars.
Scott, who was accused of thepossible murder, died in two thousand and
five due to a drug overdose.One interesting piece to this story was that

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Scott's own mother, Madeline, haddated Billy Smolensky prior to his disappearance.
She stated that Billy had broken upwith her because he believed that she was
cheating on him. Billy left Madeline'shome during the early morning hours of August
twenty fourth, and she had describedhim as acting a bit depressed when he
left. See the coincidence here thatwas the exact same day he disappeared.

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Billy had brown hair, blue eyes, Anne had his left ear pierced in
a tattoo with a blue cross andthe words Pruett on his right forearm.
If you have any information about Billy, yurs to send a tip to info
at Justice for Billy dot com.Thank you all for joining me for this
quick episode and I will be backin one week with another creepy, crimey

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episode by friends. The Sinister StoryHours officially partnered with the Darkcast Network The
Light Shine's Brightest on the r AndyPodcast. The special thanks to Michael de
Gral with Zero Tolerance Music