Murder of Helle Crafts

Helle Crafts, born Helle Lorck Nielsen in Denmark, married Richard Crafts in 1975 and settled with him in Newtown, Connecticut, where she worked as a flight attendant while raising their three children. In 1986, she began suspecting Richard of extramarital activity and hired a private investigator, Keith Mayo, who photographed Richard with another flight attendant. Helle had also consulted a divorce attorney and reportedly told friends, "If something happens to me, don't assume it was an accident."

On November 18, 1986, Helle was dropped off at the family's Newtown home after returning from a flight from Frankfurt. She was never seen again. A snowstorm struck that night. Richard gave friends inconsistent explanations for her absence over the following weeks, including that she was in Denmark or the Canary Islands. On December 1, 1986, Mayo reported her missing to Newtown Police, who were initially dismissive; Richard was known locally as a volunteer and part-time police officer.

Mayo took his concerns to the county prosecutor, leading to a referral to the Connecticut State Police. On December 26, 1986, while Richard was in Florida, troopers searched the Crafts home and found a section of carpet missing from the master bedroom, a blood smear on the mattress, and other physical evidence. The forensic investigation was led by Henry Lee. Credit card records showed Richard had purchased a freezer not present in the home, bed sheets, a comforter, and had rented a woodchipper; a chainsaw receipt was also found.

A key witness, Joseph Hine, a Southbury snowplow driver, had seen a rental truck with a woodchipper parked near Lake Zoar on the night Helle disappeared and later led investigators there. At the site, police recovered about three ounces of human tissue, including a tooth crown, a fingernail with pink nail polish, bone chips, thousands of bleached blonde hairs, and type O blood matching Helle's. A chainsaw with blonde hair traces was recovered underwater; its scrubbed serial number was restored in a lab and traced to a purchase by Richard Crafts. Investigators concluded Helle had been struck in the head, frozen, dismembered with a chainsaw, and put through a woodchipper.

Because homicide prosecution requires an official determination of death, a forensic dentist matched the recovered tooth crown to Helle's dental records, and the Connecticut State Medical Examiner's Office issued a death certificate on January 13, 1987. Richard Crafts was arrested immediately. State medical examiner H. Wayne Carver later fed a pig carcass through a woodchipper for comparison, finding similarities to Helle's bone fragments.

Richard Crafts' first trial began in May 1988 in New London after a change of venue due to publicity. After 54 days and 17 days of jury deliberation, a lone holdout juror led to a mistrial declared on July 15, 1988. A second trial in Norwalk resulted in a guilty verdict on November 21, 1989, and Richard was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He was released on January 30, 2020, to a halfway house in Bridgeport under statutory good-time credit.