Forensic Science: The Woodchipper Murder - Term Paper Example

The Woodchipper Murder Case The normal use for a woodchipper is to chip wood into very small pieces. It is usually used when someone is cutting down trees or large branches. Generally, they feed the branches into the machine and then use the chips as mulch to scatter into flower gardens. A woodchipper is a natural machine that many people use on a daily basis to do these chores as described. However, in November 1986, Richard Crafts, a former airplane pilot, used a woodchipper for a different, somewhat more "creative" purpose: to kill his wife and dispose of her body in the woodchipper. Police and jurors would take several months to bring Crafts to justice but the forensic evidence and the testimony from officers and one eye witness all pointed to Crafts as the murderer; the forensic evidence would finally convict him. 1.0 The Initial Scene Mark Gado, a reporter for True TV, sets the stage for what happened. In the very early morning of November 20, 1986, Joseph Hines, a utility worker for Newtown Connecticut was working along the intersection of South Flat Hill Road where he saw a U-Haul van with a woodchipper attached to it. The lights were on in the vehicle and the woodchipper looked like it had been used a lot. A man came out of the truck and motioned for Hines to go around him, which he did. As Hines plowed the same road, going in the opposite direction, he saw the truck in the same spot. This time, the back of the truck was opened and wood chips were scattered around the back of the truck and along the side of the road. Hines thought this scene was strange, but at the time, he did not see a need to report what he saw to the police (Gado 1). 2.0 Helle Crafts: The Victim Helle Lorck Nielson grew up in Denmark as an only child. She was described as vibrant and out going and she enjoyed going to school. She went to college in England and took work in France as an au pair. She is also described as a beautiful woman. In France, Helle became a flight attendant, a job that she would do for many years. Helle later became a flight attendant for Pan Am Airways and went to Miami for training. On May 24, 1969, Helle was waiting for her flight and met Richard Crafts (Gado 2). Helle eventually told her friends that if something happened to her, they should not think that it was an accident. 3.0 Richard Crafts: The Murderer Richard Crafts was a 31 year old male who was also an airline pilot. He is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall with dark brown hair and an unkempt style. He only dated stewardesses who he charmed with embellished tales of his life as an alleged CIA pilot. Crafts was one of three children and was born in New York. He was the youngest of the three children with two older sisters. His father was a successful businessman, a retired WWI veteran and a college football player. This is significant because Richard was the opposite of his father. Richard went to a private high school initially but did not do well academically. He later graduated from Darien High School, tried college, but he dropped out and went into the Marines instead. He had quite a military record flying for the CIA and was wounded in a flying mission while he was in Laos. He was able to find work after the service and in 1968, found a job with Eastern airlines (Gado 3). When he met Helle, he was engaged to another woman and he had several other women he was dating. He and Halle had an "on again, off again" relationship for a few years. They often fought at home and Halle was often seen in public with bruises. For some reason, they stayed together through all the fighting. Halle became pregnant by Crafts and they married in November of 1975; they would eventually have three children (Gado 4). 4.0 The Marriage After her first child, an au pair was hired so that Halle could go back to work. Richard became very distant while she was pregnant and often went away for weeks at a time without saying where he went. Together, Helle and Richard made a comfortable salary of $125,000 a year. Richard took care of all the finances and squandered money in any way he wanted, and particularly on his gun collection. Richard became obsessed with guns and he had an arsenal of all different types. He was also beating his wife. In addition to his hobby of collecting guns, Richard would purchase landscaping equipment or other things that were unnecessary. He made Helle pay for all of the household bills. Each time she had a baby, Richard would disappear for days without saying where he was going, what he was doing, or when he would come back. Eventually, Richard became an auxiliary police officer for Newtown which meant that he was not paid but he made sure that he took the job seriously. He was hired as a police officer later in the nearby town of Southbury. He made less money in this position than his pilot's job, but he continued to spend money. He also bought a Crown Victoria and outfitted it like a police cruiser with several radios and antennas, a police siren and police lights. Richard was still seeing other women after he married Helle, and although she knew he was having affairs, she stayed with him because of their children. Helle was going to file for divorce in 1986, had already retained a lawyer and hired a private detective (Gado 5) before her death. She found out that Richard was having an affair with another flight attendant and it was at that time that she decided to file for divorce and take custody of the children; she disappeared before she had the chance. 4.0 The Storm and First Evidence The three day storm in which Hines saw the U-Haul with the woodchipper attached to it, aided in the cover-up of Helle's disappearance. Her friends thought immediately that she had met with foul play and thought that Richard had something to do with it. According to David W. Grogan, reporter for People Magazine, police began to be suspicious six weeks after Hines had seen the U-Haul and thought this might be a clue to Helle's disappearance. They had a theory that Richard had in some way eliminated his wife so that no one would be able to pin the murder on him. The premise that the prosecution brought forward was that Crafts had frozen his wife's body and then fed it into the woodchipper to destroy it. They found two-thirds of an ounce of Helle's remains that included fragments of hair, bone and tissue. Grogan states that this was "the first murder trial in Connecticut history with such scant evidence of a corpse" (Grogan 2). The defense said that Helle was alive and probably disappeared on her own (Grogan 2009). 6.0 The Children Richard was indifferent and abusive to his children. He was seen by outsiders as "going through the motions" (Lee 76) of parenting rather than becoming involved. He did not become involved in going to parent-teacher conferences or in their birthday parties. An au pair (nanny) was hired for the children in 1986 and this allowed Helle to continue to work as a flight attendant. 7.0 Premeditation or Spur of the Moment Dr. Henry Lee, forensic scientist on the case, and author of the book, Cracking Cases: The Science of Solving Crimes, states that Crafts created a scenario that seemed suspicious prior to his wife's disappearance. He ordered a dump truck, a woodchipper and a Westinghouse chest freezer. He also bought fire proof gloves and a flathead shovel. Helle arrived home that night, went into her home and was never seen again. Although Crafts was thought to be his wife's killer, he said she had run off with a Chinese lover. Also, he passed a lie detector test even though it asked whether he had killed his wife. The examiner conducting the test felt that he had passed the test too perfectly (Lee 2002). Friends were question and none of the friends knew of Helle seeing anyone else outside the marriage. Still, Crafts stuck to the story that his wife left with someone else. Arthur Herzog, in the book, The Woodchipper Murder, states that to the prosecution, the crime team and the various forensic scientists, Crafts knew that he was going to kill his wife because he bought all of the tools ahead of time. He struck her from behind with a "Streamlight" flashlight which was "less than twenty inches long and heavier than a standard hammer" (Herzog 195). This was the type of flashlight that police use for a variety of things during the routine of police work. Crafts thought about the murder many times and he rehearsed mentally what he was going to do. Clearly, this was a premeditated murder that Crafts had planned for several months. Crafts believed that without a body he would not be seen as a murderer. 8.0 Forensic Evidence This case is fascinating because it was the first major murder in Connecticut at this time that had so much publicity. Also, it was the only one that someone was convicted of murder on a small amount of evidence. There were several pieces of evidence but according to Dr. Lee, some of it was good and some of it was not because a large amount of it was contaminated. Dr. Lee along with two assistants began to examine the evidence that came from the state police. They began with the carpet looking for any clue that they could find. They used chemical tests on stains from the carpet but none of the stains tested were human blood. The police obtained a search warrant for Craft's home after a tip about a mattress in the bedroom that had stains on it that looked like dried blood. By Christmas day, police officers and Dr. Lee were working overtime because Crafts was out of his house. He had taken the children to visit his sister. When they walked into the house, they found it in shambles and they videotaped the scene. They began to look for clues such as blood traces and any other evidence they could find. Some of what Dr. Lee found was the mattress with brown stains that showed, through the use of Luminal that the stains were blood and that Helle was kneeling at the foot of her bed when she was attacked from behind. After canvassing through the house, the team went to the banks of Lake Zoar. There they found hair and tiny bone fragments that all tested as human remains. 9.0 Forensic Evidence Upon examination, Dr. Lee's investigation with a team of forensic scientists and others found 2,660 strands of human hair that was found to be those of a blonde, Caucasian human, a metal dental crown, part of a human tooth, a piece of bone from a skull that had been cut in a way that was traumatic, sixty small bone fragments, three ounces of human tissue, "bloodstains and blood spatter on the mattress" and blue-green fibers (Lee 131-132). Later in the investigation, a human toe joint and part of a human finger were found. Herzog gave a complete understanding of the forensic evidence that was available in this case. Each piece of evidence was looked at under a microscope and it was examined in a sequence to understand that it was human hair. Each strand had been cut by something heavy and each had roots that showed they had been chiseled off a skull. Another clump of the hair was tested and it was found to be human. Bones were found that also had been destroyed by some type of heavy object, and they were broken in a manner that was unfamiliar to the anthropologists who examined them. The bones were still fatty which showed they were only a few months old. The bones they found came from the shin, foot, hands, big toe, and seven bones came from the cranial vault. The blood they found was type "O" positive. From Halle's dental charts there were able to say that the crown was hers. For this case, "blood, chain saw, bone and teeth" (Herzog 210) were most prominent. Nick Ravo, reporter for the New York Times, reported on the first trial of Richard Crafts. The first trial ended 14 months after it began because a juror walked out of the proceedings which made it a mistrial. The first trial made the papers and meant that a new trial would need to be done which gave the prosecution time to bring into evidence more of the forensic findings. Some of the same witnesses and a change in lawyers for Crafts was the only real constant. The prosecutors had to prove that Helle was dead and that Richard had killed her. The prosecutors had to use the evidence that it had been found to surmise that Crafts killed her. They further had to prove that Crafts dismembered her body and put her arms, legs, and head through the woodchipper; no torso evidence was ever found. The trials brought out the gruesome details of the crime. In the morning of November 19, 1986, Richard Crafts kills his wife by bludgeoning her to death. At that time, he took the body into the basement and put it into the new freezer he bought earlier. He wakes the au pair and lets her know they are going to his sister's house in Newport because of a power outage in Newtown, and that Helle will meet them there. He drives them to the sister's house and then goes back to the body. He takes the frozen body to another property that he owned in Newtown that is more secluded than his home. He uses a chainsaw to cut the body into small pieces and then wraps the pieces in a garbage bag and puts the bag back into the freezer. On November 20, 1986, he took the body to Lake Zoar and in the dark, he puts each part of her body through the woodchipper. He then drives the U-Haul and woodchipper to Houstatonic River and proceeds to get rid of more of the evidence. Once completed, he runs clean wood through the woodchipper to clean it from the blood and flesh. However, Halle had mail in her pocket and it was ground up with her body, leaving fragments of bone, broken teeth and stands of her hair at the scene; this is also where Joseph Hines sees him (Crime, Mystery and Mayhem 2009). By November 21, 1986, Crafts begins to tell different lies to Halle's friends about her whereabouts. A statement that Helle made kept coming up during the trial and throughout the case: "If anything happens to me, don't assume it was an accident" (Crime, Mystery and Mayhem 5). Between December 1, 1986 and December 11, 1986, Crafts is interviewed by police, passes a lie detector test, but he lies several more times to the police and Halle's family. He never showed remorse but appeared apathetic about his wife though she was missing. By January 11, 1987, Crafts was arrested after a small amount of forensic evidence was found. Finally, after several attempts at getting Crafts to surrender, he finally is taken into custody late on January 11, is arraigned at Danbury court and a $750,000 bond is set; he goes to Bridgeport jail to await trial (Crime, Mystery and Mayhem 8). 10.0 The Trials On June 23, 1987, the first trial began with 100 witnesses and 650 pieces of evidence. The trial lasted for 53 days and ended in a mistrial. On September 7, 1989, the next trial began and more forensic evidence was brought forward. Also, Dr. Lee was able to show that bone, human tissue and fibers of hair, along with other debris was cut from the same woodchipper machine. Crafts admits to the prosecutor tha they will not find a body because it is gone. On November 20, 1989, the jury finds Crafts guilty of his wife's murder and he is sentenced to 50 years in prison to be spent in the Community Correctional Center in Bridgeport, CT. Mark Zaretsky, report for the New Haven Register said he was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the "absolutely horrendous and barbaric" (1) murder of his wife and using the woodchipper to destroy her body. Judge Martin L. Nigro, handed down the sentence after he stated that the murder was intentional and premeditated. Also, Crafts showed no remorse. Crafts did not receive the maximum sentence because this was his first arrest. This was the first time in Connecticut history that someone was convicted of murder without a body (Zaretsky 1). The children were sent to live with Crafts' sister and brother-in-law (Crime, Mystery and Mayhem 10). 11.0 The Media Dr. Lee points out that the media coverage was both good and bad. Unfortunately, some newspapers used sensational headlines like "Chopped to Pieces" (Lee 138) and t-shirts were made with a picture of a woodchipper with the caption, "Divorce, Connecticut Style" (Lee 138). The media was only considering selling papers, and had no regard for the feelings of Helle's friends and family. 12.0 Investigating the Case The case was drawn out because initially, Richard Crafts said his left with an Oriental lover. He stayed with the story and did not offer any other explanation for his wife's disappearance. The challenge for the police was that they could not automatically take Crafts as the murderer because there was no body and Crafts acted like his wife had disappeared before (in actuality, it was Crafts who disappeared from time to time for weeks at a time). The first few interrogations were done by Newtown police. Mike DeJoseph, a detective on the case, realized that in order to get Crafts, he would have to be patient and look for ways to outfox him. Unfortunately, time ran out because the state police were asked to become involved. When the state police entered the investigation they put pressure on Crafts to answer to several aspects of his story that did not add up. As an example, he was able to pass the lie detector test without emotion and gave answers that the polygraph examiner said were "too perfect" (Herzog 140). He also said that this wife had not received letters from her parents, but there was proof that she received several letters over the time before she disappeared. The major crime squad of state police was called in and a search warrant was obtained because the detectives had "justifiable grounds" (Herzog 155) but most of what they knew was circumstantial evidence until Dr. Lee become involved. In the initial investigations, as the police entered the house, they found everything in shambles with mattresses strewn everywhere. The detectives were looking for a murder weapon, for blood stains or anything else that would put Crafts as the murderer. They found Crafts' gun collection. They also found 113 items that included a note to Helle that Crafts left, washcloths, plastic trash bags, fibers, family photos, a safe deposit key and several guns. They noticed that Crafts was making an attempt to distort any evidence (Herzog 1989); they still were not able to say conclusively that Crafts had killed his wife. Although the major crime squad had been given the task to do more in the investigation than had been accomplished by the Newtown police, they were as baffled as the local police. Eventually, the crime squad would spend a week scouring the lakes for up to ten hours each day in search of anything that the wood chips could tell them. The wood chips had been distributed in three different areas and the foreign material they found was present in all three areas. They used sophisticated measures to gain as much evidence as possible. As an example, they examined items under a lighted eight-inch magnifying glass, and many items were sent to Dr. Lee. They found a human toe joint, part of a human finger and the crown of a human tooth; each of these had gone through the woodchipper. By this time, the crime unit had enough evidence to charge Richard Crafts with murder. 13.0 Conclusion The woodchipper murder case was one of the most spectacular cases for the small town of Newtown CT. The second trial deliberated for a shorter amount of time than the first one. However, some people still wonder, according to Dr. Lee, whether Helle was still alive somewhere because the evidence was so limited. Some of the questions that still remained were: "How did Helle's Toyotal Tercel make its way to the Pan Am employee parking lot? Did Richard Crafts actually risk being seen pulling the car behind his pickup truck, using a tow bar that had later been jettisoned? Or did some friend drive behind him when he added this macabre note to Helle's disappearance?" (Lee 156). The most difficult aspect of the case was that they could not rule out that Halle may have been alive somewhere and could reappear. However, at the writing of his book, 16 years had passed so it is probable that she is dead. Grieaves, a teacher who wrote notes for teacher sites website gives a conclusion that was chilling to think about: "As her husband stood spraying those remains into the Housatonic River, it could never have crossed his mind just how heavily those few scraps would ultimately weight on the scales of justice" (196). As readers, we cannot know the ramifications of a case like this other than its making history as one case where a body was never found, but someone was convicted of the crime. Works Cited Crime, Mystery & Mayhem. "Helle Crafts-Richard Crafts Convicted Murderer" True crime- Current trials, Old or Cold Cases. 01 October 2009. 10 November 2010. Gado, Mark. All about the woodchipper murder case. TrueTV 2009. 25 November 2010. Greaves, A. Richard Crafts. Identification of Remains Casebook. 193-196. 21 November 2010. Grogan, David W. The lady vanishes, and a woodchipper leaves just a shred of evidence. People Magazine. 01 August 1988. 30.5. 25 November 2010 Herzog, Arthur. The Woodchipper Murder. NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1989. Lee, Henry C. "The Woodchipper Murder" in Cracking Cases: The Science of Solving Crimes. 65-156. NY: Prometheus Books, 2002. McMurray, Kevin. 23 years ago, Richard Crafts was more willing to part with his wife than his money. News Times Online. 18 November 2009. 12 November 2010. Ravo, Nick. Second 'Woodchipper Murder' Trial begins. The new York Times Archives. 17 September 1989. 26 November 2010. Zaretsky, Mark. 'Woodchipper' killer gets 50 Years. New Haven Registry. 9 January 1990. 25 November 2010. Read More