Helle Crafts | |
|---|---|
 Helle Crafts | |
| Born | Helle Lorck Nielsen July 7, 1947 Charlottenlund, Denmark |
| Died | November 19, 1986 (aged 39) Newtown, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Blunt force trauma |
| Occupation | Flight attendant |
| Known for | Murder victim |
| Spouse | Richard Crafts |
| Children | 3 |
Helle Crafts (English:/ˈhɛləˈkræfts/ ⓘ; bornHelle Lorck Nielsen; July 7, 1947 – November 19, 1986) was a Danishflight attendant who was murdered by her husband,Eastern Air Lines pilot Richard Crafts. Her death led to the state ofConnecticut's first murder convictionwithout the victim's body.[1][2]
Helle Nielsen married Richard Crafts in 1975 and settled with him inNewtown,Connecticut, United States. Helle continued working as a flight attendant while raising their three children. In 1986, Helle began to suspect that Richard was engaged in extramarital sexual activity, and confronted him about suspicious long-distance phone calls, which angered Richard.[3] Helle met with a divorce attorney and hired aprivate investigator, Keith Mayo, who snapped photos of Richard kissing another flight attendant outside herNew Jersey residence.[3]
On November 18, 1986, friends dropped Helle off at the couple's Newtown residence after she had worked a long flight fromFrankfurt,West Germany. She was never seen again. That night, a snowstorm hit the area. The next morning, Richard said he was taking Helle and their children to his sister's house inWestport. When he arrived, Helle was not with him. Over the next few weeks, Richard gave Helle's friends a variety of stories as to why they were unable to reach her: that she was visiting her mother inDenmark, that she was visiting theCanary Islands with a friend, or that he simply did not know her whereabouts.[4] Helle's friends were aware that Richard had a volatile temper and grew concerned. Helle had told some of them, "If something happens to me, don't assume it was an accident."[5][6] On December 1, the private investigator Keith Mayo reported her missing to the Newtown Police.[3] Richard Crafts was known to local law enforcement for his work as a volunteer police officer in Newtown, and in 1986 Crafts was working as a part-time police officer in the nearby town ofSouthbury.[7] According to Mayo, Newtown Police initially dismissed his concerns, saying that Helle would probably return.[3]
Convinced that Richard Crafts was involved in Helle's disappearance but unable to persuade local police to investigate him for murder, Mayo took his findings to the countyprosecutor, who eventually referred the case to theConnecticut State Police. On December 26, while Richard was vacationing with his children inFlorida, troopers searched his home. Inside, they found pieces of carpet taken from the master bedroom floor. The family'snanny recalled that a dark,grapefruit-sized stain had appeared in an area of the carpet, which was later missing. There was also a blood smear on the side of the bed mattress. The forensic investigation was led byHenry Lee, who at the time was an investigator for the state police.[1]
Richard's credit card records showed several unusual purchases around the time Helle vanished, including a freezer that was not found in the house, bed sheets, acomforter, and the rental of awoodchipper. Among papers provided to a private investigator by Richard was a receipt for achainsaw; the chainsaw was later found inLake Zoar covered in hair and blood, which matched Helle'sDNA.[1] A key piece of evidence was provided by Joseph Hine, a local man who worked for the town of Southbury and drove a townsnowplow in the winter. On the night of November 18, hours after Helle had been last seen, Hine was plowing the roads during the snowstorm when he noticed a rental truck, with a woodchipper attached, parked close to the shore of Lake Zoar.
It was only after the search of the Crafts' house that Hine reported what he had seen. He led detectives to the location, where they examined the water's edge and found many small pieces of metal and some 3 ounces (85 g) of humantissue, including thecrown of a tooth, a fingernail covered in pink nail polish, bone chips, 2,660bleached blonde human hairs, andO type blood, which was the sametype as that of Helle Crafts.[8] This led the police to conclude the remains had likely been fed through the woodchipper Richard had been seen towing. Additionally, a chainsaw that contained traces of blonde human hair was found underwater. Though theserial number marking on the chainsaw was scrubbed away, the investigators restored the number in the laboratory.[9] The serial number on the tool was traced to the retailer, whose records confirmed that Richard Crafts had purchased the chainsaw.[9][10] Investigators concluded that Richard struck Helle in the head with something blunt at least twice, staining the carpet with blood, then kept her body in the freezer for hours until she was frozen solid. He cut her apart with the chainsaw and then put the pieces through the woodchipper, probably projecting her fragmented remains into the truck and then shoveling them out onto the shore.
Aprosecution for homicide requires an official determination of the death of the alleged victim; typically, this is done by identification of a body, which was not available in this case. With the help of aforensic dentist, the tooth crown found on the water's edge was positively matched to Helle's dental records. On this evidence, the Connecticut StateMedical Examiner's Office issued adeath certificate on January 13, 1987; Richard was immediately arrested. In preparation fortrial, state medical examiner H. Wayne Carver obtained a pig carcass fed through a woodchipper. The shape of, and marks on, the pig's bone chips after this process were similar to the shape of Helle's bone fragments, strengthening the hypothesis that Richard had used a woodchipper to dispose of his wife's body.[11]
Richard Crafts' murder trial began in May 1988 inNew London, where it was moved due to extensive local publicity. The case went to the jury after 54 days. On July 15, 1988, the 17th day of jury deliberations, a single juror—the only juror in favor of acquittal—refused to continue, and the judge declared a mistrial.[12] A second trial inNorwalk ended in aguilty verdict on November 21, 1989. Richard was sentenced to serve 50 years in prison.[5][13] On January 30, 2020, Richard was released from prison and sent to live at ahalfway house inBridgeport.[14][15] Richard was released early because of "statutory good time," which allows sentences to be shortened for good behavior and jailhouse jobs.
The special edition DVD of the 1996 filmFargo contains a statement that the Crafts case inspired the film,[16] particularly the very end of the film where a character, played bySteve Buscemi, is killed and his body is put through a woodchipper.
The opening episode ofForensic Files was about Helle Crafts' murder.[17]
