Woodchipper murderer maintained his innocence

NEWTOWN – Some people may have believed Richard Crafts’ first claims to know nothing of his Danish-born wife’s whereabouts when she went missing in a November snowstorm 30 years ago.

But by his second murder trial on charges he killed the 39-yearold mother of his three children, cut her up with a chain saw and fed her frozen body parts through a woodchipper into the Housatonic River, Crafts himself may have been the only person left saying he was innocent, said a veteran journalist, whose coverage of the national story led to a book.

Never mind that all police found of Helle Crafts’ body was a fingertip, a nail, some blonde hair and a few dozen bone shavings.

“It was a case of circumstantial evidence — but overwhelming circumstantial evidence — in which there was no logical conclusion other than she was killed,” said Pat O’Neill, a former News-Times reporter who broke the story, and now a spokesman for the state House Republican Caucus. “But Richard has always maintained his innocence — even when they put him on the stand in 1988 — he said he was not responsible.”

Crafts’ story is remarkably similar to the case of Jennifer Dulos – the missing mother of five from New Canaan, whose estranged husband was accused of killing her. Last week, the husband Fotis Dulos died by apparent suicide, claiming in a note that he was innocent.

The difference is that Crafts, now 82, will walk free as soon as June, having completed his 50year sentence early due to good behavior.

O’Neill said he interviewed Crafts several times before the former Marine and commercial airline pilot was charged with murder.

“The last conversation I had with him was after he had come back from skiing with his kids and it was a media circus with a lot of stakeouts,” O’Neill said during a telephone interview Monday. “He was exasperated and very stressed out … but he passed two lie detector tests — he was able to do that.”

Because it is not clear where Crafts will go when he is released from a Bridgeport homeless shelter for veterans, it’s not clear how his release will impact Newtown.

Newtown was embroiled in the national story as it escalated from a missing suburban mom case into a tabloid drama.

“Once the outcome of the investigation was reported and learned, it was horrible,” said O’Neill, whose reporting was featured in the 1990 true crime book, “The Woodchipper Murder.” “The idea that this could have taken place in Newtown under those circumstances and those details was devastating.”

The case was also precedentsetting — becoming the first time in Connecticut history for a jury to convict a murder suspect without a body.

As such, the conviction was a victory for crime science in the days before DNA identification.

“They determined that a bone fragment from her skull was evidence that she was dead,” said O’Neill, who wrote for the NewsTimes from 1982 to 1996.

Crafts was in prison from 1987 until November, when he was released to a Bridgeport halfway house, the state Department of Corrections said. He earned time off his sentence for good behavior, and his risk level was reduced based on programs that he completed in good standing, the DOC said.

O’Neill said he supported the department’s decision.

“He served the time the state determined he should serve,” O’Neill said.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342

Contributed photo Helle and Richard Crafts