Solved By: A wood chipper
WHEN A HUSBAND KILLED HIS WIFE, A GRISLY SECRET WAS UNCOVERED
In 1986, the unravelling of Richard and Helle Crafts’ marriage hit the headlines. In what was to become a landmark case, Richard was the first person to be convicted of murder in the absence of a body in the state of Connecticut, USA. The victim was his 39-yearold wife and mother of his three children.
The couple both worked in the airline industry – Richard as a pilot and Helle as a flight attendant – and had met on the job. Marrying in 1979, they set up home in suburban Newtown, and lived as a regular American family unit, albeit with their literal jet-setting. But behind the outward smiles, their relationship was crumbling. Mutual friends of the couple were aware that Richard’s volatile temper had caused problems in the relationship. But after Helle discovered her husband had engaged in several extra-marital affairs, she was ready to call time on their seven-year marriage and sought out a divorce lawyer. Privately, she confided in friends that she was afraid of her husband, going so far as to tell them, “If something happens to me, don’t think it was an accident.” Helle’s foreshadowing of her own demise became all too real on the evening of 18 November 1986. Friends dropped her at home after a long flight, and she was never seen alive again.
That night, Connecticut was hit by a freak snowstorm, and Richard told friends he was taking Helle and the rest of the family to his sister’s house in a neighbouring town for safety. However, when they arrived, Helle was not with them. In the following weeks, Richard was to fabricate a web of lies regarding his wife’s whereabouts, telling some that she was visiting her mother in Denmark and others that she was holidaying in the Canary Islands. Finally, on 1 December, concerned friends reported her missing. A private detective named Oliver Mayo, who had been hired by Helle to obtain photos of her cheating spouse, contacted police urging them to investigate Richard’s role in his wife’s disappearance.
But – perhaps because, in addition to being
a pilot, Richard held a position as a part-time police officer – investigators were reluctant to question him.
CRUCIAL EVIDENCE
It wasn’t until 26 December, over five weeks since Helle was last seen, that officers searched the Crafts’ residence. Waiting until the family were on holiday, investigators searched the property and found evidence of foul play. Parts of the bedroom carpet had been removed and there was a blood smear located on the side of the couple’s bed. A further search into Richard’s movements at the time of Helle’s disappearance revealed unusual purchases including a freezer, bed sheets, a duvet, and a payment made for the rental of a wood-chipper. They also obtained a receipt for a chainsaw. Although seemingly damning, these purchases alone could not prove that Richard had murdered his wife, and there was still no body.
But a local man was about to provide a crucial piece of evidence. Joseph Hine had been using his snow plough on the night in question when he noticed something unusual. Parked next to the shore of Lake Zoar, he spotted a rental vehicle with a wood chipper attached. Examining that location, police made a terrible discovery. They found human tissue, the crown of a tooth, a fingernail covered in pink nail polish, bone chips, human hairs, and type-o blood, which was the same type as Helle. A chainsaw with hair and DNA matching Helle’s was also recovered from the lake. Helle’s remains had been found.
Investigators theorised that, after murdering his wife with a blunt object, Richard had stored her body in the freezer he had purchased, dismembering her body after it had frozen. He had then fed her remains through the hired wood chipper. In support of this theory at trial, the carcass of a pig was used to demonstrate how the bone fragments passed through the chipper matched in shape and size to those retrieved from the lake.
The highly publicised case garnered so much press attention that the first trial ended in a hung jury, and a second trial was moved to a different location. However, on 21 November 1989, Richard Crafts was found guilty of murdering his wife, and a judge sentenced him to a 50-year term.
The 1996 film Fargo , which features a wood chipper murder scene, was said to have been inspired by the grisly case. But in a shocking twist, despite the severity of his crime, Richard was released in January 2020.