Help sought in 1988 cold case
Bodies of professor, antiques dealer found in Hartford
State Police are asking for the public’s help in solving a 1988 double homicide in Washington County.
On Sept. 12, 1988, a trapper checking his traps off of Lily Pond Road in Hartford found the body of a man and called Washington County Sheriff’s deputies. When deputies investigated, they found a second man’s body.
An initial State Police investigation determined that the two men, Frederick Pauling, 57, and James Checkush, 37, had been dead for several days.
Checkush was a Long Island antiques dealer who lived in Manhattan and Pauling was a psychology professor at John Jay College in New York City.
Pauling owned a home on Dick Hill Road, near where the bodies were found. Police believe the two men were killed inside that home and dumped near Lily Pond Road.
Senior Investigator Roger Leclaire of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department said at the time that Pauling had been doing research for a book, which was to be titled “The Criminal Mind.”
Investigators learned that Pauling was interviewing criminals for the book, which was still in transcript form, Leclaire said. He said that information was not linked to the leads in the case.
One of the two was shot to death and the other was killed by blows to the head.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at 518-7462475.