Suspect in custody in Bethel homicide
BETHEL — Police have a suspect in custody after a homicide at an Apollo Road subdivision in the north part of town.
The mother of the victim came home to to find one of her sons dead — and she intitially thought he had taken his own life, police said.
But when police arrived it was determined he was the victim of a homicide, Capt. Stephen M. Pugner said.
While police have not yet identified the dead man, the state medical examiner said Tuesday that a Richard O’Dell was killed by “gunshot wounds to the head” in a homicide.
Public records show that a Richard O’Dell, 42, lives at the address where the death ocurred. The twostory home owned by his mother is also the address of his younger brother, Matthew O’Dell.
Mathew O’Dell, 40, was interviewed by Bethel detectives Monday, after New Milford police say they arrested him for attempting to steal a car during which he brandished a gun.
Bethel police said Tuesday a suspect who was “quickly identified” in the Apollo Road killing is in New Milford police custody, but did not identify him.
New Milford police arrested Matthew O’Dell at Young’s Hotel in New Milford after he allegedly entered a car and was confronted by two people, Grabner said.
The verbal argument “turned physical” and O’Dell drew a small handgun, later identified as a .25caliber semiautomatic PIC Decatur.
While the two people were on the phone with police, they disarmed O’Dell, took him to the ground and held him until police arrived, Grabner said.
Matthew O’Dell was charged with criminal attempt at larceny for the attempted car theft, carrying a pistol or revolver without a permit, and other charges related to the incident, Grabner said.
In his police mugshot, O’Dell’s face appears bruised and scratched and his right eye is blackened and swollen. His shirt is
splattered with blood.
Court records reveal O’Dell’s last brush with the law was in 2013, when he was sentenced to 30 days in jail for driving on a suspended license from a drunkendriving charge. In March of that year, Bethel police arrested him for driving under the influence and he received a suspended sixmonth sentence with probation.
About 6:30 p.m Monday, Bethel police were called to the Apollo Road home where the death occurred, Pugner said. Dispatch reports show an ambulance crew was called around 6:20 p.m., but was told by police to stand down.
Elizabeth Conners, who lives on Apollo Road, said police were at the house when she arrived home Monday night.
She said police were there all night and that her motherinlaw had been listening to a scanner and heard it was a murder.
Another neighbor at the end of the street said he noticed police at the house around 8 p.m. Monday.
Police had completely cordoned off the twostory home with yellow tape Tuesday morning, including the front driveway and backyard of the home. A state police Major Crimes van was on scene, along with a Bethel police van.
Pugner declined to give the cause of death, or the identity of the suspect Tuesday, due to the ongoing investigation.
Authorities wearing covers over their shoes were seen carrying bags of evidence out of the house around 8:34 a.m. Police left the scene shortly after 9 a.m.
This is Bethel’s second reported homicide in four months.
In August, police arrested David MacDowell for allegedly stabbing a woman to death with a kitchen knife at a home on Plumtrees Road.
MacDowell walked into the Bethel police station, lay down on the floor and confessed to the slaying around the same time officers were called to the scene of that homicide, court records show.
MacDowell was found dead in his cell from an apparent hanging in early September.