Murder of Helle Crafts

Helle Crafts
Born	Helle Lorck Nielsen (1947-07-04)July 4, 1947 Charlottenlund, Denmark
Died	November 19, 1986(1986-11-19) (aged 39) Newtown, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality	Danish
Occupation	Flight attendant
Known for	Murder victim
Spouse(s)	Richard Crafts
Children	3

Helle Crafts  ⁽ⁱ⁾  Hell-Ah Craf-Ts (born Helle Lorck Nielsen, July 4, 1947 – November 19, 1986) was a Danish flight attendant who was murdered by her husband, Richard Crafts, an airline pilot and special constable. Her murder is sometimes called the "Woodchipper Murder" because of the method by which Richard Crafts disposed of her body. Her death brought about the first murder conviction in the state of Connecticut in which a body was never found.^[1]

Disappearance

Helle Crafts had met her husband while on an airline flight from Denmark to New York. The couple married in 1979, and settled in Newtown, Connecticut. They had three children; Andrew, born in 1980, Thomas, born in 1982, and Kristina, born in 1985. Helle maintained her job, while taking care of her children. By 1985, the couple's marriage was beginning to fall apart. Helle Crafts had known about her husband Richard's affairs with other women and had begun divorce proceedings against him. On the night of November 19, 1986, Lynne Jones, a friend of Helle's dropped her off at the home the couple was renting in Newtown, Connecticut. This was the last time anyone but her husband saw her.

During the next few weeks, friends of Helle tried to contact her, but were told different stories by her husband. Richard told some that Helle had gone to visit her mother in Denmark. He told others that she had left, and he did not know where she was. Richard also stated that she was in the Canary Islands with a friend. Friends grew suspicious and concerned about Helle's safety because they already knew about Richard's aggression and fiery temper. Helle once said, "If something happens to me, don't think it was an accident."^[2]

The case

By December 25, the police had obtained a search warrant for the Crafts' premises. They uncovered a few clues: several pieces of carpet from Richard and Helle's bedroom were removed from the floor. The family's nanny also came forward and told police of a dark, grapefruit-sized stain she had seen on the carpet of the bedroom, but that patch of carpet had apparently been removed. A blood smear was also uncovered on the side of the Crafts' bed. Police found among Richard's credit card records evidence that he had made several unusual purchases around the time his wife had vanished, including a new freezer that was not found in the house, new bed sheets, a comforter, and $900 for the rental of a woodchipper. Later, a private investigator, who had been hired by Helle Crafts, found in papers provided to him by Helle a receipt for a chainsaw. The chainsaw was later found in Lake Zoar in Newtown, Connecticut, and forensics experts would determine that it was covered in hair and blood that was matched by DNA to Helle.^[1]

A snowplow driver who knew Richard eventually came forward and said he had seen Richard using a woodchipper late at night near the shore of Lake Zoar, during a severe snowstorm. This was late on the night of November 19, the night Helle was last seen. With this new information, police focused their search around that area for many days, and even scanned the icy cold lake for clues. They found many pieces of metal, less than 3 ounces (85 g) of human remains, including a tooth with unique dental work, a toenail covered in pink nail polish, bone chips, 2,660 bleached, blonde human hairs, fingernails and O type blood, the same type as Helle Crafts'. Analysis led the police to conclude the remains had gone through a woodchipper. The forensic investigation was led by renowned forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee.^[1]

Prosecutors believe that Richard first struck Helle in the head with something blunt (like a police flashlight) at least twice, which would explain the blood stains found, then carried her body to the freezer where he left it for some time. Police further postulated that Richard had taken Helle's body out of the freezer on the night he was seen at the river by the snowplow driver, chopped it into several large portions with the chainsaw, and then put them through the woodchipper. The police believed the dismembered pieces of Helle's body were then scattered into the river and the area around it.

However, Crafts could not be tried for causing his wife's death until state agencies officially recorded her as deceased, and the absence of an identifiable body posed obstacles to that conclusion. After a forensic dentist confirmed that the found tooth was a match to Helle's dental records, the Connecticut State Medical Examiner's Office accepted this as admissible evidence and issued a death certificate for her and Richard Crafts was arrested for Helle's murder in January 1987. Due to extensive publicity, Crafts' trial was moved to New London, Connecticut. The trial then began in May 1988, in which forensic evidence was key. However, on July 15, 1988, a mistrial was declared after the jury became deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of conviction when one juror walked out of deliberations after refusing to vote to convict. Crafts was retried but the trial was moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, again due to the massive publicity surrounding the case and subsequent mistrial in New London. He was found guilty of First Degree Murder, on November 21, 1989, three years and two days after Helle was last seen alive. In January 1990, Richard Crafts was sentenced to serve 50 years in state prison.^[2][3] As of 2009 he was incarcerated in the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield. He will be eligible for parole in 2021.^[4]

In popular culture

• In the 1989 film Woodchipper Massacre, children kill their aunt, freeze her corpse, dismember it, and then put it in a woodchipper.
• The pilot episode of Forensic Files (1996) documents the investigation.^[5]
• The 1996 film Fargo is in part, loosely based on the case. This is revealed in the film's special edition DVD, although whether the case is actually the basis of the film is disputed.
• In 1997, New Detectives outlined the events in an episode titled "Bodies of Evidence".
• In 1998, the case was featured on History Television's series, Crime Stories.^[6]
• In July 2012, Investigation Discovery revisited the investigation of the case in their Blood, Lies, and Alibis episode entitled "Woodchipper Killer," focusing particularly on Lee's forensic analyses.
• The case was discussed in the Jodi Picoult novel House Rules.

See also

• Crime in Connecticut
• List of murder convictions without a body
• Uxoricide

References

Bibliography

• The Woodchipper Murder by Arthur Herzog