Forensic Files 1.1
"The Disappearance of Helle Crafts"
The Disappearance of Helle Crafts
Air date: 04/23/1996
Chronology: season 1, episode 1
Victim: Helle Crafts
Date of birth: 07/04/1947
Date of death: 11/19/1986
Cause of death: Blunt force trauma (presumed; body never recovered)
Location: Newtown, Connecticut, U.S.A.
Perpetrator: Richard Crafts
The crime: After an argument about her husband's infidelity, Helle Crafts was struck at least twice in the head by Richard Crafts. He wrapped her body in bedsheets and placed it in a freezer in the garage as he attempted to clean up the evidence. Later that evening, he dismembered the body with a chainsaw and put the remains through a rented woodchipper along the river. He then dismantled the chainsaw and disposed of it in the river.
Techniques: Antigen test (blood type testing), blood spatter analysis, orthotolidine test, chemical etching, hair analysis, chemical analysis, spectograph, signature cutting pattern, odontology
Professionals: Dr. Henry Lee, PhD (director of Connecticut State Police forensic laboratory, criminalist), Marty Ohradan (homicide investigator), H. Wayne Carver II, MD (chief medical examiner), Albert B Harper, PhD (biological anthropologist), Gus Karazulus, DDS (forensic odontologist), Elaine Pagliaro (forensic scientist), Keith Mayo (private investigator), Dianne M. Andersen (attorney), Joseph Palombizio (polygraph examiner), Peter Thomas (narrator)