July 24, 2010
Back To Basics: Solving State's Cold Cases Isn't Just About DNA:
Unit Digs into Files, Finds Some People Ready to Talk
By Karen Florin, The Day,
New London, Conn.
July 24--Wanted posters that
hung in the lobbies of area
police departments for years
are starting to come down.
Detectives haunted by
homicide cases long past the
"golden hour" when crimes
are considered most solvable
are getting the satisfaction,
finally, of telling victims'
family members an arrest has
been made.
People who may have thought
they got away with murder
are in prison, awaiting trial, or
maybe anticipating the day
when the region's cold case
investigators knock on their
door.
Since its inception in October
2009, the Southeastern
Connecticut Cold Case Unit
has made arrests in cases
dating back to 1993 and 1997.
More arrests are in the
pipeline, according to James
Rovella, chief inspector with
the Office of the Chief State's
Attorney.
early stages of the
investigation," Massey said.
The public often associates
cold cases with DNA and
other forensic evidence, but
witness statements have
provided detectives with the
biggest breaks in the cold
cases they have solved to
date.
The unit considers three time
periods: before, during and
after the murder.
With the passage of time,
people are often more willing
to talk.
"You break it into concentric
circles," Rovella said. "You
start with the people closest to
the victim and work your way
out. Usually in the first circle
or two, you find the
murderer."
Two cases cleared
"Times have changed," said
Peter Massey, a former
Hamden detective who now
lectures in forensics at the
University of New Haven.
"They've matured. They've
grown up. Or the pressure
they had back then not to say
anything is gone. Somebody
has passed away, somebody
has moved away or somebody
is no longer a threat."
Many times, the person who
is ultimately arrested was part
of the original investigation.
"The name is in the file
someplace, usually in the
Re-interviewing a witness 17
years after Bertha Reynolds
was found dead at the bottom
of the staircase in her
Norwich home led to an arrest
in that case.
In May, the unit charged Irene
Reynolds, a 38-year-old
mother of three from Baltic,
with fatally beating and
strangling her mother. Bertha
Reynolds' body was found at
her home at 84 Laurel Hill
Ave., Norwich, on July 19,
1993.
After studying the Bertha
Reynolds case file,
investigators traveled to St.
Mary's, Ga., in January to reinterview Reynolds' former
roommate, Kim Stone. Stone,
who had been questioned
many times by Norwich
police, was ready to talk. She
told the investigators in a
taped interview that she saw
Irene Reynolds kill her
mother.
In June, the unit charged 40year-old Dickie Anderson Jr.
with killing Renee Pellegrino
on June 25, 1997. Pellegrino's
body was discovered in a culde-sac off Waterford Parkway
South. She had been
strangled, her naked body laid
out in what the judge who
signed the warrant described
as an "extreme manner." She
was 41.
Details of the Pellegrino
investigation remain sealed,
but according to statements
made in court, the case
involves DNA from Anderson
and another person that was
found on Pellegrino's body,
inconsistent statements by
Anderson over the years, his
admission that he was with
Pellegrino before she died,
and statements from
witnesses, including jailhouse
informants.
In one of the first cases the
team looked at, the
strangulation of 30-year-old
Leandra Wilson in New
London on March 6, 1987, the
investigators discovered the
person who was long
suspected in the killing had
died. There is more work to
be done before the case can
be closed, Rovella said.
At the moment, the unit is reinvestigating the fatal
shooting of 19-year-old Sean
Hill in Norwich on June 6,
2006. Hill was murdered
during the course of a drug
deal and robbery at an
apartment complex on
Boswell Avenue. Bruce N.
Gathers and Gregory Smith
pleaded guilty to robbing and
assaulting Justin Smith, who
was with Hill on the night he
was killed, but have not been
charged in connection with
the murder. They are both in
prison.
Chief State's Attorney Kevin
T. Kane, who prosecuted
crimes in New London for 20
years before he was promoted
to the statewide position, said
local police chiefs were eager
to form a unit and tackle their
unsolved homicides.
The Groton City, Groton
Town, New London,
Norwich, Stonington and
Waterford police have
assigned investigators to the
unit along with state police
from Troop E and the Eastern
District Major Crime Squad
and the probation and
correction departments.
Rovella, from Kane's office,
and Jack Edwards, a chief
inspector with local ties, are
supervising the unit.
"One of the main functions of
government is solving serious
crimes," Kane said. "Crimes
of this nature, particularly
murder and violent sexual
assaults, should not go
unsolved if we can find the
means to solve them."
In one cold case that has gone
to trial in New London
recently, a jury convicted
repeat sex offender George
M. Leniart this spring of
killing 15-year-old April
Dawn Pennington in 1996.
Defense attorney Norman A.
Pattis mounted an aggressive
defense of Leniart, but the
jury convicted Leniart despite
the lack of the victim's body,
and with jailhouse "snitches"
serving as the state's key
witnesses.
Two units in state
A former Hartford police
detective with more than 24
years of experience in
homicide investigations,
Rovella is the task master
who provides weekly
assignments to the unit and
insists the investigators look
first at people other than the
main suspects.
Rovella also oversees the
state's other cold case unit, in
the Hartford area, which he
said has made about 30
arrests, with only two
acquittals, since 1998. The
Hartford unit also has helped
out with so-called "actual
innocence" cases in which
DNA testing has proved
people were wrongfully
convicted.
One case involved James C.
Tillman, who served 18 years
in prison for a sexual assault,
kidnapping and robbery. The
cold case unit helped identify
and prosecute another man,
Duane Foster, who eventually
pleaded guilty.
Rovella has brought a
somewhat academic approach
to the investigations. The unit
takes on a case based on its
"solvability."
this witness said this at this
point and the suspect said this
at this point. We get to layer
what the witnesses and
suspects and police said."
Sometimes the investigators
study the case for as long as
three weeks before they hit
the streets to conduct
interviews. Unlike the people
who initially investigated, the
cold case investigators can
take their time.
"We get to sit back and say,
'Why don't we look at
different aspects of these
cases?' " Rovella said. "We
get to examine the witnesses
from a different point of
view."
400 unsolved homicides
"That means there's physical
evidence readily available.
There's complete reports in
files. There's witnesses that
are still alive," he said.
An analyst in the Hartford
unit organizes the case
documents, scans them into a
PDF file, and creates a
computer disk for each
member. The unit also
examines computer-generated
time lines of each crime.
"It's a piece of software that
cost us a whole $199,"
Rovella said. "We can see that
Though the governor's office
has authorized rewards of up
to $50,000 for information
that leads to arrests and
convictions, rewards
traditionally do not play a big
part in resolving cold cases,
according to Rovella.
"They're one of the things in
the playbook that we check
off as we go," he said.
Another thing Rovella asks is
that the local departments that
initially investigated the
crimes "check their egos at
the door." He said the unit reinterviews a lot of the same
witnesses, hopefully bringing
new eyes and a fresh
perspective to a case.
"It's a reinvestigation," he
said.
Many of the unit members are
seasoned detectives who have
worked numerous death
cases, but some are patrolmen
with limited investigation
experience.
"We're bringing a major case
approach and investigative
experience to a lot of these
guys in the southeast section
that may never see more than
three or four homicides in
their entire career," Rovella
said.
The state has about 400
unsolved homicides,
according to Rovella, "and the
spigot never turns off," he
said. In the coming weeks, his
office will be distributing
playing cards with pictures of
52 homicide victims to the
state's prisons and police
departments. Like the offer of
a monetary reward, this is
another way of "stirring the
pot," he said.
"You've got to get people
talking," he said.