Billy Smolinski /// Part 1 /// 230 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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the shitter's full well somebody needs to empty it Captain that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a
chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] when an adult goes missing Without a
Trace often families struggle to get law enforcement to take the case of their loved ones disappearance seriously and
urgently adults after all are capable of making their own decisions leading their own
lives without answering to others as adults we have the freedom to take off at a moment's notice
and the freedom to make drastic decisions some that can lead to devastating consequences
it is the missing person's family that is Left Behind to put the pieces of the puzzle together
some families have been left searching forever we have heard so many times that mother
will always leave the light on for you but parents brothers and sisters sometimes pass away
never knowing what happened to their loved one all of their questions go unanswered
don't let this be one of those cases William Paul smolinski Jr was born January 14 1973.
he went by the name of Billy his missing Flyers describe him as a Caucasian male
six foot tall 200 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes he had a pierced left ear
a tattoo of a blue cross on his left shoulder and a tattoo on his forearm that read Pruitt pru Itt
the last reported sighting of him was August 24th 2004 at his home in Waterbury Connecticut Billy smolinski
was 31 years old when he disappeared this is true crime garage [Music] foreign at the time of his disappearance Billy
smolinski lived in Waterbury a working-class town located about a half hour from Hartford Connecticut
Billy worked three jobs and he loved wrenching on cars Captain there are several problems with Billy's
disappearance but the one of most concern is plain and simply this since Billy disappeared Without a Trace
and Foul Play is suspected no one can be 100 percent certain who was the last person to see him or to talk to him lots
of people could have motivation to lie about their last contact with Billy some things have been verified by police
which we will indicate when we discuss them but the general facts according to Billy's family friends and police
reports are these on Tuesday August 24th Billy purchased a meal at a Burger King restaurant in
Waterbury Connecticut he ordered Burger King's signature hamburger the Whopper I'm getting hungry for lunch here and he
got a cheeseburger medium fries and a Coca-Cola the receipt for this meal was time stamped 2 59 PM according to police
reports at around 5 PM on August 24th Billy knocked on the door of his neighbor this is Roy Henley and said the
following I'm heading up North and I put that in air quotes there up North for three days to look at a car
that I'm considering buying could you please look after Harley a Harley is Billy's beloved German Shepherd
Billy told the neighbor where he had placed a key to the house so that Roy could get in and feed the dog and let
the dog out now according to Roy he and Billy also briefly discussed Billy's very fresh
breakup with his girlfriend after this conversation with Roy Billy returned home and Roy never saw him after that
so let's stop here captain and think about this story for a second Billy was known to buy and fix up old cars so this
story makes some sense is there any animosity between him and his neighbor well I think the thought here is
this this would be the reported last sighting of Billy that we would know of okay and the thought here is there's
Foul Play suspected against Billy and that's why we believe he's still missing to this day now who was the perpetrator
of that we don't know so therefore if Roy had been somebody to have done something to him then he could have
fabricated this story that hey he came over and asked me to watch the dog right but there's is there evidence or not of
animosity between the two okay so I don't know I don't know how much animosity there would have been other
than we have some reports of of two things one Billy it wouldn't be common for him to ask somebody to watch his dog
for so that seems odd and two there are people that say Billy didn't really care
for Roy and that's about as much of a description as we have about the relationship between the two now we all
know you know you live next to people you have friends you have family there are times that there are people that you
like in the long run but you may have a bad day with them from time to time and maybe you just tell somebody hey don't
really care for Roy you know maybe you just had a bad day with Roy and Roy's actually pretty fine in your
relationship together is pretty fine overall well sometimes with specially with neighbors you can have a neighbor
that's very friendly and a good neighbor and a good person but because they're always in a good mood
you're like yeah guys okay well the other thing though too that's tricky here is why would it take three days he
says hey can you watch my dog and I need you to watch him for three days why does
it take three days for him to just go simply check out a car that he's thinking of purchasing do we have any
more reports of Billy telling anybody else that he's going to go check out a car
no we do not but I think the thing that's that's tough here is that he doesn't really give a great description
of where he may be going so maybe that is why it's going to take three days because you know simply saying I'm going
up no up north is not a great description of where he is heading to find this car I have a lot of buddies
that buy cars and flip them and or do some repairs on them and then sell them and it's you know when you get a lead or
a bite on something you have to go immediately so it could be something that Billy found out about 20 minutes
before he decided hey I'm going to go talk to my neighbor and see if he can watch the dog
so the next morning around 10 a.m Roy went to Billy's house to let Harley out but the key was not where Billy said he
would have left it so Roy was locked out of Billy's house he couldn't get in to take care of the dog so Roy went back to
his home and called Mary Ellen Noble and this is Billy's ex-girlfriend yes and I'm guessing that Roy would have had her
phone number in case of an emergency with the dog maybe it was left with him that night I don't or maybe he had it on
file let's say because of the dog and I think it'll become clear later while he might have had that number so alarm
Bells immediately went off in Mary Ellen's mind she called Billy's sister Paula who
called her mother Jan all of them the three of them are trying to contact Billy none of them ever get a hold of
him the two decide to meet at Billy's house so this is his sister and his mother and
when they arrive they become more concerned yeah they become more concerned because his pickup truck he
has a white pickup truck which you assume he'd be using the drive up north is parked in his driveway but it's also
parked oddly because it's really close to the street yeah it's at the bottom of the driveway so the two the mother and
sister are alarmed and according to them Billy leaving Harley in the hands of the
neighbor was completely out of character so on top of that he neglected to leave
a key remember he said he was going to leave a key this was so the dog could be let out yeah but he didn't do that right
but this does not rule out the fact that he is leaving in a hurry for some reason
and he just forgets to leave the key for the neighbor again odd that the neighbor
is watching the dog but not that odd if you have to go immediately for some unknown reason right according to the
family his dog was his best friend and according to his ex-girlfriend Mary Ellen Billy didn't even like Roy now we
don't have a great description of what that means or a good understanding of what that means we just have one person
with the very simple statement of I don't even think Billy liked Roy right so Paula and Jan they went to the police
station at Waterbury to file a missing persons report police listened to their story particularly the part about the
neighbor saying that Billy had said he was leaving to go out of town for three days and the two ladies were told hey
you're going to have to wait 72 hours to file this report which I mean it's aggravating after the
fact because we sit here today knowing that he's still missing but at the same time like we've kind of
talked about in the trailer this guy's 31 years old if he says I'm going out of town for three days I think
the police are saying look you might just be having a hard time getting a hold of the guy I understand that he did
some things out of character but he's allowed to leave to go out of town why don't we become concerned when he
doesn't reappear after this trip the troubling things though the you know like we said Roy's story being the only
story we have is a little troubling the dog thing is is troubling in the in the sense of this
Mary Ellen and and Billy had got that dog together they got Harley together when they were in
their long-term relationship and so the way that this kind of worked is they jokingly said hey after they
split up they remained friends and they said hey we got we got joint custody of our dog Harley
my understanding is that the dog primarily lived with Billy but if he were to go out of town or need someone
to take care of the dog Mary Ellen was his go-to like that was the regular thing she wanted the dog at her house
she wanted to help out with the dog take care of the dog and so everybody found it very strange that Billy would choose
Roy who we have the ex-girlfriend saying that he might not have really cared for
Roy over this designated spot that the dog would often go to to be taken care of regularly very strange but again to
play Devil's Advocate we have a situation where maybe Billy had to leave immediately and maybe he didn't want his
ex to know where he was going so we have a situation where they're not going to take the police report for 72
hours so his mother and sister are going to return to Billy's home to look for Clues they're kind of on their own
they're going to try to piece This Together by themselves this is when they found the Burger King receipt which was
located they found it in a trash can time stamped 259 the day that he was last seen right the house was neat and
nothing appeared to have been Disturbed according to them they called his friend
this man's name is Chris who lived in New Hampshire because he was the only friend that they could think of who
lived quote up north where Billy had told Roy he was headed Chris had not heard from Billy the biggest part of
this investigation to me Captain is Billy because always you know the possibility in these cases
is Billy could be the reason that we can't find Billy so none of his family has ever
acknowledged the possibility that Billy would ever voluntarily disappear to start a new life or
harm himself I got a question because back to this truck so this white truck his pickup truck that's his main vehicle
or does he have is that his main vehicle and he has multiple vehicles I mean if he's selling or fixing up cars then one
would assume that he has access to other vehicles I believe he has two vehicles one being
the truck and I think the other is either a motorcycle or a dirt bike Okay so here's the thing
and God bless all the motorcyclists out there uh God bless you actually I hung out with a guy last weekend listen this
is craziness this is borderline Insanity the guy drove on his motorcycle rode his motorcycle
to and from Alaska from Ohio nice that's one hell of a trip but like that seems Seems incredibly dangerous to me but
sorry what I meant to be saying though is under this assumption with the the motorcycle and the um dirt bike
possibility I think that was located at his home in his garage okay I was gonna say because one could assume you pull
the truck out just enough where you can get the motorcycle around and when you go to take off you're just like yeah I'm
not gonna pull my truck in I'll be back in a couple days his but if you find his
motorcycle at his house then what did he take his truck was his main source of transportation and believed to have been
the vehicle he would have chosen for this three-day trip right but hold on a second if you have to go pick up a car
if you like the car and you don't want it towed then maybe you could drive something you
see what I'm saying like maybe maybe what he was going to go look at was a truck and he could throw the motorcycle
in the back of the truck just just throwing it out there no I get you but the that vehicle is not missing
right but what I'm saying is we have a guy that deals with vehicles so I'm just wondering
all my buddies that sell vehicles I cannot tell you how many vehicles they have at a single time
oh I see what you mean that there could have been some other vehicle I mean I'd pull up at my buddy's house that sells
cars and there's two new cars that week right you know or two motorcycles in the
garage well then or one time uh they got back uh from a trip from Indiana and they bought eight motorcycles who
buys eight motorcycles a possibility but if this were the case it would have to be an unregistered
vehicle to him um but regarding him harming himself or taking off starting a new life like I
said his family just they do not seem to think that that's a possibility given what they know about their son and their
brother um the questionable thing here though is that he recently had some turmoil in his
personal life we know this because he was talking to Roy about how he had just recently broke up with a girlfriend
and this is not the girlfriend that was going to take care of the dog right this
is a different girlfriend okay so Billy had personally relayed to his sister the
following information in the day or two leading up to his disappearance Billy was seeing a woman named Madeline
Gleason the two had been dating for about a year they met when they both worked at a school bus they were school
bus drivers for a company called B B transportation this is a huge busing company Madeline was 16 years older than
Billy she had been married three times and had five children from these different relationships she was a little
rough around the edges and I'm using other people's description of her Billy's family was not a big fan of hers
they did not see what he saw in her they much preferred Billy's ex of eight years
Mary Ellen who we've discussed already ready Mary Ellen and Billy had broken up just before he started dating Madeline
and his parents said outright that they still had hope that Mary Ellen would one
day be their daughter-in-law Mary Ellen and Billy had adopted Harley together as we said as a puppy and they
considered that they had this joint custody of the dog Mary Ellen would later say that him
leaving the dog with anybody other than her would just flat out never happen so Roy is just a flaming pile of dog [ __ ]
well I don't think we can say that for certain but what we should point out is this okay the information that he gave
to his sister well I'm just saying she said he'd never leave the dog with anybody
but her well he did during this time Roy killed him during the course of the relationship with Madeleine uh Billy was
committed to her and to her young son who was about 14 at the time there were reports that he had planned on having
the two of them move in with him at some point Paula and Jan told police that Billy had gone with Madeline to Florida
the week before he had vanished despite the fact that he hated to fly and never took vacations
Billy's parents said despite his anxiety about flying and traveling in general he
was excited about this trip he even came over to their home to borrow their luggage to use on this trip and this
trip was going to be to visit one of Madeline's older Sons who was about Billy's age this is her son Tom
true to their agreement say what the sun is the same age as Billy yeah she's 16 years older than Billy true to
their agreement Mary Ellen had Harley for the days that Billy was in Florida on this vacation according to Mary Ellen
she spoke to Billy from Florida and said that he told her that he had noticed that his girlfriend was receiving phone
calls on her cell phone and was hiding these calls from him he became suspicious that Madeline was seeing
somebody else Mary Ellen told one story that Billy had caught her standing in the shower
pretending to shower but secretly on the phone Madeline was on the phone with another
man the way that Madeline told this story in court later Billy had snatched the phone from her and went through the
call log and the contacts on her phone look I'm just gonna put this out there been there done that did the whole
disappearing cell phone trick to the whole who's texting you a bit if you're at that point where you have
to ask just get up walk away get up and walk away well that's pretty much what happens because she admits
that she is seeing somebody she's seeing a married man this is a businessman uh from Connecticut and Billy and her broke
up uh and returned to Connecticut this on Sunday August 22nd and they went their separate ways both Mary Ellen and
Paula said that Billy took or I'm sorry talked to both of them the day after he got back okay he told them both he was
through with his girlfriend he said that he told his boss you know mind you he's working
several jobs at durable Towing that he was absolutely devastated by this whole thing like I said there's every
indication to believe that he was having her and her son move in with him relatively soon they were going to take
the relationships she had five children correct so there's only one that's young
enough to be in her care okay yeah yeah he was he was 14 years old now we don't know if Jan or Paula called Madeline to
ask if she had seen or heard from Billy if they did they likely heard this story
from her this is what she had told police after Billy had disappeared all all of this is recorded in the police
report she said Billy called her home on the night of Monday August 23rd but she had not picked up then at four
or five a.m on the morning of Tuesday August 24th the the day that he vanished Billy set a ladder next to her window at
her home and attempted to climb in the window she ended up letting him in through the the door
and they talked for about an hour we we don't really know what was said or where
the two left things but later she told police that Billy wanted to get back together and he still wanted the two of
them to move in with him according to their plan you know stick with the plan she told him she needed time to think
about it and he left as she put it he appeared to be depressed when he left it's likely he left her home because of
three phone calls made from his home later that day these calls appeared on Billy's call records and were found in
the course of a police warrant they all were placed between 11 44 a.m and 11 58 a.m now the three calls that were made
were all to the same number and that was of Chris Swanson who is a kind of a low-level politician he was the
businessman that was having the affair with Madeline so he's a prominent businessman too he's
pretty pretty well to do Chris and Billy would likely have known each other as well because Chris was involved with a
he owned a trucking company so it's thought that their paths would have crossed at some point just through their
lines of work right Chris's father Christopher was a business partner with Billy's boss at the bot at the bus
company so another link there the Waterbury Observer calls Chris Swanson a quote an elected public
official with power and influence now the first two calls of those three calls they were both Hang-Ups but the third
call there was a message and a message was left once police began to consider Billy's disappearance a
serious case they questioned Swanson about Billy and confiscated the answering machine tape the message said
quote Chris you better watch your back at all times Chris denied knowing who had made the calls
the message was left anonymously so after these phone calls and then the conversation with the neighbor which
took place much later in the day no one has admitted to ever seeing or hearing from Billy again
foreign [Music] [Music] cheers how you doing tonight colonel cheers to you captain
after 72 hours had elapsed Jan and Paula were finally able to file a missing persons report and they did so close to
midnight on August 27th the authorities then searched Billy's home and as stated
nothing seemed amiss they searched his truck but they did not check for fingerprints despite the family
insisting that it was parked in an inconsistent manner police did test the house garage and truck for signs of
blood but found none bizarrely according to the Waterbury Observer several days after Billy vanished Billy's truck was
broken into in the middle of the night and papers were strewn about the cab it's unknown whether this is a
coincidence the theft is a theft is a problem in this area right so it could have just been a coincidence as for the
neighbor Roy per his statement about Billy saying he was leaving was apparently believed by investigators and
prevented them from considering Foul Play early in this investigation the police interviewed Roy on August 31st
according to the report and we have to hope that they have reason to believe that he is not in any way involved since
they you know he's never been labeled a suspect or Person of Interest one piece of information that the family
has never revealed but that was in a police report was that Billy had been fired that day from his job at Midland
HVAC how was he fired was he fired in person yes he was fired in person so he went to
work he gets fired then at some point he goes to his ex-girlfriend's house that she's seeing
another man she's seen this crisp guy he then comes back to his house between now
now he so they sent someone to his home the the company sent somebody to his home to retrieve he drove a truck for
them an HVAC truck it was a company's truck and so they sent someone to his home on the morning of the 24th and at
that time they collected the truck and Billy was given a pink slip and why was he fired well we don't know the
motivation behind this firing One news report attributed attributed to a slow season which doesn't make a whole lot of
sense for HVAC company in August or the yeah but I mean it's very possible could be any trade
um is going to have layoffs so I could see that being a possibility so again that the the problem becomes if it's
just the layoff somebody like Billy that works in that field is going to go this
happens but if it's not that then this just adds fuel to the depression that conflict he's having with his
ex-girlfriend well yeah and and that's what's going to be troubling for detectives and what's
going to make it hard for them to have maybe a proper investigation early on because they hear about his recent
breakup they hear that he's been laid off or fired from Midland and they kind of they didn't say it outwardly but
they're kind of implying to the family that suicide might have to be considered or that Billy had taken off okay let's
run this down really quick so in the morning somebody sends over somebody to his house to fire Billy
they take back their truck their work truck at some point he goes to his ex-girlfriend's house he puts the ladder
up to the window he tries to that happened the night before okay that happened the night before so the night
before he goes and confesses his love he wants to make it work she says I have to think
about it he wakes up in the morning he's fired at some point he makes calls to Chris just before noon which is the
guy three calls two Hang-Ups one message one message that could be considered a threatening message too right and then
so that's between 11 44 and uh 12 o'clock by noon all three calls have happened and at some point then he goes
to Burger King and that receipt is at 259 correct and then what time does he go talk to Roy around five o'clock
around five o'clock and then what time does Roy say that he that's just the last he talked to Billy
he didn't actually see Billy leave his house yeah and Roy didn't really let anybody know that anything could be
wrong because he didn't realize anything was wrong until 10 a.m the next morning
when he goes to let the dog out and he can't get into the home he can't find the key so he calls the ex-girlfriend
Mary Ellis so what now well even though the police are kind of implying to Billy's family that suicide might be
likely or that he may have taken off the family isn't going to stop searching they're going to ask the community and
volunteers to come forward and over the three-day Labor Day weekend 200 Searchers starting at Billy's house
fanned out through the greater Waterbury area looking for Billy or clues of what
could have happened to him then as the result of a tip volunteers scoured every inch of the nagatuck Naugatuck close
enough River from Watertown to the Naugatuck area they found homeless encampments and dead deer but they never
found Billy now his sister Paula contacted a group called dogs d-a-w-g-s disaster and Wilderness ground
Searchers Inc local law enforcement did work with the dogs group following along
in case anything was found that a member of law enforcement would be present at that time
but 10 days after Billy disappeared his sister went down to Police Headquarters and she said quote I was a little Snappy
about she was concerned about the lack of attention the police were giving to Billy's investigation now at that time
after her going in there and kind of giving them the business a new detective was a place business a new detective was
placed on the case and he went to Billy's house to have a look around within 15 minutes the sergeant came back
into the house with Billy's keys and Billy's wallet Paula said he had found them tucked underneath the
driver's seat in Billy's Truck the family took this discovery as a very very bad sign Billy could not have left
of his own accord they believed without any money or a vehicle so searches of Billy's bank accounts showed no activity
after the August 24th purchase at the Burger King in fact one report says that he had just deposited his paycheck when
he went missing speaking of the Burger King in the three-day window when they were told to wait to see if
Billy turned up Jan and Paula had gone to that Burger King to try to view the surveillance tapes to see if there was
anyone with Billy or what his mood appeared to be right and it also makes you just want to Whopper
they were told that the tapes were erased after 24 hours and that they were too late that they couldn't view
anything one interesting addition to the timeline was posted on an online chat forum and this is by Billy's mother she
pointed out that Billy must have gone missing in the evening time she said hardly could not have gone longer than
11 hours without making a mess in the house and when Mary Ellen got to the home this was around 10 a.m on the
morning on the 25th on the on August so she's using that 10 o'clock marker as if
we backtrack this it's got to be less than 11 hours from that time frame yeah I would agree with them on that but
here's what's my gut is telling me right I mean other than wanting Burger King is
we have a situation right we have a poly D situation where he tells his neighbor that he
quote unquote doesn't even like hey Roy can you watch my dog I'm going somewhere
for a few days by the way don't check on my dog until the morning and I'm going to leave a key for you underneath the
mat now I know that Roy me being Billy I know that Roy has the number to probably
family or my ex ex-girlfriend that helps take care of the dog right so when there
is no key found then he's going to make a phone call hey there's this dog he left
that gives him a heads up to get wherever he's going um and then we have another situation where you have this
truck his primary vehicle and the keys his keys and his wallet are underneath the seat
yeah almost like he's leaving it for you almost like he's leaving hey anything in
my wallet it's yours you can have it and like we said he sells Vehicles he buys Vehicles is it possible that he had
an unregistered vehicle of some kind and is in his garage and that would be another reason why the truck would be
pulled out a little bit so they could get the vehicle around and he took off and this was a way of taking off
um possibly to commit suicide and leaving everything in its place for people to find it
okay let's work backwards through that we'll start with the truck and then we'll get to the dog here are my
thoughts the keys in the wallet are found in his truck 10 days after he went missing
three days after he went missing the truck is quote unquote broken into so if the keys and wallet were in the
truck at that time those seem like items that somebody breaking into a truck would want to find so either they didn't
find them or those items weren't there when the truck was broken into yeah but didn't you say that they were underneath
a seat yeah right I don't know what would make me think that the thief would not check
underneath the seat I mean I can't say for certain that they would but I don't see why it works so what I'm
going I'm going there with that just keep that in mind just just because the wallet and the keys are found in the
truck there are reasons why they may have been found there without Billy having left them there on purpose
meaning one of two things either somebody either Billy was met with Foul Play and killed somewhere disposed of
somewhere and they returned his truck to his home and stuffed the keys in the wallet underneath his seat or
Billy left him there or did something happen to Billy and then later at some point somebody goes me having this
wallet and these Keys is a really bad idea maybe I should figure out what to do with them oh I'll put them back in
his truck let me break in right and then then you know I'll throw some I'll throw
some trash all about the the truck and maybe police will just go well maybe we missed it maybe we just happen to miss
that when we look through the truck I don't know that they really spent a good time looking through the truck at the
first time that they showed up to the house okay um so if they did in those those items had
been there the entire time they couldn't have they could not have done a good job
searching the truck if those items were there the entire time correct yeah yeah so all right let's agree on
that at least we know that they did not do a very good search of his truck the first time now regarding the dog I
believe the mom and I know that other people are like that seems weird that she would say 11 hours no no no no I
think that's I think that's so honest I know with my own experience with my dogs
when I go somewhere often if I go somewhere just for like a quick overnight trip I do have somebody show
up and let my dogs out in the late evening and then again early in the morning right I have a bit of a Time
marker where I know hey uh I don't want my dogs to be uncomfortable and it starts to get a little uncomfortable for
them after a certain period of time I actually think a couple of things are going on here let's say the story that
Roy provides us that the neighbor provides us is in fact true yeah and please believe him
well if again and I understand that people are like but he doesn't like Roy but he might like again he might like
Roy he might said that offhanded it could be a very nice neighbor Billy either left in a hurry
or he left with the purpose of not coming back that's why he left the dog you know that's why he talked to Roy but
that's kind of a conflicting statement there and what I mean by this is is the following so
let's it for him to leave the dog with Roy would be out of character right yeah that from what everyone has said
so but we have the situation where where the dog is not he doesn't show Roy doesn't show up to let the dog out until
10 a.m what I would like to have a clear understanding of is was that the time that he was instructed to show up hey
are you gonna be home tomorrow sure could you come over around 9 30 10 a.m and let the dog out because if that was
a time that was instructed and this 11 hour marker of the dog making a mess in the house or being uncomfortable right
well then that would indicate to me that Billy didn't leave the home until 11 pm
that night okay which is pretty late it's six hours after he all of a sudden has to leave the house in a hurry to the
point where he's got to leave the dog with his neighbor you see what I mean if if Billy knew that he was going to have
a five six hour time window before you had to leave he would have left the dog with his ex-girlfriend it's it's all
very strange I would like to know maybe right but I think the problem with that is that if they have a pretty good
relationship right and maybe Billy's a pretty honest guy and he's not one that is good at let's say lying
right and she starts asking him questions about where he's going whether he's going to go after this Chris guy whether
he's gonna go somewhere to hurt himself maybe he's just going somewhere to think
right or maybe he's going to confront his ex-girlfriend he might not want this person that's been in his life for
eight years or more to ask questions you see what I'm saying like that's why he would leave the dog with Roy because
Roy's not gonna ask that many questions and if he does it's like well I'm just going up I came up with the story I'm
looking for a car I'm going to be gone three days do you mind helping me out yeah
good I'll help you out right no and I agree with that no questions asked but if you ask hey can you take the dog your
ex-girlfriend's gonna go yeah where are you going right I'm going to go up North and look
at a car but maybe that doesn't work with her right that's all I'm saying no and I agree Billy would know that more
than me or you would I agree and what I'm saying is if the the story of him leaving the dog with Roy is in fact true
then that was purposeful by Billy there was a reason for doing such and it was either he was in a hurry or he was felt
he needed to hide or conceal something from the ex-girlfriend right right so before Billy dated Madeline the one that
he had all the problems with you know they recently broke up the one with five kids the one that was 16 years older the
one that was cheating on him with Chris right he was involved in an eight-year relationship with Mary Ellen Noble they
had known each other since high school they said that their breakup was a mutual decision and that they remained
close friends right up until the point Billy disappeared the last time that Mary Ellen saw Billy or spoke with him
she said Billy was sad about the breakup but he also seemed fine and that the two
of them actually made plans to go to Six Flags to the amusement park the next weekend and Mary Ellen quoted Billy as
saying the last words he said to me were don't forget sad Saturday don't forget don't forget
you know Billy would not have this is what she points to as Billy would not have committed suicide bringing up that
he had something that he was looking forward to according to her now in a missing person's case we really only
have one side of the story of what the missing person was like the family generally controls The Narrative of what
the person was like and what was going on in their life at the time who they were close with what their plans were
what they were you know into or or likely or not likely to do right Billy's family has been more involved than most
in the investigation into his disappearance they paint a fairly Rosy picture of him according to the
smolinsky's Billy was a really caring giving guy who would drop everything to help someone in need he had a tattoo on
his arm that was the name of a friend who had passed away and they said that Billy was a creature of habit he loved
his truck his motorcycle his dog and his girlfriend he was an avid snowmobiler and fisherman and he drove a drove in
demolition derbies sometimes on the weekends yeah those are I actually had a old student that did that it was a lot
of fun to go watch and they would create you had to create the vehicle and then just go Smash It Up well Billy was
described by both family and friends as an incredibly hard worker who always showed up for work and took very little
time off well that's what makes me believe that he got laid off more than he got fired and as far as any of them
know he did not do drugs and he only drank occasionally Okay so but likely Captain we have to believe
that there are other aspects to Billy's personality that that we're not going to receive from the
family well first of all if I ever go missing please tell the public that he was a curmudgeon that he was a nasty man
and he was um is very mean and and bitter towards the world please don't tell people that every time
I walked into the room I I lit it up like roses and sunshine well according to media and some things that we can
find online there are several articles about Billy's case referring to him as a quote-unquote tough guy and this seems
to be in the context of he wouldn't let anyone push him around or he wouldn't take any [ __ ] from anyone there are
hints that he may have had a temper there are several discussions online in which people claim to know for a fact
that Billy was the type to get into bar room brawls another word that has been used to describe Billy is
confrontational now I only saw this a couple of times but police reports indicate that Chris the remember the
secret lover told police that he had never had any interaction or trouble with Billy but then admitted after
continued questioning that Billy had in fact broken the windows on a bus on by Chris several months earlier Madeline
stated in court documents that she thinks Billy suspected something was going on between the two of them for
quite some time before it was confirmed on the Florida trip well let's Okay so let's be a little clear right now this
Chris guy is a cheater right he's married right right cheater and he's a liar I mean how many times he
gets three calls from the guy that goes missing I don't know who he is right and then after more questioning
yeah we had some run-ins with each other so I I don't know if he's involved but I
know he's a liar yeah but the thing here is with these broken windows it may just
simply be a situation where he thinks Billy is a likely culprit and doesn't really have anything to go off of and
right at all Billy broke these windows and Billy in all fairness may not have done that well no [ __ ] because two
seconds earlier you didn't have any confrontations with him this one I'm State that's what I'm stating it's hard
to believe anything that this Chris guy says well one thing to point out that Billy might have been confrontational or
at least to the point of him not taking any [ __ ] from anybody would be the fact
that take no [ __ ] would take a little [ __ ] but we're not gonna take no [ __ ] but yeah but the
thing would be that he we know he left the the threatening voicemail on Chris's phone right you know we we have this
confirmed by his family saying yes that is his voice on that message the local newspaper and Billy's family believed
that having heard that message of you better watch your back at all times that after that message Billy possibly had
set out to do something to Chris or to at least confront Chris and that something bad had happened in that
process Billy's Father Bill senior said quote Billy wasn't one to start anything
but if someone started something with him he would finish it this time it looks like someone got the better of him
foreign [Music] we have so much more to get to in the search for Billy smolinski join us back
here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music] thank you

Billy Smolinski /// Part 1 /// 230

Part 1 of 2

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Billy Smolinski was born January 14, 1973. His missing flyers describe him as a caucasian male, 6 foot tall, 200 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. At the time of his disappearance his left ear was pierced. He has a tattoo of a blue cross on his left shoulder and a tattoo that reads Pruitt on his forearm. He was last seen on August 24, 2004, at his home in Waterbury, Connecticut. Billy was 31 years old at the time of his disappearance. This week we discuss the strange disappearance of Billy Smolinski. Beer of the Week - Lil’ Heaven Sessions IPA - 2 Roads Brewing CompanyGarage Grade - 4 and a quarter out of 5 bottle caps

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Brief Summary

William Paul Smolinski Jr. vanished in 2004 under suspicious circumstances, raising questions about foul play and family dynamics.

Key points

The Disappearance of Billy Smolinski. Billy Smolinski went missing without a trace, leaving behind unanswered questions for his family.
Billy's Last Known Actions. On August 24, 2004, Billy was last seen after telling his neighbor he was going 'up North'.
Suspicion and Relationships. Billy's relationship with Madeline was tumultuous, leading to suspicions of infidelity before his disappearance.
Threatening Message. A message left for Chris Swanson raises suspicions about Billy's disappearance.
Search Efforts Intensify. 200 volunteers searched for Billy over Labor Day weekend, but found no clues.
The Disappearance of Billy. Billy vanished after a series of troubling events, including a breakup and being fired.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Don't let this be one of those cases.

Introduction to Billy's disappearance story.

3:39WatchNov 25, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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