Billy Smolinski /// Part 2 /// 231 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] welcome to True crab garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for
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Captain that's another for the business everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
[Music] Billy smolinski was 31 years old when he disappeared and he was last seen on
August 24 2004. now Billy's family was the first and always the driving force behind the
search for their son and brother within days as we had mentioned the family brought in search dogs they organized
their own search party of 200 people later they hired private investigators Billy's mother started the justice for
Billy website spending hours daily checking messages emails and following up on correspondence maybe the most
baffling part of this investigation is the missing persons Flyers themselves and let's go through this Captain
because this is a weird one determined to find leads the smolinski family paid the New Haven Register
twelve hundred dollars to print 20 000 Flyers that were to be distributed in uh in all throughout the local area the
Flyers advertised a fifteen thousand dollar reward for information leading to Billy's recovery and had a photo of
Billy and a description the family printed a few thousand more flyers later for distribution and
displayed them in restaurants businesses public areas around the state a big batch of these flyers were going to go
they were going to be stuffed into newspapers okay so anybody that subscribed to that newspaper they're
going to receive a flyer inside their newspaper alerting them that somebody in their Community is missing right family
members and friends they began stapling Flyers to utility poles in towns where Billy lived worked in businesses that he
frequented they also began posting flyers in and around Madeline's home and and workplace
it's pretty clear that very early on the smolenskies believed that Madeleine knew
more than she was telling about what had happened to Billy and that's Billy's recent ex-girlfriend yes that he had
caught cheating on him in regards to their suspicions well best case scenario was that Madeleine had innocently and
unknowingly she was withholding information that could prove crucial to finding Billy
right worst case she had something to do with it or knew who did now we do know that she did refuse a polygraph test and
this contributed to the family's perception that Not only was she not being helpful in the search but she was
also hiding something Waterbury Police though they say they don't consider Madeline to be a suspect
although their case notes indicate that they told her she could only be cleared by taking a polygraph test which we do
know that she refused right so basically she's saying don't clear me well the smolenskies they began posting Flyers
all over the town of Woodbridge which is not where Billy lived this is these Waterbury yeah this is near where
Madeline lived and Madeline she kept moving around during this time she was like staying with various friends and
family but it seemed like at least to her anyway that the posters and the Flyers
would follow her wherever she would go apparently the family posted them along her bus route you know where she worked
they posted them all over at the school uh in the area of the school where she drove to and from the posters were
everywhere this is what what we know in the business has put on the heat on you well the Flyers made no mention of
anyone but Billy you know it was just simply a missing person's it had his picture and his description okay they
did not in any shape any form point the finger to her or anyone else but as you said turning up the heat and
likely into intended to pressure her what happened next was detailed in the Waterbury observer in several lengthy
feature articles about Billy's case a month after Billy vanished a good friend of the smolinski family telephoned to
tell them that she had witnessed a woman ripping down Billy's missing Flyers off
of utility poles in the in the nearby town so the family friend wrote down the woman's license plate number and gave it
to the family don't say it the family figured out they checked the plate number and they were stunned when the
car turned out to be registered to Madeline they weren't stunned well yeah here's the thing what a [ __ ] I
actually I actually think that they probably were stunned in for a couple of reasons
even if they think she may have knew more than what she was telling the police I think that they thought look
how how brazenly stupid do you have to be to be running around town tearing down these posters first of all and then
second of all look one of their suspicions was that maybe she unknowingly was not being helpful in the
investigation maybe unknowingly and innocently she was not providing information to police well it seems like
she does know something and I think that she got some confidence when the police
said that she's not a suspect and now maybe the police found us to play Devil's Advocate and and be a little
blue blood here right maybe the cops were saying hey let's say that she's not a suspect and
maybe we'll catch her doing something right you know I mean you never know how they're playing their hand sometimes
they want to say hey let's turn up the heat let's say that she's a suspect maybe she'll then start talking or maybe
let's back off a little bit and see if she does something stupid well the family starts driving around they're
going to visit places that they've put up all these flyers and this is several towns Captain it's not like they just
put them on the street where she lives the street where she works and on her bus route and that's it they they put
these babies all over town in several towns so they start driving around to see what's going on and they found that in
several of these towns that the missing Flyers have been ripped down tore down some of them remained up but they were
disfigured and that on some of them even more odd someone had wrote on some of them who cares across them in Sharpie
according to the family the only places where the posters were being tore down or vandalized were in the areas near
where this woman lived and worked right it could be heard also could be friends and Families
of her where they feel like uh maybe she's being harassed by these posters by some some way somehow these posters are
harassing her well the family Billy's family decided they were going to replace all the missing posters and all
of the defaced posters as well not only did they replace them but they decided they were going to keep an eye on their
missing person's flyers and sure enough they witnessed man they witnessed Madeline and her teenage son
pull up to a utility pole and rip down a poster then later they videotaped a similar incident and think about this
[ __ ] okay here's what pisses me off and say you have this guy this hard worker Billy he's going to take your ass
in right you you have five kids you have one kid living with you he's saying I care about you I care about your kid I
want you to come live with me and you're having a relationship behind his back fine but then after the fact
that he goes missing you know for a year year and a half you know Billy's being some kind of a adult
figure in your teenage boy's life and now you're having him be accomplished and ripping down missing posters
yeah he's a piece of [ __ ] well and this is going to get worse okay because basically what you're going to have here
is a situation where the family's going to put up posters she's going to tear them down she's going to get her son
involved and later she'll get a friend of hers involved too this is uh Francis Vrabel now so the
family puts him up and then her and her friends and her son tear them down and then the family puts them up again
then they tear them down they put them up they tear them down and throughout this the family is going to set up these
I guess it's like a sting operation or whatever of all right we're gonna put this poster up now let's sit back and
see what happens to it we're gonna videotape her ripping them down or somebody that is friends with her
ripping them down okay now you're the police you have somebody that it's not being cooperative enough to
give you a lie detector test and now we have this individual that you saw supposedly you saw Billy the the night
before he went missing this individual is ripping down the posters you'd think that should become highly
suspect the family is going to present these videotapes the tapes of her tearing down the posters they take the
tapes to the police and say look what she's doing and unfortunately the police say you
know we're sorry but there's really nothing illegal about her ripping down the Flyers
so just common decency they should arrest her on that I know I don't know that that's a charge but regardless
Billy's family they're determined to get to the bottom of why this woman her increasingly bizarre behavior why she is
doing what she is doing and some bizarre behavior if you're guilty well this would begin what the Waterbury Observer
would end up calling a daily cat and mouse game again the family going around putting up
posters and her going around and continually pulling them down at some point there was some kind of altercation
where so she's tearing them down and they decide all right we're going to go up right behind her and put one up
immediately afterwards and I thought they're gonna go up right when she's ripping it down and grab her butt no so
Gooser what ended up happening was there's some kind of Confrontation and some kind of dispute as to she's going
to say that they tried to put a staple in her hand and the families the family is going to
claim look that happened because you stuck your hand up there as we were trying to put in the staple and you were
trying to prevent us from putting up the next poster and just think of your Billy's mom don't you just want to walk
up to this lady and punch her in her [ __ ] ass mouth here's some problems I understand their frustration and I
understand how angry they are and how angry they are with this situation and this woman
the problem is you're allowing this situation to take you away from the investment a potential bigger
investigation in my opinion this this kind of derails the whole thing and again keep in mind the family as we said
is the driving force behind the search the driving force behind the investigation now every day they're
waking up and they're occupied with this cat and mouse game of putting up posters
and tearing them down but don't you think that this confirmed more so confirmed their belief that that Billy
was met with Foul Play I think this more confirmed their belief that Madeline was involved and I think
that they thought from the very get-go that he was met with Foul Play they never thought once that he harmed
himself or took off on his own accord and he was a tough guy had something minor happen to him he would have
returned by now something happened to him to the point where he's no longer with us so is there anything more to do
with this we'll call it fly or gate yeah well on April 4th 2005 we have another situation of them putting up posters and
her tearing them down or she's tearing them down and they're following behind her and putting them up I'm uncertain
which was happening on this day but the result is that they both ended up at the
police department and I think the way that this works is that Madeline had drove to the police
department they follow her there and the smolenskies their thought is guess what
now we get to confront her in front of police so this is good we'll follow her there right right Madeline's thought is
I'm going to file charges against them for harassing me while I'm here so once inside the police department
both Paula and Jan the sister and mother of Billy state that Madeline started taunting them and they thought that
maybe she was trying to get them to lose their cool and you know smack her or something like that nothing like that
appeared to have happened but according to the Waterbury Observer which accessed
a police report that was filed that day the incident report states that Madeline
complained that the smolinsky's had been smothering the areas along her bus route
and in front of her residence including areas around the bank that she goes to and the gym that she attended now
Madeline stated that she has been tearing down these posters because she felt harassed by their placement near
her work and home and that she was being targeted by the family another officer reported that Jan had admittedly she
admitted to putting the Flyers up wherever they knew Madeleine went because says she was quote trying to
break Madeleine Gleason the police asked the smolinskis to stop Distributing Flyers around her school
where she worked but they could continue to hang Flyers around town they should also
stop videotaping her and her friend and her son tearing down the posters because videotaping
them without them wanting to be videotaped could be considered harassment now according to the
smolenskies though the wood bit Woodbridge Police agreed to let them go okay if they didn't take the videotape
of Madeleine ripping down the posters to the media to which Jan agreed but the truce was short-lived because the
smolenskies consulted with an attorney who advised them that they had every right to hang posters near the school
yeah they do and the following day after that meeting this is on April 10th Jan once again started hanging posters near
the school two weeks later the Woodbridge Police called and asked Jan to come down to the Woodbridge Police
Department they had a couple of incidences they had to deal with there's this man named Brad Cohen
okay this is of the B and B transportation he had filed a complaint saying that someone had paintballed two
of the school buses now these school buses were the ones driven by Madeleine and by her friend Fran drabel
Fran had also filed a statement saying that on April 15th two weeks after the incident in the police department Lobby
that she had seen Jan hanging posters on school property to to which they end up
arresting Jan that's okay yeah she's arrested for first degree harassment disorderly conduct and
trespassing seems like the police it seems like they've wanted this situation to go away this is an
increasingly Disturbing Behavior and I'm gonna be I'm gonna be honest with you captain
and I hate to kind of go after a victim's family here but I kind of see a little wrongdoing on both parts of
course yeah I would probably that's because you're thinking like an adult but it's weird it's weird to say this
it's like I don't agree with their behavior but at the same time I understand it yes their loved one is
missing and they need answers well and I think if you're the police department you you simply tell
the ex-girlfriend hey I'm sorry but your ex-boyfriend went missing he was you know seen with you you had a
relationship with him the family has every right to plastic plaster his uh Missing signs wherever they would
like you should be supportive and not rip these things down you should be supportive and talk to the police and
then you state to the family hey if she does rip them down don't film her don't make contact with her don't follow
her that's getting a little ridiculous spend your time getting the word out about your missing son spend the time on
on collecting evidence if you think that she is somewhat involved you're going to
find evidence somewhere else other than following her around and finding evidence of her ripping down signs
that's the only evidence you're going to find to help bring answers to your son's
case well Jan is processed and jailed only temporarily and then her daughter Paula Billy's sister says to the media
it was so backwards the police tried to make us seem crazy but we were just trying to find my brother stating that
the only arrest in this case so far was my mother right and the media quickly took to having the family's backs here
and they said you know this does seem backwards this does seem not right that this situation of a missing child or
missing grown man but their child and there's getting they're getting no answers other than one of them getting
slapped with cuffs on there's no way if I was a police officer I'd be arresting anybody in Billy's family eventually the
charges against Jan were dismissed this was when prosecutors determined that the
case was without Merit amazingly in a police interview dated August 5th 2005. so well after she had
been videotaped taking down the Flyers and after Jan's arrest Madeleine Gleason denied ever taking down the Flyers of
course right here here's what I want to know who does Madeline know in the police department or who does her uh
lover or the person that she was cheating on Billy with Chris who does he know at the police department personally
I don't think that anybody has an in with the police I don't really find the it's difficult to say that I maybe it's
just a bad judgment on the police I think the police had to arrest someone because here's the problem these two
parties are making a problem for the police they're making extra work for the police this is stuff that the police
should not have to deal with this is like two children on a playground smacking each other agreed I just you
know and I think the way I think the way that the police are thinking is look smolinski family we told you you could
keep putting up your Flyers all over town and she was going to play it cool as long as you didn't put them around
her school they're kind of mediators at this point right and then when they can when they have a report that hey the
smolenskies kind of went against their Wishes the police's wishes and started putting them around the school again
I think they found fault with the smolenskies and that they thought hey look we we specifically told you to quit
doing this because you're making a bunch of problems for us right and it's just I
mean it's a difficult situation it really is 18 months after Billy had vanished there was still no movement
whatsoever on the case the family acknowledged to the Waterbury Observer that they believed that Billy was dead
at this time and that the Waterbury Police acknowledged that they were out of leads according to the newspaper
officially the Waterbury Police Department hadn't ruled out any scenario regarding Billy's disappearance although
investigators seem to be gravitating toward the suicide angle they cited the fact that Billy had personal problems in
the days before he disappeared and they stated that it was unlikely that he had just run off knowing that his social
security number had not been used since his disappearance in his bank accounts were untouched so a year and a half
after Billy vanished the Waterbury police depart Department continue to say there was likely no foul play and that
they felt that an accidental death was unlikely as well this has to be pretty frustrating for the family well yeah
because not only do they believe that the exact opposite happened you know that something terrible had happened to
Billy but his family was also convinced that police had dropped the ball on the investigation and they cite the
following that in the first 18 months six detectives had come and gone on the case
more so none of Billy's DNA had been entered into any kind of database after Billy disappeared the Waterbury Police
took his razor and his hairbrush to collect DNA samples they also took blood samples from his family these samples
provided by the smolenskies were lost of course the smolenskies were able to provide additional samples but what Jan
ended up discovering was that the detectives working the case weren't familiar with CODIS the FBI's laboratory
Laboratories combined DNA index system right CODIS according to its website enables federal state and local crime
labs to exchange and compare DNA profiles electronically effectively linking crimes to each other and two
convicted killers and offenders it enables investigators to identify remains and to link DNA left at crime
scenes with DNA already entered in the system the fact that no one knew what it was much less had attempted to
enter Billy's DNA into CODIS was very discouraging two years after Billy went missing the Waterbury Police Department
had still not managed to get DNA samples from the case into local state or national databases Jan started to
educate herself on missing persons protocols information sharing procedures and DNA
databases and intra-agency communication mythologies she was surprised to find a complete
lack of any kind of coherent procedure for listing a missing person or sharing information regarding adults who like
Billy just disappeared [Music] all right we're back cheers cheers to you Cam I'm putting down the beer
picking up the booze the first person in law enforcement to finally acknowledge that perhaps Billy had not disappeared
voluntarily was the chief of the Waterbury Police this is Neil O'Leary about two years after his disappearance
O'Leary apologized to the family for his Department's failure to aggressively investigate the case and he promised a
reinvigorated investigation in 2006 August of 2006 Billy's case had become cold and the
Waterbury Police called in the FBI for help the FBI agreed to assist in the investigation and the family began to
hope that this important shift would bring the results that they sought in 2007 private investigator Mike Ward
filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records of the smolinski case in the possession of the Waterbury
Police Department the family well they were shocked at what this request would uncover
the Police Department Records documented a Crime Stoppers tip detailing who murdered Billy and where he was buried
specifically the records revealed that in June of 2006 a tip was called into Crime Stoppers stating that Sean carpiak
who is Madeline's son this guy died in 2005 of a drug overdose that he was the one that had killed
Billy now a confidential informant Who police records indicated was named William Fassbender told police that back
in October 2004 so two months after Billy's disappearance that Fassbender was sitting at a Dunkin Donuts
restaurant with another man when the two of them spotted uh the missing persons picture of smolenski that had been
tacked up you know throughout the area Fassbender said that he had once employed Sean in his contracting
business and Fassbender remarked to the other man that was with him that that Billy's case was quote too bad he said
that the other man this is Dwayne McLean then told him according to the police report that Sean had killed Billy
because Billy beat up Sean's mother Madeline McLean stated that Sean supposedly choked Billy and killed him when they
were in Madeline's apartment Sean then called his friend Jason Lee and they buried Billy at a job site that
Sean was working as a carpenter this was in the white Hills area in Shelton he stated that they dug a hole and
buried Billy under a spot that concrete was poured over the next day Fassbender directed police to the this area of
Shelton right and he says that he believed the story because Dwayne Sean and Jason all three of the people that
were mentioned in that report they're all lifelong friends so he believed that this was something that
they would you know people that he would call upon when they needed something now Sean
died before he could ever be questioned interestingly there is a Waterbury Police Department report dated August
2nd 2005 so before they had received this tip about Sean killing Billy police questioned someone named Stephanie
Sean's then girlfriend specifically asking her if Sean had any beef with Billy the interesting thing here Captain is
the fact that in 2005 police were questioning somebody about possible Foul Play being involved in the missing
person's case of Billy smolenski even before the tip actually had come in as far as the 2006 Crime Stoppers tip
about Billy being murdered by Sean this would lead to several searches in that Shelton area for him they they used dogs
they were digging several holes unfortunately these were all unsuccessful attempts to find Billy's
body which this all makes sense on why then the mom would be going around town pulling down missing person Flyers
she's then trying to protect her son that killed her ex-boyfriend well any well and it's great that they're out
digging in these areas and they're searching for Billy finally but according to the private investigator
ward he believed that the police were looking in the wrong areas and he believes that the police missed their
Mark stating that the 2004 permits in Shelton for pouring concrete these should have all been pulled but they
were not I mean we have this situation here Captain where this guy who we've received a tip about who may have killed
this guy may have killed Billy right he works in a line of work that would be easy for him to conceal the body yeah I
mean put him under a patio put him under put him in the ground in a place where we're going to pour lots of concrete the
next day Captain just to be clear we should mention just so no one gets confused that this son of hers Sean is
not the 14 year old that was going to move in with Billy okay uh this was we're not saying that the 14 year old is
doing construction and digging holes and and doing concrete work right and regardless that all of
those searches with that information that was provided to police regarding this lead of Sean having killed Billy
regardless that those searches led to nothing the key thing that we need to factor in
here and take away from this story is that this is the first lead of Sean having killed Billy and then we find out
later that that Sean he he had OD'd right so he's never there's no opportunity to question this individual
if he had in fact killed Billy and hit hid the body right now the crazy thing then you also wonder too let's say this
the Sean character was using drugs beforehand that after you murder somebody your drug use might go
up a little bit and maybe one of the causes for the overdose well so in 2010 the family announced its intentions to
put up a billboard along I-84 a major highway in Connecticut featuring Billy's photo and you and I have both seen
pictures of this where they ultimately did so and they advertise a sixty thousand dollar reward in the case
now the FBI did pull out of the investigation in 2011 and the case was handed over to the Connecticut State
Police here's some weird things because after this transference of the investigation
there is a show there's a show that came out on Discovery ID that featured Billy's case and a woman that had seen
that show called uh into the Waterbury Police Department to report a tip okay okay and she stated hey after seeing
this on TV I realized something was going on at that time and I recall having seen a white truck similar to
Billy's and I also recall seeing a small red car they were both driving up a steep embankment in the woods behind her
house late in August of 2004. she couldn't say the exact date just late in 2004 but this would line up with the
time that Billy disappeared yeah correct she stated that this area cars never drove back there like you might see an
ATV or something that's built for that terrain but never cars and that's why it stood out in her mind
okay Billy had a white truck Sean the son who had died of the drug overdose red car he had a small red car
he had a small uh Ford a red Ford Escort now we know that he had this vehicle why
he OD'd in his vehicle he died in his vehicle mm-hmm he was found when his body was found he was found with three
other men in his vehicle at the time now one of these guys this is Chad Hansen in 2010 he was arrested for
several different things yeah this is a great group of fellas well what's going to happen here Captain is they're going
to now hear from Chad Hansen a very similar story that they heard earlier and this being that Sean had killed
Billy and that Chad had helped him dispose of the body so now let's be clear though this Chad dude is not one
of the two other people that we've already mentioned from a separate tip right right now Chad is going to get the
police involved and they are going to do a massive dig this information triggered
a massive dig and so the guy that's claiming that his friend Sean the son of the ex-girlfriend of Billy
um he's claiming that Sean killed Billy and he helped dispose of the body right and he is
going to go to law enforcement and he's gonna say here's where we did it and they're going to do a big search I'm
a little unclear on this but I think there's a the likelihood here is that Chad was already locked up for something
else right and I think once police received this tip about the red car and the white truck they're like okay well
we've already talked to these other two survivors they didn't provide us with anything so who else did this Sean guy
know oh well we know that he knew these three dudes because they happened to be in the vehicle with him when he OD'd
right so they they probably went and tried to find these people and question them well I'm pretty certain Chad has a
lengthy arrest record and conviction list here is it safe to assume that he's a drug user as well yes yes it's very
safe and it's likely that the three men that were in the car with Sean when he was found there's a chance they might
have been passed out or you know incapacitated at the time when this when Sean died so
I find it I I couldn't find an exact statement to back this up but my what I did find leads me to believe that
there's a very high likelihood that Chad was already locked up and police were able to go to him and say look all right
look dude what do you know about this situation we keep hearing tip after tip and getting information after
information that this Sean dude was involved in Billy's disappearance that he killed him listen
help me help you so I don't know if it's one of those deals Captain where Chad then thinks he can work a deal strike a
deal with these guys hey I didn't kill Billy but I was aware that Sean did and I helped him get rid of the body and
guess what here here we go here's the location where we can go find his body and what this leads to is a massive dig
it triggers uh this massive dig and the terrible thing here is it they end up finding nothing this
never reveals the truth what it ends up doing is it ends up costing the state over a hundred thousand dollars to to do
perform this dig right and this is something that I think it lasted 10 days it was a large area well at
least at least they're trying to get to the bottom I mean they brought in sonar and all kinds of stuff to try to
pinpoint where he might be and they never found anything well the problem is that you can't throw out this let's say
confession right you can't throw that out you can't also throw out the tips before the problem is the people that
are trying to tell you where possibly you can find Billy's body their their drug addicts oh yeah yeah
they don't know they probably don't even know what they did uh two days ago and I
I just found this in my notes and I do want to have to I have to make a an apology here I keep saying Hansen it
could be Hanson uh s-o-n or s-e-n I have it listed differently in my notes but here's the thing do not throw my Hanson
Brothers the three Hanson Brothers under the bus according to according to this here uh
this Chad dude has multiple arrests and on top of some other charges he's been arrested 11 times on charges ranging
from forgery to possession of Narcotics assault burglary and resisting arrest so
he's he's known to the police pretty well later Chad would end up being charged with another charge and this is
for providing law enforcement with false information okay and this is directly the result of
the tip that he gave them of Sean having killed Billy and him having helped hide
the body we to sum this up though we got to be smart here this doesn't necessarily mean that police think that
Chad and and Sean had nothing to do with why we don't know where Billy is this is simply pointing out that this
guy led us on a wild goose chase where we spent over a hundred thousand dollars and spent days and days and days of man
hours right and wherever you told us he was he's not there you've provided us with nothing we're not saying you
weren't involved in his disappearance we're just saying the place that you told us he was we've proved that he's
not there it's false information and I wonder if they have to do that because they struck a deal with him before and
then therefore to offset that deal you charge them with this probably that that's that's a good assumption to make
the result would end up being Chad saying that hey I had nothing to do with The Disappearance of Billy and I and you
know he he claims that still to this day as far as I could find once it was so now he's claiming that he
had nothing to do with it yes yes oh this guy's a real Turd Ferguson well remember the drama involving the Flyers
yeah there's still can I forget right there's still more of this because incredibly in 2006 Madeline Gleason and
BNB Transportation they sued the smolenskies as well as John Murray he's somebody who worked for the Waterbury
Observer they were sued for inflictions of emotional distress defamation of character and invasion of
privacy Madeleine alleged that the smolinski's knowingly intentionally and maliciously followed her posted flyers
in the vicinity of her workplace and home photographed videotaped and threatened her photographed her and
videotaped her acting like a real turd bag so okay she claims that they put posters on her
car and stalked her trespassed on to private property and told people that she was a murderer
she claimed that the Observer ran photos of her and publicized information about
her amounting to an invasion of privacy the case against the Observer was dismissed in 2010 as found the paper was
reporting on factual matters of public interest but the case against the smolenskies proceeded to trial the
smolenskies did not deny that they believed that Madeleine had information regarding their son Billy and that they
intended to pressure her to cooperate with the investigation she's not going to cooperate because she's not gonna
if this the allegations against her son is true she is not especially now with the sun being dead
she is not going to come forward and say that he was responsible for it Captain I
see that we're we're getting we're getting tight on time here and this is kind of a lengthy portion of the story
toy in the pots getting real tight in the ponds the shocking result of the first trial is that Madeline was she won
and was awarded 52 000 in Damages from the smolenski family anyone that followed the case was obviously
horrified in at this ridiculous result to sum it up for you though this malinski's rightfully so are going to
appeal this they lose the first couple of appeals but in 2015 the Connecticut Supreme Court reversed the decision
citing thank you First Amendment freedom of speech with regards to the posting of
the Flyers and the burden of proof being on Madeline on the defamation of character charges meaning
look they're saying we didn't say you were a murder you you can tell everybody that you can tell the court that we
called you a murderer but we're saying we didn't and the court is saying if you're saying this is defaming your
character you have to prove that you haven't had any wrongdoing in Billy's case right and I also think that
anytime there's a character quote unquote brought into the court of law I think you should have to prove that you
actually have good character she from what we can find does not right so uh I mean I can't find anything to
say that she she does have good care I mean that's what I'm saying other than maybe her work record no I think you
should have to prove it you have to prove that you're it's there should be a law that makes you have to prove that
you're not a piece of [ __ ] it should be a law these people will call me a POS and I cannot prove that I'm not right so
thankfully and rightfully so it ends up getting overturned and the smolinski's don't have to pay this woman a dime
what's crazy here though captain and what I couldn't get over when I was digging into this thing and really
sifting through the players and potential players involved and why this young man has disappeared
it's almost a similar situation to we saw in a recent case that we covered Sean McDuffie Jr yeah where once you
really start getting into the people that knew him the most right before he disappeared there seems to be some
rumors amongst the group as to who could have been involved on the surface this thing really straight up looked like
maybe Madeline and her who she was running around with Chris were involved because Chris received the threat
but it's starting to look like like it's confusing because here we have this thing where Chris could have been
involved he still could have been involved but he's never implicated by any of the tips that come in well well
we know he's a liar here's what I also wonder too is did Billy actually commit any domestic violence against Madeline
or was that just fabricated by Chris or fabricated by somebody else well no I mean the way that there is no
there's no evidence of it there's no real proof of that right the only and the only accusation we have comes from
the result of Billy being murdered by Sean saying that hey he beat up my mom so I choked him to death
and we don't have Sean here to question him about that here's a very interesting thing about
that trial that they had about going to court suing the smolenskies for money because they harassed her or whatever
the interesting thing here is Chris Swanson the the the married guy that she was running around with he had to take
the stand during that and so they questioned him during those Court proceedings about what went on shortly
around the time Billy went missing shortly afterwards and so on and so forth what I found really interesting was in
his testimony he says that he was told by Madeline that the person that left that threatening
message on his machine was in fact Billy remember he told police their police report that they took was he
stated that look I don't know who left that message right so interestingly enough I think that
those Court proceedings prove that you know we already thought Chris Swanson was a liar I think that Court
proceedings prove that either he lied in court when he said it I was told it was
Billy by somebody that knew him very well or that he lied on the police report when he told the police I I don't
know who that was I didn't know that it was Billy it seems like in this case that we we know what the answer is
we just can't find the definitive proof and hopefully the fact that they did such a
uh extensive dig that that doesn't persuade them to go off these tips and then actually
persuades them to dive into these tips further and try to find the right location so we can find definitive proof
of these allegations well and understandably this case has been unspeakably frustrating for the
smolinski family for all these years now they know that Billy isn't coming home suspects have died his dog Harley has
died we have to wonder would the case have dragged on for so long if police had initially responded with urgency
efficiency and purpose as the Waterbury Observer put it Law Enforcement Officers
across the country go into a heightened state of alert if a child goes missing the Amber Alert System allows for
immediate Interstate notification of a missing child the media snapped to attention when
children or attractive young women disappear but when a 31 year old man goes missing it seems like nobody cares
except his family now sadly several suspects have provided detailed information about what happened to Billy
and even though the stories contradict each other they all have the same ending Billy was murdered and his body was
buried somewhere the case has turned his parents into advocates for missing adults everywhere that at least can be
Billy's Legacy [Music] thank you [Music] I want to thank everybody for listening
thanks for sharing on social media if you'd like to check out our show off the Record that's on Stitcher premium and
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episode from there so anyways appreciate you guys listening until next week be good be kind and don't litter
[Music] thank you [Applause] [Music]

Billy Smolinski /// Part 2 /// 231

Part 2 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 Company Garage Grade - 4 and a quarter out of 5 bottle caps

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Brief Summary

Billy Smolinski disappeared in 2004; his family's search reveals troubling behavior from his ex-girlfriend Madeline amidst police inaction.

Key points

The Disappearance of Billy Smolinski. Billy Smolinski vanished on August 24, 2004, leading to a family-driven search.
Madeline's Involvement. Suspicion grows as Madeline is seen tearing down missing person flyers.
Police Confrontation. The Smolinski family confronts Madeline at the police department, leading to tension.
Frustration of the Family. The family believes something terrible happened to Billy and feels the police dropped the ball.
Discovery of a Lead. A tip reveals a potential suspect in Billy's disappearance, leading to new investigations.
Trial Outcome Shocks Everyone. Madeline wins a defamation case against the Smolinskis, shocking the public.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What a [ __ ]!

Reaction to the discovery of Madeline's involvement.

7:14WatchNov 25, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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