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

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2023 [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that can throw a strawberry through a battleship
because he's just that strong he is the captain thank you thank you thank you it's good to be seen and it's good to
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Instagram Facebook Twitter all that stuff @ True Crime garage all right Captain that's enough of the business
everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime Billy lski was 31 years old when
he disappeared and he was last seen on August 24th 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 cuz this is a weird one mhm determined to find leads the smolinsky family paid the New Haven Register
$1,200 to print 20,000 Flyers that were to be distributed in uh in all through out the local area the Flyers advertised
a $155,000 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 any 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 polls in towns where Billy lived worked in businesses that he
frequented they also began posting flyers in and around matalin's home and and workplace it's pretty clear that very
early on on the smolinsky belied that mateline 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 meline 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 mhm now we 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 Waterberry police though they say they don't consider meline 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 well the smolinsky they began
posting Flyers all over the town of Woodbridge which is not where Billy lived this is yeah this is near where
meline lived and meline 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 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 we're what
we know in the business has putting the heat on you well the Flyers made no mention of anyone but Billy you know it
was just simply a missing person 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 IND 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 smolinsky 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 M 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 uh they were stunned when the car turned out to be registered to meline they weren't
stunned well here's the thing what a [ __ ] of radone 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 mhm 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 now justes to play Devil's Advocate and and and be a little
blue blood here right mm 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 M 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 her it 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 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 M they witnessed meline and her teenage son pull up to a utility poll and rip down a
poster then later they videotaped a similar incident and think about this [ __ ] okay here's what pisses me off
is that 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 mhm and now you're having him
be accomplice in 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 to get her son involved and later she'll get a friend of hers involved too this
is uh Francis Vel now so the family puts them up and then her and her friends and
her son tear them down that's and then the family puts them up again then they tear him down they put them up they tear
him 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 going to put this poster up now let's sit back and see what happens to it we're going to videotape
her ripping them down or somebody that is friends with her ripping them down okay now you're at the police you have
somebody that is not being cooperative enough to give you a lie detector mhm 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 think that should' become highly suspect the the family is going to present these vide tapes 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 this is common decency they should arrest her on that I 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 it's not 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 I thought they're going to like go up right when she's ripping it down and grab her butt
no so Goose her 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 family's the family's 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 you're 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 mhm the problem is you're allowing this
situation to take you away from the investigation potential bigger investigation in my opinion this this
kind of derails the whole thing 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 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 meline was involved mhm 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 happened 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 flyer 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 in 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 meline had drove to the police department they follow her there and the smolinsky 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 mine's thought is I'm
going to file charges against them for harassing me while I'm here so so once inside the police department both Paula
and Jan the uh sister and mother of Billy state that meline 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 meline complained that the insk 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 meline 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 meline went because she was quote trying to break meline gleon the police asked the
smolinsky 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 MH now according to the
molinsky though the wood Woodbridge Police agreed to let them go okay if they didn't take the
videotape of meline ripping down the posters to the media to which Jan agreed but the truce was short lived because
the smolinsky 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 MH okay this
is of the B&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 meline and by her friend Fran Vel mhm Fran had also filed a statement
saying that on April 15th 2 weeks after the incident in the police department Lobby that she has 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 it seems like the police it seems like they' wanted this
situation to go away this is in an increasingly Disturbing Behavior and I'm going to be I'm going to be honest with
you captain and I hate to kind of go after a victim's family here but I I kind of see a little wrongdoing on both
parts of course yeah I would well 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 plast plaster his um 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 uh to help bring answers to your son's case well Jan is processed and jailed only only temporarily and
then her daughter Paula Billy 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 MH 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 and Billy's family eventually the charges against Jan were dismissed this
was when prosecutors determined that the case was without Mar uh 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 meline Gleason
denied ever taking down the Flyers of course she did right uh here here's what I want to know who does meline 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
mhm 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 and I think the way I think the way that the police are thinking is look smolinsky
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 and then when they can when they have a
report that hey the smolinsky 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 smolinsky and that they thought hey look we we specifically told
you to quit doing this because 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 ating 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 and his bank accounts were
untouched so a year and a half after Billy vanished the Waterbury Police Department continued 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 cuz 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 smolinsky were lost of course the smolinsky were able to provide additional samples but what
Jan ended up discovering was that the detectives working the case weren't familiar with codus the FBI's laboratory
uh laboratory's combined DNA index system right cotus according to its we site enables federal state and local
crime labs to exchange and compare DNA profiles electronically effectively linking crimes to each other and to
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 cotus was very discouraging in 2 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 person's protocols information sharing procedures DNA databases and intra agency
communication methologies 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 [Music]
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[Music] today [Music] all right we're back cheers cheers to you Captain 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 about 2 years after his disappearance oi
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 a Freedom of Information Act request for records of the smolinsky case in the possession of the Waterbury
Police Department the family well they were shocked at what this request would uncover MH the Police Department Records
documented a Crim 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 Crim Stoppers stating sha kpek 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 fast Bender told police that back in October 2004 so two months after Billy's disappearance that
fast Bender was sitting at a Dunkin Donuts restaurant with another man when the two of them spotted uh the missing
person's picture of smolinsky mhm that had been tacked up you know throughout the area fast Bender said that he had
once employed Shawn in his contracting business and fast Bender 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 Shawn had killed Billy because Billy beat up Shawn's mother meline McLean stated that Shawn
supposedly choked Billy and killed him when they were in mine's apartment Shawn then called his friend Jason Lee and
they buried Billy at a jobsite that Shawn 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
fast Bender directed police to the this area of Shelton right and he says that he believe the story because Dwayne
Shawn 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
Shawn died before he could ever be questioned and interestingly there is a waterburry
police department report dated August 2nd 2005 so before they had received this tip about Shawn killing Billy
police questioned someone named Stephanie Shawn's then girlfriend specifically asking her if Shawn 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 smolinsky
even before the tip actually had come in as far as the 2006 Crim Stoppers tip about Billy being murdered by Shawn 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 cuz she's then trying to protect her son
that killed her ex-boyfriend 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 have 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 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 mhm Captain just to be clear we should
mention just so no one gets confused that this son of hers Shawn is not the 14-year-old that was going to move in
with Billy okay uh this was old 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 Shawn 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
Shawn having killed Billy and then we find out later that that Shawn he he had ODed right so he's never there's no
opportunity to question this individual if he had in fact killed Billy and hi hid the body right now the crazy thing
then you also wonder too let's say this Shan character was using drugs before beforehand that after you murder
somebody your drug use might go up a little bit mhm 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 adverti a $60,000 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 Shawn
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
mhm now we know that he had this vehicle why he ODed in his vehicle he died in his vehicle mhm 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 ARR 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 CH Chad Hansen a very similar story that they heard earlier
and this being that Shawn 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 Shan mhm the
son of the ex-girlfriend of Billy mhm he's claiming that Shawn killed Billy and he helped dispose of the body
right and he is going to go to law enforcement and he's going to 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 Shawn guy know oh well we know that he knew these three dudes because they happened to be in the
vehicle with him when he ODed right so they they probably went and tried to find these people and questioned them
well I'm pretty certain Chad has a lengthy arrest record and conviction list here is it safe to
assume that he's drug user as well yes yes it's very safe and and it's likely that the three men that were in the car
with Shawn when he was found there's a chance they might have been passed out or you know incapacitated at the time
when this when Shawn 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 Shawn dude was involved in Billy's disappearance that he killed him they
said 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 Shawn 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
$100,000 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 they brought in sonar and all kinds of stuff to try
to pinpoint where he might be and they never found anything well and 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 bil's Body they're they're 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
Hansen uh s o n or senen I have it listed differently in my notes but here's the thing do not throw my Hansen
Brothers the three Hansen 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 Shawn having killed Billy and him having helped hide the body mhm we to sum this up though we got to be smart
here this doesn't necessarily mean that police think that Chad and and Shawn had
nothing to do with why we don't know where Billy is MH this is simply pointing out that this guy let us on a
wild goose chase where we spent over $100,000 and spent days and days and days of manh 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 him 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 and you know he he claims that still to this day as far as I could fine so now he's claiming that he had
nothing to do with it yes yes a this guy's a real Turd Ferguson well remember the drama involving the Flyers yeah
there's still how can I forget right there's still more of this because incredibly in 2006 meline gleon and B&B
Transportation they sued the smolinsky 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 mateline alleged
that the smolinsky 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 uh trespassed onto
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 but the case against the smolinsky
proceeded to trial the smolinsky did not deny that they belied that meline had information regarding their son Billy
and that they intended to pressure her to cooperate with the investigation well she's not going to cooperate because
she's not going to if this the allegations against her son is true she is not especially now with the son 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 tight to toght in the ponts
getting real tight in the ponts the shocking result of the first trial is that meline was she won and was awarded
$52,000 in Damages from the smolinsky family anyone that followed the case was obviously horrified and at this
ridiculous result to sum it up for you though the smolinsky 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 meline on the
defamation of character charges meaning look they're saying we didn't say you were a murderer 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 charact I
mean 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 [ __ ]
there should be a law these people were calling me a POS and I cannot prove that
I'm not right so thankfully and rightfully so it ends up getting overturned and the smolinsky don't have
to pay this woman 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 sha McDuffy 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 rumor rumors amongst the group as to who could have been involved on the
surface this thing really straight up looked like maybe mine 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 meline or was that just fabricated by Chris or fabricated by somebody else well no I
mean the way that the 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 Shawn saying that hey he beat up my mom
so I choked him to death mhm and we don't have Shawn here to question him about that here's a very interesting
thing about that trial that they had about going to court suing the smolinsky for money because they harassed her or
whatever the interesting thing here is Chris Swenson the the the married guy that she was running around with he had
to take the stand during that and so they question 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 meline 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 Swenson was a liar
mhm 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 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 mhm and hopefully the fact that they did such a extensive dig that that doesn't
persuade them to go off these tips MH 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 smolinsky family for all these years now 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 Waterberry 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 for immediate Interstate notification of a missing
child the media snaap 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 yeah 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 [Music] Legacy 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 for a free month of listening you can go to Stitcher premium.com truecrimegarage and use promo code
garage and also you can find all of our old episodes on the Stitcher app exclusively on the Stitcher app a lot of
people are asking me how do I find the old ones well in the Le hand corner there's a date I'll say
2018 you there's a drop- down menu so you got to pick the year 2015 or 16 or 17 and then you pick the episode from
there so anyways I appreciate you guys listening until next week be good be kind and don't
[Music] [Applause] litter [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
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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

The episode details Billy Smolinsky's disappearance, family search efforts, and the involvement of his ex-girlfriend Meline Gleason.

Key points

The Disappearance of Billy Lski. Billy Lski vanished on August 24, 2004, prompting a massive search led by his family.
Meline's Suspicious Behavior. Meline, Billy's ex-girlfriend, refused a polygraph test and was seen tearing down missing flyers.
Family's Frustration. The Smolinsky family faced obstacles as they tried to keep Billy's case in the public eye.
Police Acknowledges Investigation Failures. The chief of the Waterbury Police admits to the family's frustration over the investigation.
Crim Stoppers Tip Revealed. A tip surfaces indicating who murdered Billy and where he was buried, leading to new investigations.
Family's Billboard Campaign. The Smolinsky family puts up a billboard offering a reward for information about Billy's disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Billy's family was the driving force behind the search for their son.

Highlighting the family's efforts

3:39WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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