The Disappearance of William "Billy" Smolinski Jr. (Connecticut)
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For over twenty years, the million ski family has been searching for their son and brother, Billy, who, one afternoon in August of two thousand and four, asked his neighbor or to watch his dog, and then was never seen again. The case is not without leads or suspects, but the biggest question of all has yet to be answered. Where is Billy? I'm Kelly low in this is the case of William Billy smell and I junior on dark downest.

IT was around five P M. On the evening of August twenty fourth, two thousand and four, when thirty one year old Billy millin sky june or left his neighbor's house on holy street in waterbury, connecticut, bin mandell reports for the republican american that Billy had stopped by to ask his neighbour a, he was heading up north for three days to go sea about a car he was interested in buying and wanted to know if the neighbor could look after his dog while he was away.

Billies dog, a german shepard named Haley, was like a child to him, according to reporting by john murray, who has covered this case extensively for the waterbury observer over the last twenty years. Billy got the dog with the next girlfriend, mary. They dated for eight years.

And even though the two had broken up, they stayed close friends, and SHE and Billy both continued to care for hardly together. In fact, SHE had watched tari while billie was on vacation in florida just the week before. But this time billies neighbour agreed to take care of the dog on the morning of August twenty fifth, IT was mary, who was first alerted that something weird was going on.

When SHE got a concerning call from Billy's neighbor, he explained that Billy asked him to take care of hardly, but he couldn't find a key, and billie was apparently gone already, and the dog was still inside billion's house. This immediately struck me as odd. He definitely would not have left hurly behind unattended or taking off somewhere without letting his family know where he was going.

So mary called Billy sister polar to see if he knew where Billy had gone. But this was the first polar had heard that Billy was going anywhere. SHE too got the sense that something was off polar called her parents, jane ih, who went by jane and William bill senior, and they all went to check on bill's house on holy street.

Michelle to shew solo reports for the new heaven register that when they pulled up to the house, Billy's mother, father and sister immediately noticed that Billy's Whiteford pickup truck was there, but IT wasn't where Billy usually parked at. IT was down at the end of the driveway, almost blocking the entrance, not pulled up. Close to the IT was a big red flag.

Their first thought was that someone else had driven Billy truck. His family checked on hourly and then wasted no time going straight to the waterbury police department to report Billy missing. But when jane berlin polar tried to get held from local police, they were told they had to wait before any report could be taken.

Billy told his neighbour he'd be gone for three days, so until then they couldn't report him missing. He'd probably come back just to see, said dy. wood.

And this would all be a misunderstanding. Well, this millions is waited for that three day mark. They tried finding billion on their own.

They talked to neighbors and friends and look through his house to see if they could find any clues as to where he went. All they could find was a burger king receipt in a trh can IT was time stamp to fifty nine P. M.

On August twenty fourth, the day he disappeared, which was a few hours before he stopped by his neighbor's house. Ask about watching the dog. Jane pola went to burger king to see if the security camera footage captured Billy there.

Maybe he was with someone when he ordered his food, but the footage from the twenty twenty fourth had already been over written by the time they got there. Finally, on August twenty seventh, the waterbury police department took a missing person's report for Billy's million sky junior. That was when the police investigation into his disappearance officially began.

Water very pd issued a bola with billion's name and description, and then took a few preliminary investigative steps like checking billion's bank count and financial records for any activity. There were no transactions in the day since he had last had contact with anyone. Meanwhile, Billy's family aimed up their own efforts and foot searches.

Polo called everyone SHE could find in billee's personal phone book, but no one had seen her heard from billie since tony fourth, Billy supposedly told his neighbor he was going up north. So polar called the only person he could think of that Billy might know up north an old friend in new hampshire, but he hadn't talk to ability either. Dozens of volunteers joined his parents and sister to scoured the banks and waters of the nokia c river and wooded areas near his house, according to a supplemental report for waterbury police department, case number two thousand four, dash zero seven one zero two five.

On August thirty first, billie uncle was out searching the woods of long metal drive and waterbury when he noticed a fellow older IT was a spot where billions his friends used to hang out and drink beer when they were Younger. So polar reported this to whatever pd and detectives responded to the location to search for the source of the smell, but they didn't find anything that might be related to Billy disappearance. After checking the woods, though, reports show that the detectives stopped into billies house and spoke with his neighbor, who was one of the last known people to see and talk ability.

The neighbor told police that, yes, Billy asked him to take care of his dog and that he said he'd be gone for three days, but Billy never left a key, and neighbor didn't know where Billy might be. However, the nights or told the detectives something else that evening, when Billy stopped by, he shared with his neighbour that the vacation he just got back from hadn't gone so well. He and his girlfriend broke up for about a year.

Billy had been dating fifty one year old man and glen, who worked as a school bus driver for a transportation company in bathie connect, cut, hearing that the relationship ended just two days before his disappearance, detectives gave metal in a call, IT appears the conversation was brief. Madeleine explains that billie had broken up with her because he thought he was cheating on him. He also stated that he actually saw Billy on the morning of the twenty fourth.

He showed up at her house early in the morning and asked metal to get back together, but he needed time to think, he said, SHE said. When Billy left her house, he was, quote, a little depressed, and quote, so he was having relationship problems. And detectives also learned that Billy was recently laid off from his job as an apprentice for a heating and air conditioning company.

Investigators considered the possibility that Billy could have taken off for some alone time, or even that he formed himself. But his family strongly denied any suggestion that Billy was missing because he wanted to be until they found Billy, though every theory remained on the table. According to case file documents, on september third, waterbury, P.

D, executed a search warrant for bill home phone to review the call log for August twenty fourth. Detectives found that among the calls Billy made that day, he dialed one number three consecutive times twice within the same minute at eleven forty four A M. In a third call at eleven fifty eight A M.

Those were the last calls Billy made from his land line. The day he disappeared, police traced the phone number to a man all called by a fake name, jb. Investigators tried to contact Jacob that same day, september third, leaving several messages for him to contact waterbury, P.

D. But they didn't hear back from him for over a week. When detectives finally received a call back from Jacob on september thirteen, he agreed to come in for an interview.

During that september fifteen and interview, the detective asked Jacob how he knew Billy smelling ski. He explained that his father was business partners with the owner of a transportation company where a mutual friend of theirs worked. That mutual friend was modeling billies girlfriend, or I guess, x girlfriend.

At that point, Jacob knew that billie in madeleine had dated for about a year, but he said he didn't have any personal interaction with Billy. The detective asked Jacob if he ever had any trouble with Billy, and Jacob said no. But then the detective pressed him a little more, and Jacob finally admitted that he was having an affair with MAdeline and really wasn't happy about IT.

Jacob told the detective that he was hesitant to say anything because he was married and he didn't want IT to get back to his wife, that he stepped out on their marriage. As the interview progressed, the detective protect the subject of phone calls that Billy made on the day he disappeared. Jacobs said at first that he hadn't got any calls from Billy, but then said he did receive a message from an uni dense fied.

The color said, quote, you Better watched your back at all times and quote, Jacob told the detective that he still had the tape and agreed to turn IT over to police. The next day, when detectives revealed the answering machine tape, they heard the same message that Jacob described in an attempt to identify the colour. The detective contacted Billy sister pola, who confirmed that the voice was her brother Billy.

With that, the tape was retained as evidence in belly's case, from the very first day of the official police investigation, billee's family had pressed detectives to process his truck for fingerprints and other evidence. They were sure that bill wouldn't have parked IT at the end of the driveway. And if someone else had driven IT as they expected, their prince might still be there.

According to billions family, they were told that IT was too late to do anything with the truck. But about two weeks later, a detective finally went through the cab, not a fingerprint IT, but just to take a look around, shoved deep behind the seat, the detective found billies wallet and keys for billee's family. IT was even more approve that Billy hadn't left on his own.

Billy's mother, father and sister continued their own awareness and search efforts for billion's case. They put up thousands of flyers and reward posters on telephone polls around waterbury e and surrounding communities that included billies photo when description, six feet tall, two hundred pounds, blue eyes and light Brown hair in a cruel cut, he had had tools on his right for ARM and left shoulder.

And he may have been wearing blue jeans and a denon shirt when he was last scene a few weeks later, after stacks of posters have been plastered on every telephone poll and bullet in board in the area, Billy's dad, bill senior, noticed that some of the posters he'd tacked up along route sixty three, the main route leading into new haven, were gone. Others were still partially tacked up, but billies photo was torn from the page, and some had been defaced. Who cares was scrawled in black ink over bill's face.

Bill swiftly replaced the posters, but the next day they were gone again. The smelling skees reported the poster vandalism to police, but the officer said there really wasn't anything they could do about IT. Frustrated with that response, billie's family decided to camp out near some of the utility polls and waited for someone to come by and remove the posters.

That evening, billies family saw someone ripping a poster down. IT looked like IT was billie x girlfriend MAdeline. The next night, this million ski set up near the utility poles again, this time with a camera, they managed to get footage of one on identified person tearing down the recently placed posters.

Though the person's face wasn't completely visible on tape, theyd also written down the license plate number of the car the person was driving. Billy sister pola turned the tape and the license plate info over two investigators. The following day, when police looked up the registered owner, he came back to billie x girlfriend meta glen.

But again, police couldn't or wouldn't do anything about IT. Despite their frustration, billie's family kept putting up the posters and someone kept taking them down. IT didn't make sense to the million is, even though the'd broken up, IT seemed strange and concerning that someone, possibly billies former girlfriend, didn't want the posters to stay up.

Jane, bill pola and other family members continue their efforts to find bill and generate new information about his disappearance, even when things between them and billies x girlfriend escalated in the new year. On march fourteen and two thousand and five, medal, engen met with a woodbridge police surgeon to file a stocking and harassment report against billie smolts key's mother jane, and his sister pola. SHE told the officers about Billy's disappearance and her relationship with him and said he felt like his family was targeting her bus route with posters so that he had to see billion's face every day.

The woodbridge police incident report states that the officer explained what's required to file a harassment in stocking charge and that there were no facts or circumstances that supported the charges. The posters were in many towns, not just along her bus route, while looking into the harassment claims the woodbridge police sergeant had called watery police. The waterway detective on Billy's case at the time told him that they were in fact looking at madeleine as a suspect for Billy's disappearance.

But if SHE wanted to clear her name, SHE could take a polygraph test. The woodburg officer later left a message for metal in telling her to contact waterbury police to see about the lie detector exam. However, court record state that madelin has never agreed to a polygraph.

On the advice of our council, woodbridge pd closed the harassment in stocking case, seeing no criminal matter that would marry IT and arrest at that time. But the next month, on April fourth, two thousand and five, madeleine was back at the police station, and this time polar and jane were there too. The volatile interaction between billee's ex girlfriend and his family members is documented in woodbridge police reports in her statement to police that day, modeling claimed that billion's family was harassing her and saturating every place he worked and hung out with missing person's posters.

SHE also said that they were video taping her without her consent and showing up at her place of employment, which her boss and coworker later confirmed. Madeleine admitted to removing the posters because they felt they were too much, but ultimately he said he didn't want to press charges. Madeleine just wanted to be left alone.

This milinko family received a warning from woodbridge police. If this issue came up again, IT would be grounds for arrest. A few weeks later, James moon sky was arrested by woodbridge police on charges of trust pass.

In the first degree, jane had allegedly hung up a missing person's poster on the property of beach, your school, which was part of metal in's bus route. According to an arrest warn application, jane had been previously warned not to enter school property unless he had packed c reason to be there, but the charges against jane were later dropped. Billie's family members have always maintained that they are just doing whatever they can to get answers.

MAdeline, removing the posters they put up have caused them to view MAdeline with a weary eye. They weren't sure if he had something to do with billion's disappearance, but they suspected he might know more about what happened to him, then what she's letting on. But almost a year into the investigation and search for, Billy hadn't pointed to any evidence strong enough to arrest modeling or anyone else for that matter, police said.

The small and skies continued pushing ahead with their own efforts to uncover the truth. According to case file documents on August third, two thousand and five, two waterbury police detectives met with matting lison for another more in depth in our view. They asked about the timing of her relationship with Billy and what caused their break up.

Madelin explained that he had known Billy for over a year, and they'd met when they were both driving buses for the same company they started out as friends, but IT eventually turned into more than that metal. In disclosed that he was seeing someone else. While SHE was dating Billy, SHE Carried on an affair with jack up the married men madeleine thought Billy knew, or at least suspected, that he was having an affair, but SHE didn't come clean until they were on that vacation together in florida.

SHE said they were sitting on the beach when her cell phone rang, and Billy grabbed IT to see who was calling when SHE tried to get IT back from him, he started fighting. Madelin said he was yelling for other people on the beach to call the police because billie wouldn't give her phone back, but the police didn't come, and SHE never made a report of the incident. After that, he says Billy broke up with saying he didn't want to be with her if the relationship was going nowhere.

SHE agreed, and their vacation ended a brug play. After that, they got back from florida on August twenty second, just two days before he disappeared. Now she's already told police that that wasn't the last time he saw Billy.

In this second interview, medan elaborated on her last interaction with Billy. SHE claimed that on August twenty forth, he showed up at her window, punched at the top of a latter and begged matting to take him back and move in with him, SHE says. SHE told Billy SHE needed some time to think.

Marlon said that Billy was upset when he left later that same day, he said MAdeline got a call from Jacob. He told her that he'd received a message on his answering machine telling him to watch his back. SHE told police in her interview that SHE recognized the collar as Billy smelling ski.

That was when he says he told Jacob that she'd been seeing Billy during this interview. Madeleine also told police said, about five days after Billy disappeared, one of Jacobs friends got a call from someone on a payphone in heart. Ford, the uni dense fied color, told the friend to tell Jacobs to watch his back.

MAdeline didn't know who the friend was. He also said that he had received hanging up phone calls from a road island payphone only five days ago. Madeleine said he already deleted the numbers from her color ID, though madeleine finally told the detective that he liked Billy, but SHE didn't want a quote, baby said a thirty one year old who SHE said liked to drink and get in fights.

Regardless, he was the one who broke up with her. The detective then brought up metal in sign sean carpet. He passed away a few months early in january of that year at each seven, reportedly due to a drug overdose.

The detective ask if sean had any problems with Billy, but madeleine said simply that john didn't have a problem with Billy because he didn't have a problem with him. A few weeks after that interview, the one year anniversary of Billy's disappearance came and went without an arrest, and still no sign of where Billy might be. Billy's family kept putting up posters. And by october of that year, they even paid for a billboard to be placed along root aid with a massive photo of Billy staring down every commuter who passed by. They hoped that would lead to a big break in his case, but months passed without anything that changed, though in june of two thousand six, when waterbury police received a new lead.

On june, wealth two thousand and six waterway police followed up with a witness who called the crime stopper s tip eline, saying he had information about the disappearance of Billy smaller ski. The man reported that about two years earlier, sometime in october of two thousand four, he was at duncan with a friend.

When he noticed billies poster taped up in the window, he made a comment that IT was too bad, and his friend replied that they will never find Billy. When the witness asked what his friend meant by that, the guy went onto a ledge that the sign of billion's x girlfriend shaan carpet had killed Billy at medleys apartment after a fight broke out between billion meddling. The friend claimed that sean then called another guy, and the two supposedly buried Billy at a construction site under a spot where concrete would be poured the next day.

The witness said that he was in the construction business and john had been his employee at one point. The friend of his who told him the story at the duncan that day, was close friends with sean and the other man allegedly involved. The witness said he only thought to come forward with the information now almost two years later, because he saw a new story about Billy a few nights before.

I also have to wonder if the fact that sean was now deceased played into his decision to come forward with the information now versus back in october two thousand four when sean was still alive. But that's just me thinking out loud anyway. The witness gave detectives an approximate location over the construction site where Billy was allegedly buried off route one ten in the town of shelton connect, according to reporting by Michelle t.

Chiao sulu for the new havin register, multiple laender cement agencies were on sight for that search in shelter, including local and state police as well as the FBI, who had been called to assist the case about a year prior, beginning on monday, may seventh, two thousand and seven investigators surveyed a property near Edward avenue of fort hill avenue, as well as near a bridge on route eight. By the end of IT, they'd excavated a driveway and brought in cadover dogs to search the locations, but they didn't find anything related to bill's case that was just the first in a series of excavations and searches over the years. The following year, another major tip came in this time from someone who claimed he not only knew what happened to Billy and where he was now, but that he also helped get rid of his body.

In two thousand eight, investigators received a tip about a guy named cat hen. The tipster alleged that chat dragged about helping bury Billy milanese body and said that police would never find him. When police interviewed chat hanson that same year, he seemingly confessed to all of that.

According to court documents, chat told police that he didn't kill Billy, but he did help shown carpio bury his body in a big open field on bgi road in simmer, directed by chat hanson. Suppose the admission of his involvement on August eleven, two thousand and eight, a major search and dig began in the town of semi connective IT centers on a twenty one a law on bungay road, the side of a private farm and horse stable. Police clarified that the owner of the property was in no way involved with the case.

The excavation focused on one large hole about six to eight feet deep in the open field. Local authorities and federal investigators also conducted a systematic search of the field with metal detectors and brought in ground penetrating radar. However, police wouldn't say if they found anything on the property.

As the search came to a close, all investigators would disclose was that the site hadn't yet been ruled out as a location connected to abilities disappearance. According to Billy's family, they were in contact with F, B, I, agents and other investigators. Their impression was that police were pretty confident that billies remains were at the bgi road side and that they were on the trail of the person or persons involved with his disappearance and now presumed death.

The very next month, searching in semon picked up again, but this time at a private home about four miles away from the field. On september one, thousand and two thousand and eight police arrived at a home on Nicholas street. IT was reportedly the former residence of shaan carpet, and his family, the residents of the nick street house at the time of the search, were not involved with the case at all.

What police found at the house and in the field, if anything at all, is unclear, but it's possible that they were never going to find anything at all, because after the search on bungee road concluded, investigators SAT down for another interview with chat hanson. His story had suddenly changed. He admitted to lying and said he didn't really know where Billy's body was buried.

Despite proving himself to be an unreliable witness, IT wouldn't be the last time police acted on information from chat hanson, in two thousand and ten cat gave police a new place to search. He said that Billy was actually buried in nogai c state forest, which is about ten miles away from the false location he first told police to search. Again, investigators came up empty handed, and again chad admitted he lied.

CD hanson was later charged with second degree, making a false statement in interfering with a police officer in the arrest warrant. Chat is named as a suspect in bilayer disappearance. He was convicted in twenty eleven and received to twenty months cents.

Wild chat hanson was leading police on a wild goose chase and wasting precious time and investigative resources, police also searched somewhere else for clues to Billy smelling skis disappearance for the first time since he disappeared four years earlier. Police analyzed billies truck for forensic evidence, things like fingerprints, hair DNA and fibers. From day one, Billy's family had a gut feeling the truck could holds some clues since IT wasn't parked in its usual spot, but they say their concerns were dismissed.

They decided to keep the truck in storage, hoping IT would one day be checked. But IT seems like a big mess, not to process his car for evidence right off the bat, because even if IT was stored in the best of conditions, the chain of custody was no doubt compromised. Connective state police only said that recent interviews had directed them to search the truck now and didn't have any further comment on why IT hadn't been analyzed before.

I'm reluctant to say Better than never, but yeah, I guess it's good. That happened eventually. In April of two thousand, nine investigators disclosed that they were able to obtain DNA hair, fingerprints and palm prints from billies truck, but they wouldn't say if they found any blood.

Now finding hair and fingerprints is expected, but the real answer would come if those samples could be matched to any known individuals associated with the case. Comparing prince was a manual process at that time that was expected to take weeks or even months. So again, the smelling skies waited on the enforcement while they did whatever they could to further their own search, including getting major national coverage on A T, V show.

In february of twenty ten, Billy small and skies case was featured in an episode of investigation discoveries television series disappeared. The coverage resulted in an influx of tips that directed additional searches by both police and bill's family. That summer, a volunteer group of cadover dogs spent hours searching locations in seymour. During that surge, one of the canines located a sweatshirt.

Cator's reports for the connective post that the sweatshop was considered possible evidence in bil's case, but I struggled to find any further information about this discovery a month later, as the six year anniversary of billion's disapearance approached, the small and sky family requested either a state or federal grand jury probe into the case in hopes of compelling certain witnesses to testify under oath. However, after a year of pushing for a grand jury, the requests were denied. In August of twenty eleven, a few months after the grand jury requests were denied, police received a tip from a woman in shelton who said that after seeing the disappeared episode about Billy's disappearance, her memory was jogged all the way back to a night.

In the summer of two thousand and four, SHE remembered seeing a red car and a White truck being driven into the woods behind her house of wig wm road. The truck had distinctive head lites in a flat front. Quille IT looked a lot like billies truck that was shown in the T.

V. show. The incident stuck out in the woman's mind because, although he was used to hearing and seeing a tvs cutting through the forest to see a car and truck not built for that terrain was odd.

When police finally came out to take her statement and search the area, they found bones that later turned out to be animal bones, but nothing else that might be related to billie disappearance. However, billies family did their own search of the location and reportedly found a fire pit and another pile of rocks that seemed odd to them. The smelling skii felt that the spot was deserving of a closer look.

However, investigators seem to be focused on a totally different wooded area at that time. Remember chat hanson, well, surprised, surprised. He had come up with a new location for police to search for Billy remains, even though he admitted to lying about the other locations and had since been convicted of giving a false report and other crimes.

Just a few months earlier, he remained a suspect in belle's disappearance. And so police weren't about to dismiss what child had to say anything could be the truth, or even a shred of the truth. Beginning october seventh, two thousand and eleven, and continuing for about a ten day stretch, investigators scoured red in area near broke up and wardrop hill roads in oxford connect cut, according to court documents.

Chat again said he helped shaan carpet bury a rolled up carpet covered with lime, but he said he didn't realize at the time that there was a body inside the rug. He said he assumed IT was though, and quote, he'll never forget the smell of blood. And quote, once again, the search in oxford was fruitless when police SAT down with chat following the unsuccessful search, he changed his story again.

He said he actually did know that Billy was inside the rug they buried, and he knew for a fact that sean carpet killed Billy with a sixteen nounce hammer. It's unclear if he recanted his statements about the oxford location, though even still after that, chad received new charges for interfering with an officer second degree false statement and making a false report concerning injury or death. This time, the state was also interested in recouping one hundred thousand dollars in costs associated with the searches based on chat lies.

In january twenty thirteen, CD took a deal and faded guilty to one count of making a false statement in exchange for a shorter four and a half your prison versus the seven years sense he faced had he gone to trial as the years went on and the smaller keys looked for other awes to bring Billy home, they turned to private investigator, taught love joy, who happened to be a former waterbury police, detected todd, helped the smullen key field tips and did deep into the case independently of local, state and federal authorities. According to pama glove lands reporting for the new haven register, in twenty fourteen, the smaller skies received a tip through the prison pipeline that Billy was buried inside a car, and another tip that he was buried in a heavily wooded but public area in beacon falls. The smelling skies themselves met with the tipster before deciding that the information was credible enough to warrant a search alongside a team of volunteer searchers and canada dogs.

The smelling keys first searched in the yard of a house where a car was believed to be buried. However, the search dog did not signal there, so the team then went to the other location, the heavily wooded public area. This time, the dog's keen senses were alerted to something.

The dogs sniff his way to a spot near a body of water and SAT and barked, signaling that he had a, the dog then entered the water, swam around the area that was bubbling and eventually came back. When called by his handler, a second dog brought into the area also signalled near the same spot as the first. The first dog returned for another search and signalled three more times in the same spot in a triangle pattern.

The pup then looked up into the trees that we're blowing in the wind. The breeze was coming from the direction of the location, first indicated by the tipster. Now the area had supposed mob connections, and there could have been other bodies there at any point.

And search dogs can also signal dried blood from an innocuous cut. Nevertheless, the million skies reported the location to police. They hoped that investigators would jump on the lead, but after ten, the spot where the dogs had alerted still had not been searched by law enforcement.

John murray reports for the waterbury observer that just the year before this search, the relationship between billion's family and waterbury police had deteriorated. Communication pretty much came to a halt, and for about five years, there was little or no contact between the family of the missing man and the investigators test with finding out what happened to him. The journalist john murray hoped to reengage police, and we opened the line of communication with ill's family when in twenty eighteen, he prepared twenty four page, independently researched and investigated report of what he believed happened to Billy and the individuals involved.

His theory senate on the same suspects that have been identified all along madin glen's late son shann carpet and chat hanson, as well as a third man IT took several years, but police eventually took action on a lead related to conclusions john murray developed as part of his reporting. In november twenty twenty one, waterbury pd excavated the driveway of a home in shelton. The house was reportedly the side of several searches throughout the years, all unsuccessful in locating billies remains.

The twenty twenty one search was more of the same. No, Billy. Now, two decades later, the loose ends in billies case, the DNA and fingerprints in his truck, the switcher found in the woods to dover dog signal in more than one location, false statements by a suspect that married man who received a threatning voice male from Billy on the day he disappeared, and more.

But the biggest of them all, where is Billy? Wherever he is, will undoubted unlock answers as to what happened and who is responsible. Shelton police detective ban trap ka has said in previous reporting that billies break up with madin glen is a central part of the investigation and that police believe he has more information to share regarding the case.

He also said, quote, IT is still a strong theory that sean carpet was involved. And quote, I need to tell you about two very important things that we're going on simultaneous to the search for Billy and the investigation into his disappearance. First, in two thousand, five modeling clason suit James million ski andre daughter pola for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress stemming from the missing person's posters they put up along her bus route in other locations.

The case dragged out for years, but the court eventually ruled in madeleine favor in the original trial, and then again on appeal, finding that jane and polar did the fame and cause emotional distress. The appealed court ruling stated in park quote, the court concluded, and we agree that the context replacement of the posters was designed to hound glisten into providing the defendants with information about the disappearance of Billy smaller ski, rather than to raise a matter of public concern. And coil, jane and polar were ordered to pay medical over fifty thousand dollars, but that wasn't the end of the case.

With the help of a proponent, lawyer jane pola took their appeal all the way to the connective supreme court, claiming first amendment free speech rights, among other things. In two thousand and fifteen, the state supreme court overturned the lower courts ruling. The opinion reads, in part, quote, we conclude that a new trial is required because the trial court's findings on the plaintive claims of defamation and tional inflation of emotional distress did not consider and are not consistent with the various limitations placed on these torts by the first amendment.

And quote, as far as I can tell, there has not yet been a new trial and the case may have been dropped at this point. The other major thing that was happening while the investigation continued was jane small and ski and the rest of billions family. We're becoming powerful advocates for missing people in their families.

From the beginning, the million sky struggle to find Billy highlighted the gaps and inefficiencies in the existing systems for handling missing person's cases, which they aimed to change through legislation. In twenty twenty two, president joe bite, in signed billies law, formally called the help find the missing act. The enhances the coordination of missing person's database and raises awareness among the enforcement and families about how to update information and track developments.

IT connects the national missing and uni dense fied person system namus with the fb national crime information center and C, I C, creating more comprehensive database and streamlining the reporting process. Billies law also Mandate that missing children be reported to name us and requires the department of justice to issue guidelines and best practices for handling such cases. Billies law had boupari san support and its passage scene as a significant improvement in the missing person's reporting process, providing hope and Better resources to families searching for their loved ones.

On a facebook page created by his family called justice for Billy, his mother shares updates on the case alongside reflections of her son's live and the moments theyve missed out on through the years. Jane writes that herman Billy was a family man, always the first to holiday gatherings and last to leave with a plate of leftovers in hand. Billy adored his baby sister polar from the moment he saw her.

And he was an outdoors man, hunting, fishing, snowball building and even horse backrib, or some of his favorite past times. Billee's case remains unsolved, and his family continues to search for him. Their priority is to bring Billy home.

In july of twenty ten, jane told kalitta s for the connecting ate post that when that finally happens, quote. I'm going to create, mate him and put him in the casket with me when I die. I've worked too hard.

I'm not letting him go anymore. And quote, if you have information relating to the disappearance of Billy small and ski junior, please call the waterbury police department at two zero three five seven four six nine four one. Next week is an off week for dark down east, but i'll be back the following thursday with a new episode.

Thank you for listening to dark downest. You can find all source material for this case at dark down's stock com. Be sure to follow the show on instagram at dark downest.

This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm kindly low, and this is dark down's. Dark donis is a production of kindly media and audio check. So what do you think check you will prove?