Does Missing Person / Love Triangle Case Add Up To Homicide?

News & Commentary

Does Missing Person /
Love Triangle Case
Add Up To Homicide?

By ANDY THIBAULT
The Cool Justice Report
www.cooljustice.blogspot.com
July 26, 2006

EDITOR'S NOTE: This column is available for reprint courtesy of The Cool Justice Report, http://cooljustice.blogspot.com

Big, tough guy in Waterbury leaves his dog and his truck behind. Was sharing the sack with someone you normally wouldn't bring home to Mom. His older Love Bunny was sharing her feelings with a married pol whose business covers the Eastern Seaboard.

The big guy didn't like it when he found out about the other man. He threatened the pol. And was never seen again. Police have a tape of the threatening call.

Still, this scenario did not raise much suspicion with certain elements of the Waterbury police department, namely the detective bureau.

Billy Smolinski, six-feet, 200 pounds, was not someone to go quietly. He worked several jobs including a stint as a tow truck driver. When he disappeared on Aug. 24, 2004, he was 31 years old. His girlfriend was 47 then.

Police told the Smolinski family Billy was probably in Europe or on the lam somewhere having a good time. Despite pleas from the family, police never took fingerprints from Billy's truck. They misplaced DNA samples and couldn't figure out how to place them on various local, state and national databases.

Credit John Murray, a Lone Ranger in the journalism world, with breaking ground in this story. Murray, a respected and talented photographer and writer, has published the monthly Waterbury Observer for 13 years. He has written in detail about investigations of the local police department that went nowhere, including missing drugs and cash in the six-figure range.

Murray maintains pipelines with all levels of the department. The tone changed in March of this year when he reached Chief Neil O'Leary: "I would never rule out foul play. I don't think he [Billy Smolinksi] disappeared on his own and is hiding from his family. My gut feeling is something is wrong."

Ultimately, police spoke with Murray about details of the case on the record. They confirmed the identities of Players Two and Three in the love triangle.

The love interest, Woodbridge bus driver Madeleine Gleason went public herself in a curious legal action. After tearing down handbills about a $15,000 reward for finding Billy, Gleason sued Billy's mother Jan Smolinski and Murray for invasion of privacy. Murray had published photos of Gleason in public.

"She has no expectation of privacy whatsoever on the street," said noted media attorney Alan Neigher of Wesport, a long-time counsel for Connecticut Magazine. "Whatever she does on a public street is public business. She loses."

The case has had no shortage of bizarre twists. Woodbridge police arrested Jan Smolinski last year, charging her with disorderly conduct after she posted reward flyers and confronted Gleason. The case was dismissed.

Notably, the Woodbridge police identified Gleason as a suspect in the case. Waterbury detectives told Murray that neither Gleason nor her politician boyfriend were suspects. Yet, a Woodbridge police report states: "That Waterbury police did look into Gleason as a suspect. That Gleason was advised by them that she could remove herself from being a suspect by taking a polygraph exam…"

I called O'Leary, Gleason's lawyer and the politician. There are many questions they could answer. They did not call back.

"There is a lack of will to pursue this case," Murray told me. "They're not handling it seriously. They're either covering up bungling - or something worse."

If the Waterbury police are not going to pursue the Smolinski case, then some other law enforcement agency should. The Smolinski family and the community deserve answers.

Andy Thibault, author of Law & Justice In Everyday Life and a private investigator, is a mentor in the MFA writing program at Western Connecticut State University, consulting editor for the literary journal Connecticut Review and adjunct professor at the University of Hartford's Hillyer College. Website,www.andythibault.com, and Blog, http://cooljustice.blogspot.com