Nine Witnesses—

State Shows Evidence in Heath Murder Case

By Andrew Gorosko

DANBURY — At a June 19 court hearing, nine witnesses testified for the state in its prosecution of John Sherman Heath, 68, of Bridgewater for his alleged April 1984 murder of his then-wife Elizabeth Gough Heath, 32, at their Poverty Hollow Road home in Newtown.

Through that testimony, State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III began to lay out the basics of the state’s case against Mr Heath to show a judge that the state has sufficient evidence to proceed to a trial on the murder charge. The murder case is based on circumstantial evidence.

Mr Heath, whom Newtown police arrested on a warrant on April 30, has pleaded not guilty. He has elected to have a jury trial. Mr Heath is being held prisoner on $1 million bail at the Bridgeport Correctional Center while awaiting trial.

During the court proceedings, a frail-looking Mr Heath sat in a wheelchair at the defense table, breathing through a cannula attached to a oxygen tank because he has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Mr Heath is a retired house painter. He occasionally took notes during the court session.

Danbury Superior Court Judge John F. Blawie presided at the five-hour probable cause hearing in Courtroom 5 at the White Street courthouse. The hearing is slated to resume on July 12.

Throughout the hearing, attorney Francis L. O’Reilly, who is the special public defender representing Mr Heath, raised numerous objections to points made by the prosecution and to testimony provided by the prosecution’s witnesses, challenging that information’s admissibility in a future jury trial. The defense did not call any witnesses to testify.

For example, Mr Sedensky presented as evidence a calendar for the time period when Elizabeth Heath was reported missing.

Mr O’Reilly, however, challenged whether that calendar accurately represents 1984 calendrical time. Judge Blawie accepted the calendar as evidence.

Mr Sedensky sought to have Raquel Figueroa Heath, who is Mr Heath’s current wife, sequestered, or kept out of the courtroom, during the hearing due to her potentially becoming a witness in the case in the future. But Mr O’Reilly objected to the sequestration request. Judge Blawie ruled that Ms Heath could remain in the courtroom.

On August 14, 1984, well after Elizabeth Heath was reported missing, John Heath received a divorce in court from Elizabeth Heath. On June 16, 1985, John Heath married Raquel Figueroa, whom John Heath had added as an owner of his 89 Poverty Hollow Road property on February 5, 1985.

Elizabeth Heath and Raquel Figueroa had known each other.

 

Testimony

Nine witnesses testified in court. Among them were four friends/acquaintances of Elizabeth Heath; John Heath’s half-sister; a man who discovered the skeletal remains of Elizabeth Heath in April 2010; one former Newtown police detective; and two current Newtown police detectives.

Newtown police Detective Joseph Joudy testified that when police informed John Heath in April 2010 that Elizabeth Heath’s skeletal remains had been found within a dry well located beneath the flooring of an apartment in a barn at the 89 Poverty Hollow Road property, Mr Heath had an animated physical reaction to the news.

After being told that the skeletal evidence indicated that Elizabeth Heath had a broken arm, John Heath made a motion with his two hands which simulated a smashing action, Det Joudy testified.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit in the case, “On April 15, 2010, police informed John that it appears that Elizabeth had a broken forearm and that the bone was smashed. John then replied, ‘Smashed like a…’ John never finished the sentence, and as he said ‘Smashed,’ he raised both of his arms and, as if he was holding something, moved his arms in a downward motion.”

The affiant for that arrest warrant is Newtown police Detective Jason Frank, who also testified at the probable cause hearing.

After checking the skeletal remains of Elizabeth Heath, the medical examiner said the skeleton’s broken left forearm was consistent with an assault against her having occurred.

Chief State Medical Examiner Wayne Carver, MD, established the cause of the homicidal death as blunt force traumatic head injuries as indicated by multiple skull fractures.

In September 2009, Det Joudy had been assigned to review John Heath’s April 1984 report to Newtown police that his wife Elizabeth had run off and was a missing person. Police considered the matter a “cold case” or an investigation in which the investigatory leads had gone cold.

After reopening the case, Det Joudy spoke to John Heath who told him that he had not heard from Elizabeth since she had disappeared in April 1984, Det Joudy testified.

Det Joudy’s next encounter with John Heath came on April 14, 2010, at Heath’s rental home in Bridgewater, after Elizabeth Heath’s skeletal remains had been found at the Heath’s former property at Poverty Hollow Road. Det Joudy took two statements from John Heath.

In testimony at the June 19 hearing, Det Frank described a distinctive necklace that was found among Elizabeth Heath’s skeletal remains. The detective also described the evidentiary aspects of a blanket and some bedding within which those bones were found.

On April 29, 2010, police executed a search-and-seizure warrant at Heath’s Bridgewater rental home and collected various evidence for their murder investigation.

Items seized there were similar to items that were found within a structure beneath the floor where Elizabeth Heath’s complete skeleton was found at 89 Poverty Hollow Road, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

In court on June 19, Robert Tvardzik, a retired Newtown police detective, described his investigation into Elizabeth Heath’s disappearance after it was reported to Newtown police by John Heath on April 6, 1984.

Mr Heath told the detective that his wife had been missing since April 1 and that he wanted police to find her. Mr Heath told police that Elizabeth had had emotional problems.

John Heath had filed divorce proceedings against his wife in February 1984.

Mr Tvardzik described the steps that he took in investigating Elizabeth Heath’s disappearance, including officially listing her with police agencies as a missing person, visiting the Heath property multiple times, and interviewing Ms Heath’s neighbors and relatives.

But eventually the leads in the investigation went cold, Mr Tvardzik explained.

Mr Tvardzik’s last report on the case was filed in October 1984, he said, adding, however, that police kept abreast of developments.

Cold Gets Hot

What had been a cold case with a dearth of evidence, grew quite hot when Jordan Wright, who is one of the current owners of 89 Poverty Hollow Road, was among those who uncovered Elizabeth Heath’s complete skeleton on April 14, 2010.

Mr Wright was among those who bought the property in September 2007, following its 2004 foreclosure and he was in the process of renovating a deteriorated ground-level apartment in a barn on the site.

After ripping out some flooring in the apartment, workers found a hatch cover beneath which was a dry well. They lifted the hatch and pulled out a garbage bag and bedding from the dry well, finding a femur or human thigh bone there.

Mr Wright informed his father, Kenneth J. Wright, MD, of what had been found, after which Dr Wright called Newtown police who responded to the scene and launched their investigation into what no longer was a cold case.

No one had occupied the apartment between the time the Wrights purchased the property in September 2007 and the time that the skeleton as found, Jordan Wright testified under questioning by Mr Sedensky.

Under questioning by Mr O’Reilly, Jordan Wright said he has no idea how the human remains had gotten into in the dry well.

Witness Jacquelyn Sanford, a friend of Elizabeth Heath, testified to Mr Sedensky that in the spring of 1984, Ms Heath informed her that the Heaths were heading for a divorce.

Ms Heath then cancelled plans for a lunch with Ms Sanford. After not hearing from Ms Heath about rescheduling the lunch, Ms Sanford called Ms Heath a week later and Mr Heath answered the telephone informing Ms Sanford that Ms Heath was missing.

Ms Sanford said she never saw Ms Heath again.

In September 1979, John and Elizabeth Heath had had a daughter, Meghann. 

Ms Sanford stressed Elizabeth’s love for Meghann. “She was a wonderful mother. She loved her little girl dearly,” Ms Sanford said.

Under questioning by Mr O’Reilly, Ms Sanford said she did not contact the Newtown police in 1984 about Ms Heath’s disappearance, expecting that the police would approach her about the matter.

Witness Marjorie Morton told Mr Sedensky that she knew Ms Heath through their participation at the Temenos Institute, which is a center for psychotherapy in Westport.

Ms Morton said that Ms Heath had been preparing a presentation as part of her training to become a psychotherapist, but then she surprisingly did not show up for the event.

Ms Morton said she called the Heath residence to find out where Elizabeth was and Mr Heath angrily answered the telephone.

“She ran off in the night, he told me… It didn’t make sense, “ Ms Morton said.

After Ms Heath disappeared, Ms Morton spoke several times to the lawyer who was representing Ms Heath in the Heath’s divorce proceedings, Ms Morton said. Ms Heath’s lawyer had contacted Newtown police in 1984 about his client’s disappearance, Ms Morton said.

Witness Trudy Karahalios, who was a friend of Elizabeth and John Heath, testified that she always expected to see Elizabeth again after she was reported missing, but she did not.

Ms Karahalios told Mr Sedensky that she asked John about Elizabeth’s whereabouts but he never provided any informative answers.

On March 31, 1991, Elizabeth Heath was declared “presumed dead,” according to probate court documents.