Date: Fri 18-Jun-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Mayo-investigator-Crafts

Full Text:

Crash Kills "Woodchipper" Investigator

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Keith Mayo, the private investigator who spurred the state to pursue a

vigorous investigation into the infamous "wood chipper murder" of airline

flight attendant Helle Crafts in 1986, died this week as a result of injuries

he suffered in an automobile accident in Florida.

Mr Mayo, 46, of Jupiter, Fla, was a passenger in a 1997 Saturn driven by

William Miller, 42, of Loxahatchee, Fla, according to a spokesman for the

Florida Highway Patrol.

The Saturn was northbound on US 441 north of Belle Glade in Palm Beach County

about 5:20 pm Monday. The Saturn slowed for an unknown reason and it was

struck from behind by a northbound 1991 Mazda driven by Teresa M. Rodriguez,

29, of Belle Glade.

The impact of the collision caused the Saturn to cross the road's center line

and enter the southbound lane, police said.

The Saturn then collided with a southbound 1988 Chevrolet driven by Robert C.

Mitchell, 20, of Belle Glade, police said.

Police report that Mr Mayo was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

An ambulance crew transported Mr Mayo to St Mary's Medical Center in West Palm

Beach where he later died.

Mr Miller, the driver of the Saturn, received serious injuries in the crash,

police said. Mr Mitchell received minor injuries, as did Ms Rodriguez and two

girls who were passengers in the Mazda she was driving, police said.

Charges in the accident are pending.

Mr Mayo, a former New Milford police officer, worked as a private investigator

in the New Milford area for many years before moving to Florida.

Crafts Murder

Mr Mayo had been hired by Helle Crafts to follow her husband, Richard, on his

trips to visit his New Jersey girlfriend to gather evidence for her divorce

case. When Helle Crafts disappeared, Mr Mayo came into the spotlight as the

private investigator who tried to solve her murder and to get the police to

take him seriously.

On November 18, 1986, Pan Am flight attendant Mrs Crafts, 39, who lived at 5

Newfield Lane, was last seen alive. She wasn't reported missing until December

1.

More than a month later, state police arrested her husband, Eastern Airlines

pilot Richard Crafts, then 49, at his home, charging him with the murder of

his wife. He was held on $750,000 bond. His children, ages 8, 10 and 12 at the

time, were removed from the home and put in the custody of Mr Crafts' sister.

In their investigation, police searched the woods in Southbury looking for

evidence along the banks of the Housatonic River about one mile north of the

Silver Bridge. Amid a pile of wood chips, they found a 1¬-inch long piece of a

finger, several hundred strands of hair, a finger nail, a tooth, a toenail,

bone fragments, flesh and letters addressed to Mrs Crafts. In the river,

divers located a chain saw said to belong to Mr Crafts which he used in the

crime.

Investigators believe that Mr Crafts hit his wife over the head with a

flashlight and may have then strangled her. From there, he is believed to have

stored her body overnight in a large freezer in his garage. Eventually, police

said, he took her body to a plot of land he owned off Currituck Road and cut

her body into pieces, later to be put through the wood chipper on the banks of

the Housatonic River in Southbury.

Mr Mayo figured prominently in a book written about the murder case by

novelist Arthur Herzog, which painted a negative picture of the Newtown police

and emphasized Mr Mayo's work in the investigation. Many believe the private

investigator's work in the days after Mrs Crafts' disappearance was

instrumental in breaking the case.

Mr Crafts is serving a 50-year sentence on his murder conviction. His earliest

possible release date is 2022.