Homicide Investigation Leads To Bridgewater House

By Andrew Gorosko

In the ongoing homicide probe into the death of Elizabeth Heath of 89 Poverty Hollow Road in Newtown, town police and state police on Thursday, April 29, executed a search/seizure warrant at the Bridgewater home of John S. Heath, who reported to police on April 6, 1984, that his wife, Elizabeth, 32, was missing from their Poverty Hollow Road home.

About ten town and state police staffers conducted evidence collection at the 5 Keeler Road rental home in Bridgewater where Mr Heath now lives. Police declined to say what they were looking for at the property, opting not to disclose any details about the crime investigation.

The house reportedly was unoccupied when the search occurred. Detectives cordoned off the property at the corner of Keeler Road and Clapboard with bright yellow “Caution” tape, prohibiting access to the site.

The state’s police major crime squad evidence collection van stood in the driveway.

Ms Heath’s skeletal remains were discovered hidden within a dry well beneath the flooring of a former ground-level efficiency apartment within a barn at 89 Poverty Hollow Road on April 14. The Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office used dental records to positively identify her remains.

The Heaths were married in May 1978. They had one child, Meghann, who was born in September 1979.

The Heaths had been involved in divorce proceedings when Mr Heath reported his wife missing to police.

Following Ms Heath’s disappearance, Mr Heath then obtained a divorce on the grounds of desertion. In 1985, Mr Heath remarried, with his new wife later legally adopting his daughter.

In 2000, the probate court declared Ms Heath as presumed dead.

The owner the Poverty Hollow Road property from 1973 to 2005 was John Heath. In 2005, that property went into foreclosure, with Mr Heath then moving to Bridgewater.

Search/Seizure

In a brief statement, Newtown police said the search/seizure warrant for the Bridgewater property was obtained as part of the police’s ongoing investigation into Ms Heath’s death.

Police repeatedly went into the Keeler Road house located on a lot that has become overgrown with vegetation. State police detectives made videotapes of the building’s exterior. Police also were seen working near a detached garage on the property located off Clapboard Road.

State police spokesman Lieutenant J. Paul Vance confirmed that a search/seizure warrant was being executed at a home in Bridgewater, but would not comment further on the matter. Lt Vance referred questions on the topic to Newtown police. 

Repeated attempts to reach Mr Heath, 66, at his Bridgewater home via telephone for comment on the crime investigation have been unsuccessful.

A man who answered the telephone at that address on May 4, who identified himself as a nephew of Mr Heath, said that Mr Heath would have no comment for the press on the police investigation.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe has been especially close-lipped about the investigation into Ms Heath’s death. The police chief declined to say on May 3 what police were searching for at the Bridgewater home and declined to say what evidence was taken from the property.

Similarly, the police chief has declined to say whether police have questioned Mr Heath, or whether he is considered a suspect in the investigation. Chief Kehoe has said that police have questioned many friends and relatives of Ms Heath in their homicide probe.

A Danbury Superior Court spokeswoman said May 3 that the search/seizure warrants for the Bridgewater property have been sealed by the court and are not available for public review.

Interview

In a May 3 interview on the Heath investigation, Chief Kehoe said, “It’s a very important case because it’s a homicide case.”

Asked about his reluctance to discuss the investigation, he said, “I don’t want to predispose anything, or presuppose anything…We’re going to follow the evidence…We let the evidence lead us to where we’re going to go.”

Until now, there had not been a need for police to obtain such warrants in investigating the case, he said.

Police use warrants because they have probable cause to believe that evidence of a crime will be found, he said. “This is an investigative tool,” he said.

The police chief suggested that police may have been searching the Bridgewater property for some object which was owned by Elizabeth Heath 26 years ago.

In seeking to reconstruct what occurred in Ms Heath’s life 26 years ago, police have interviewed her family members, Chief Kehoe said.

The medical examiner is still conducting medical tests in seeking to learn the woman’s cause of death, the police chief said. Because her remains consist of a set of bones, investigators are not able to test bodily tissues, which often are studied in forensic probes, he said.

There is no tissue left on which to perform toxicology tests, he said. “All you’ve got is a skeleton,” he said, declining though to discuss the physical condition of the skeleton.

After a cause of death is established, it would guide police in deciding what investigatory avenues to travel in the case, he said.

The police chief acknowledged that the Heath homicide case amounts to a difficult investigation.

“It isn’t simple…We put a lot of man-hours into it and we’ll continue to put a lot of man-hours into it,” he said.

Forensic testing will be done as expeditiously as possible on the skeletal evidence, he said, noting that Heath family members want to take possession of Elizabeth Heath’s skeletal remains.