Walk Softly Children

Learn more about Jessica Fritz Aguiar's fight in the Freedom of Information Commission to get the Wallingford Police Department to release its records on Doreen Vincent's case. Listen as Jessica works through cold cases from around the state of Connecticut, including Suzanne Jovin, Barbara Hamburg, Leah Ulbrich, Janice Pockett, Debra Spickler, Lisa Joy White, Rhonda Johnson, and Billy Smolinski in an attempt to figure out what gives a case its solvability factor. Hear the status of Doreen's case with the State's Attorney's Office and whether a prospective law enforcement action is indeed on the horizon.

Show Notes

The following episode, as well as In the Cards, draw from the following articles:

Missing Girls’ Cold Cases Turn 50, 45, Respectively, This Week, Chris Dehnel, July 24, 2018

Cold Case Squad Investigating 40 Year Old Missing Girl Cases Has Leads, David Owens, April 14, 2016, Hartford Courant http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-tolland-missing-girls-0415-20160414-story.html  

 

Defrosting Cold Cases – The Vernon Tolland Three, Alice De Sturler, June 25, 2018 (website) https://defrostingcoldcases.com/?s=vernon+tolland

 

Remembering Lisa White 40 Years After Disappearance, Tara Joyce, NBC Connecticut October 31, 2014 https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/remembering-lisa-white-40-years-after-disappearance/58229/

 

A Close Look Inside Connecticut’s Cold Case Unit, June 28, 2015, Jonathan Shugarts, Waterbury Republican American https://www.thehour.com/news/article/A-close-look-inside-Connecticut-s-cold-case-unit-8044034.php

 

Connecticut cold case murders pule up for small group of investigators, Lisa Backus, March 31, 2019 https://www.ctinsider.com/local/article/CT-cold-case-murders-pile-up-for-small-group-of-13720172.php

 

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/06/10/they-keep-finding-bodies-by-my-grandparents-house,  They Keep Finding Bodies by My Grandparents’ House, Sara Morrison, June 10, 2015, Boston.com

Until They All Come Home, Heidi Voight, NBC Connecticut, November 21, 2019

 

How a Sacramento County investigator solved a 40 year-old cold case, Walter Makaula, April 25, 2020 https://www.kcra.com/article/how-sacramento-county-investigator-solved-40-year-old-cold-case/32275016


Cold Cases, Open Wounds, The Yale News, Kyung Min Lee, January 21, 2019 http://features.yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/01/21/cold-case-open-wounds/


The Brass File, A Punch in the Face.  Blog by John Murray, dated December 9, 2007.  http://waterburyobserver.blogspot.com/2007/12/punch-in-face.html


The Search: Billy Smolinski Was Murdered Six Years Ago.  Where is His Body?, John Murray, Waterbury Observer, August 1, 2010 http://www.waterburyobserver.org/wod7/node/4334


Sex, Violence, and Politics, aka The Smolinski Case, Andy Thibeaut, CT News Junkie, March 26, 2007 https://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/sex_violence_and_politics_aka_the_smolinski_case/


Earlier FOIA investigation for Van De Velde: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2001/10/11/jovin-file-faces-new-foi-act-review/ - members voted unanimously to review Suzanne’s file 2011

 

Witness, detective paint different pictures of cold case, The Associated Press, Norwich Bulletin, February 21, 2020 https://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/20200221/witness-detective-paint-different-pictures-of-cold-case

 


New Suspect Charged in 1980s Teen Slayings, NBC Connecticut, December 5, 2008 https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/local/sex-offender-charged-in-1980s-teen-slayings/1845007/


‘One of the worst cases that I’ve heard.’  24 years after gruesome dragging death, detectives continue to investigate the murder of Leah Ulbrich, Zach Murdock, The Hartford Courant, October 29, 2019 http://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-br-leah-ulbrich-cold-case-20191029-hnryyeizx5bipglvtodbjfwy6a-story.html

 

Police release select records of ‘dead leads’ in Wallingford homicide cold case, Lauren Takores, Record Journal, February 21, 2020 https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Wallingford/Wallingford-News/Police-release-select-records-of-dead-leads-in-Wallingford-homicide-cold-case.html 

 

 


Billy Smolinski, Gone Since 2004, Is Part of a ‘Mass Silent Disaster’ https://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/15/billy-smolinski-gone-2004-part-silent-mass-disaster-263142.html

 

Filmmaker fighting for release of records in Madison cold case slaying, Meghan Friedmann, January 12, 2020, New Haven Register https://www.ctinsider.com/news/nhregister/article/Filmmaker-fighting-for-release-of-records-in-14969151.php

 


Cold Case Chronicles: 1996 murders of mother, son still remain unsolved, Kara O’Connor, The Hour, April 28, 2012 https://www.thehour.com/stamford/article/Cold-Case-Chronicles-1996-murders-of-mother-son-8140367.php

 

Ruling Favors Police Disclosure, Paul Zielbauer, New York Times, February 15, 2002

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/15/nyregion/metro-briefing-connecticut-hartford-ruling-favors-police-disclosure.html?searchResultPosition=2

 

Man Convicted in Slayings of 2 Teens in 1980s Dies in Prison, NBC Connecticut, October 19, 2018

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/man-convicted-in-slayings-of-2-teens-in-1980s-dies-in-prison/163979/

 

Courtroom Commotion in Triple Murder Trial, NBC Connecticut, December 8, 2008

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/commotion-clears-court-in-triple-murder-trial/1845302/

 

Cold Case Squad Investigating 40-Year-Old Missing Girl Cases Has Leads, Suspects, David Owens, Hartford Courant, April 14, 206 http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-tolland-missing-girls-0415-20160414-story.html  

 

Keeping On: Bill and Jan Smolinski Continue to Fight for Legislation to Alter the Way Police Respond to the Report of a Missing Adult, John Murray, The Waterbury Observer, March 1, 2011

http://www.waterburyobserver.org/wod7/node/4337

 
Man with gun gives up tense standoff in Meriden, Marisa Osorio Colon, The Hartford Courant, May 8, 1996 http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1996-05-08-9605080502-story.html

What is Walk Softly Children ?

Attorney Jessica Fritz-Aguiar continues the investigation of the Doreen Vincent case featured on Season 2 of the podcast Faded Out. Fritz-Aguiar was the lead investigator on that podcast, and has filed a FOIA request against the Wallingford CT police, to get to the bottom of this 32 year old missing persons case.