Criminology - The Fitbit Murder

Episode Date: August 4, 2024

In 2015, a Connecitcut woman named Connie Dabate was murdered in what appeared to be a home invasion burglary. As police dug deeper, it seemed that things were not as they appeared.   Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the murder of Connie Debate, a case that became known in the media as the Fitbit murder. The authorities relied on a variety of tools to help lay out the truth; including social media, cell phone data, surveillance camera footage, and computer files. One of the biggest tools of all in their quest for the truth turned out to be a Fitbit fitness tracker.   You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology   An Emash Digital production

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Hello everyone and welcome to episode 319 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. So Mr. Morford, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing good. I'm on my third cup of coffee today, so I'm feeling pretty alert and ready to go. How you don't? Yeah, I'm on my first. We are taping, you know, in the morning and you tend to get up earlier than I do. But yeah, it's going to be a good day.

Have ready to go. Well, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Karen Dahl and Helen Radford. So great new support. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you so much for that support. It really helps us out. And for anyone else that would like to help the show. Please go over to patreon.com slash criminology to get signed up. And just a reminder, we mentioned recently that we're already making plans to attend CrimeCon 2025 in Colorado, and we definitely want to see you there. CrimeCon is the world's greatest true crime convention and is taking place in Denver, Colorado, September 5th through the 7th, 2025 at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center.

If you've been to CrimeCon before, you know there are endless things that do and you can rob those with your favorite people from the world of true crime. And of course, you can come see us on podcast Row and come to our annual criminology. T-Cat meetup. And if you are going to CrimeCon, why not save a few bucks by using our promo code when you get your pass? Just head over to CrimeCon.com and use our promo code criminology at checkout to save 10% on your standard badges. We hope to see you there. So now that we have all of that out of the way, let's jump into this week's case. In this episode, we are covering a case that

unfolded in 2015 in which a Connecticut woman named Connie DeBade was murdered in what appeared to be a home invasion burglary. But as police dug deeper, it seemed that things were not as they appeared. And they relied on a variety of tools to help lay out the truth, including social media, cell phone data, surveillance camera footage, computer files, and one of the biggest tools of all in their quest for the truth turned out to be a Fitbit Fitness tracker. The morning of December 23rd, 2015, started the same way as any other morning did for the Debeat family, other than the excitement of Christmas in the air. Richard and Connie DeBate lived on Birchview Drive with their two young sons, Richard

Jr. and Connor in Ellington, Connecticut, 20 miles north of Hartford. They had been married for over a decade and started building their family together. Connie, the family's main breadwinner, was a pharmaceutical sales representative, and Richard worked for a computer company. According to Connie's friend, Ali Clark's in a People magazine article, Connie was always the first to volunteer for anything. Whether it was class mom, PTA, anything for her friends. 39-year-old Connie was a responsible one in the relationship, while Richard, who was just one year older, was the overgrown kid. Despite their differences, those who knew them best, said they were a really solid couple that had made it work.

Friends of Connie's recall arguments over money and stress over finances, but nothing ever seemed out of the ordinary for a married couple raising kids. Aside from the rising cost of living, which was impacting many families, everything seemed perfect. So to me, it's interesting, you know, to hear a family friend say that Connie was the responsible one and Richard was the overgrown kid. I'm sure there are a lot of couples like that where there are major differences, whether it's in how people act, how they, you know, parent.

Sometimes you have one parent who's the strict parent and one, you know, is described as the fun parent. Well, who doesn't want to be the fun parent? But none of that works all the time. You have to have a little bit of both, right? both parents can't be overgrown kids. Things are going to fall apart pretty quickly. And in this talk of, you know, arguments over money, stress over finances, I mean, what couple more if hasn't had that during a relationship or marriage? I mean, that just

is par for the course. Yeah, I think that's a common thing, especially, you know, if you have young children and there's a lot more cost involved. So anytime things get tough, financially a lot of people do have some arguments that's to be expected but it sounds like from what the friends are saying everything seems good from the outside looking in with this couple but of course i think we all know that not everything about every couple is known by their friends you know there's some things that are kept secret or you know issues they might have in their marriage aren't always reflected to where people can see them yeah no doubt and i would say not just couples. I would expand that to just about everyone. As well as you might know someone,

do you really know everything about them? And I would say a lot of times that's pretty tough. People show you what they want to show you and they keep hidden what they want to keep hidden. Neighbors were shocked when authorities swarmed their quiet street proceeding to the debate home an alarm on the home security system was activated at 10.11 that morning. The security company alerted Connecticut State Police by 911 at 1016 a. 4 minutes later, with authorities on the way, Richard Debate called 911. He reported that he and Connie had been victims of a home invasion. Tragically, Connie had been killed by the intruder, shot to death with a gun from the debate home.

Luckily, their sons had been in school during the attack. On a normal day, neither Connie nor Richard would be at home at that time either. Connie took an exercise class at the local YMCA and Richard, a computer technician, was usually at work. It wasn't until Connie got to the Indian Valley YMCA that morning that she realized her class had been canceled. So she decided to turn around and go home. about five minutes into Richard's 40-minute drive to work. He realized that he had left his laptop at home. He also decided to turn around and go home,

and according to him, that's when the nightmare unfolded. Richard told police that he had arrived back at the home before Connie, between 8, 45, and 9 a.m. He was grabbing his work laptop and making sure he wasn't forgetting anything else when he heard a noise upstairs. The house was empty other than him, but they did have cats. so he wasn't immediately on guard.

He headed up the stairs to investigate the sound and found the source of the noise, a tall man about six foot two, wearing camouflage clothes, gloves, and a mask over his face. The stranger was in a closet, looking through Connie's jewelry. According to Richard, though the intruder was unarmed, he was no match for the man physically.

The man ordered Richard around in a voice that he described as similar to the actor, Vin Diesel, who has a pretty distinct deep voice. Richard, in a recorded police interview, said of the assailant. He said something about my kids. I can't remember what, but it was threatening. The man reportedly demanded cash, credit cards, debit cards, and their pin numbers. While the two were still upstairs, Richard heard the sound of their garage door opening.

It was Connie returning home early from her fitness class at the YMCA. As she entered the home, Richard said he desperately yelled out for her to run. Connie had no idea what she was coming home to. And Richard said he wanted to protect her. And my first thought, morph, is how scary this situation would be. You come home, you hear something, you go upstairs to investigate, and you find an intruder in your home. But, you know, the one thing that jumped out to me was Richard saying that although the

intruder was unarmed, he was no match for this guy physically. And I get that, right? Some people are bigger than others, more muscular. whatever it is, but at a certain point, if you knew that this person was unarmed and you knew that your wife was walking into the home, would you not try to do something? That's the thought that entered my mind other than just yell out to your wife. Would you try to, you know, get into an altercation with this person to help save her? Yeah, I'd like to think that I would, for sure, you know, at least try and stall him, maybe

jump at him as he's trying to go out the doorway, whatever it may be, to give my wife time to react and hopefully get away. So, you know, this seems a little bit suspicious, at least to me, that he wouldn't try and confront this guy physically just to give his wife time to help her. According to Richard, a panicked Connie darted down into the basement and the intruder followed. He wasn't going to allow any chance for her to raise the the alarm. From the basement, Richard heard shots ring out. Ballistics would later prove that a 357 magnet that Richard had purchased just months earlier, but had never fired, was used to shoot Connie twice, once in the stomach and once in the back of the head. She was killed almost instantly

by the headshot. According to Richard, the intruder then turned his attention back to him. Richard claimed that the killer using a box cutter from the debate's home, stabbed him in the legs multiple times. He also used zip ties to secure one of Richard's wrists and one of his ankles to a folding chair in the basement so that he could torture him with a blow torch, taken from Richard's toolbox in the basement. Richard claimed that the pain from the flame was too much for him to take and he decided to fight back. The two struggled over the blow torch. And in the process, the intruder's face was burned.

And he fled from the home. So the first thing that came to my mind, Morphe, was that it was kind of like a real Richard Kimball fugitive vibe here. The story that Richard was telling just didn't seem to ring true to me. There seems to be holes in it. You know, a killer shooting. Connie, then grabbing a box cutter to stab Richard in the legs. I mean, that jumped out of me. And then this blow torch, if you have a 357 magnum and you've just shot and killed a woman,

why are you then turning to box cutters and blow torches when attacking the man inside the home? also you know richard's statement that when this man was using the blow torch on him that was the final straw that was when he decided to fight back i don't know it just doesn't ring true yeah to me the story sounds like complete nonsense you know the whole scenario of first he's unarmed up in the bedroom with richard yet somehow manages to run out and by the time he gets down in the basement he has has a gun now and he kills Connie. And then to come up once he's killed her, you know,

it seems logical that he wouldn't want to leave a witness. So he would just kill Richard as well. But instead he decides he's going to torture him and do all these other things. And it just, it sounds like complete nonsense to me. And I think the police probably thought so too when they were hearing this story. And the one thing that Richard doesn't really explain, or at least, you know,

we don't have the information is how did he get down? into the basement, did he chase the intruder who, for whatever reason, is going after Connie? You know, I'm with you, Morve. I think you can just picture a detective listening to this story and not believing it. Yeah, and I think there are a lot of cases where police get something in their mind and stick to it and they go down a certain direction and don't look at anything else. And I don't think you should do that as an investigator. and if police doubted his story in this case, you almost can't blame them. Richard claimed that he was injured, terrified, and heartbroken,

but managed to crawl up the stairs, dragging the folded chair behind him. He finally managed to call 911 at 10.20 a.m. He was found moaning on the floor in the kitchen by firefighters, and he was taken to an ambulance outside the home to have his injuries looked at. According to Yahoo News, Richard told first responders, they're still in the house. Connie was pronounced dead at the scene, and Richard was still zip tied to the chair,

and he had a zip tie around his neck, but it wasn't digging into his skin. Besides the stab wounds, Richard had no bumps or bruises that may indicate he was in a struggle. Compared to what happened to Connie, Richard's injury seemed minimal, and I think like many of our listeners probably are at this point.

Investigators assessing the crime scene were immediately suspicious of Richard's story. Detectives found that the jewelry that the intruder was supposedly rifling through, was all still sitting in its place, and all drawers in the home had been found closed, which is pretty unusual for someone rifling through drawers looking for valuables. They typically dumped drawers out. If the home had been burgled, it had been very carefully searched, not ransacked. If Richard interrupted the intruder looking through a drawer, the intruder took the time to close it before taking control

of the situation. It was becoming clear to police that Richard's story did not match what they were seeing at the scene. Police reached out to local hospitals to see if anyone had been treated for facial burns following the attack, but found no such patients. Back at the debate home, multiple canine scent dogs only picked up Richard Sint at the scene leading to the ambulance he was taken to. After authorities arrived, it's noted in the war in the war. that these efforts produced no indication by K9 Rocky, that an individual had fled the property on foot. Investigators also couldn't find any sign that anything had been taken.

Richards' wallet, which the intruder had demanded from him, was found in the backyard of the home, with all of its contents still inside. The only anomaly was that there was a small pile of paper and potentially other items that had been burned in the basement, almost as if someone had been trying to start a fire. Police didn't shy away from coming out and stating that they were suspicious of Richard to beat in his wife's murder. According to People magazine, a spokesman for the Connecticut

State Police would say that Richard's version of events made no sense. Richard's behavior after Connie's murder didn't help lessen any suspicions. Connie was laid to rest in Ellington's Center Cemetery. Connie's friends recall that Richard had no trouble leaving her grave after the funeral, and that he was barely present during the luncheon after her funeral. Though everyone grieves differently, they couldn't help but feel like something wasn't quite right with the way he was acting. Everyone seemed heartbroken and pleat disbelief except for Richard. Now, not only did the police suspect that Richard was involved in Connie's murder, but friends were starting to think that as well. For his part, Richard attempted to look like

a grief-stricken husband writing on Facebook, the volume of loving friends, family, and acquaintance, who we saw at services is a testament at how much she touched the lives of others. Our friends and neighbors have also been shown an amazing amount of support. To all of you, I say thank you. And Connie thanks you. And more if I think this comes up in a lot of cases, you know, how does a person act in the wake of a tragedy? And you and I have talked about it before, right?

Everyone acts a little differently. but there are many times that, you know, friends and family view the actions of someone as not being quite right. And I think that's what we're seeing here with Richard. You know, could it be that a person is still in shock and, you know, they're not showing the emotion that others think they should be? Yeah, it definitely could be. But could it also be that the person's not in shock. They're not devastated. But they're not devastated. But they're they don't know how to even put on the act. They can't do it. And maybe that's what we're seeing here. And I think these are all people that know Richard, not outsiders looking in, judging how he's

acting. So maybe they got a sense that he's not acting the way he normally would react to something of this magnitude or, you know, a personal loss. Maybe they could see that something was off with him knowing him and knowing how he acted on a regular basis. Well, I think that's a great point. You know, that's different than let's say millions of viewers watching Chris Watts, you know, and saying he's not acting right. I always use Chris Watts as an example because it stood out to me and it stood out to many people.

The way that guy was acting didn't seem right. But as you said, these are people that know Richard. And so I would think even more so they would be tuned in to any odd behavior on his part. Stay tuned at the end of this podcast for a taste of a groundbreaking debut of audio drama featuring innovative Dolby 3D audio production. Hindsight the day before produced by Mark Haynes Productions and Radio Pictures. The All-Star cast includes, Santiago Cabrera, Sibbingau Milambo, Ian Anthony Dale, M.C. Ganey, Nolan Gerard Funk, Marin Dungey, Aaron Stanford, and John Goodman. Hindsight the day before is now available

wherever you find your favorite podcasts. In Morph and I really think you're going to want to check this out. The spatial sound, the audio production, you know, when you've got your headphones on, this thing blows you away. The cast is amazing. And the story is going to pull you in. It's mysterious. It's dark, dangerous. There's murder. Throw in a little Harry Houdini, and you've got one heck of an audio drama. This level of audio production is way beyond anything that I've ever encountered. I think you're going to be blown away. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the

For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Richard went out to bars and restaurants and had friends over to the house when he ran into any of Connie's friends around town. He would quickly find a way to avoid them. but had no problem texting them for things that seemed odd, like asking where you could get takeout, despite the fact that he had lived in Ellington for years. Richard tried to collect the $475,000 from Connie's life insurance policy on December 28th,

just five days after she had been killed. The company denied the claim. He had stopped paying for his own policy that would have benefited Connie in the event of his death two full years before her murder, but kept paying for Connie's policy. And it seems as though we just keep hearing about things on Richard's part that are suspicious. You know, if you've lived in the same place for many, many years, you don't need to text people to find out where to get takeout.

you already know the answer to that question. And then obviously trying to collect on Connie's life insurance, just five days after she had been killed, is going to raise a red flag to many people. And playing devil's advocate, you know, trying to collect on the money, you know,

maybe they had bills and, you know, he didn't want to have falling behind bills on his mind on top of everything else. but, you know, I agree like a lot of people this does look like he's out to get that money. But one thing I also want to play devil's advocate on is in canceling his life insurance, but not canceling Connie's policy. She was the main breadwinner.

So maybe if they were trying to cut cost, it would make sense maybe to cut his policy, but not hers because if something happened to her, you know, the money for the family would, would be needed to replace her income since she was a primary breadwinner. So, you know, you could make the argument for sure. It does look suspicious, but there are also reasons why he may have done that to help the family.

No, and I think it's good to point out both sides like you're doing. And for me, a lot of times, you know, you can look at one thing and see a different side of it. I think what's, starts to happen in many of these cases, though, is that things just keep building and building and

building. Like, there's so many things that this person is doing, where if it was just one thing, okay, maybe you are able to explain it away. But it's so much that it just becomes almost impossible to explain everything away. In January 2016, just weeks after the murder, Richard canceled the superiors. subscription to the security company that enabled his home surveillance and alarm system. Just 12 days after someone supposedly broke into the home and attacked him and killed his wife, he felt a security system was no longer needed.

This also added to suspicions of him. Then he withdrew $90,000 from Connie's Fidelity Investment account. To police, this was just one more check in a box that seemed to indicate that Richard had something to do with his wife's murder. It wasn't a mystery to them. They felt they knew who murdered Connie, but they just needed to connect the dots and prove that Richard was responsible. But this wasn't something they could do fast. It required a lot of patience and work. People in the community remained uneasy as they waited for answers.

Gus Falconis, the owner of the Chuck Wagon restaurant in Ellington, told the Hartford Current, people are concerned. They don't know what's going on. Waitress Betty Angeloani explained that customers were concerned because they just haven't heard anything. Some residents began to arm themselves, fearing the unknown attacker. And resident Pete Moretti told the paper, everyone was kind of nervous in the neighborhood. It wasn't until April 2017 that answers finally came. That's when Richard DeBate was arrested for Connie's murder. Officers were careful to make sure he was not handcuffed in front of his sons,

knowing that they had already lost their mom. And now they were about to lose their dad. Richard was also charged with making false statements to police and tampering with evidence. According to patch.com, a warrant in the case read that the investigation was long and exhaustive. Richard insisted that he had not killed his wife of 12 years. According to People Magazine, in court, his attorney said, my client is innocent of these charges and he looks forward to being vindicated after a trial.

Richard's bond was set at $1 million, which he was quickly able to post after his family put up four of their properties as collateral. Since Connie had been murdered, Richard gave several different versions of what happened that Faithful Morning, but finally seemed to stick with the events as follows. Earlier that day, he walked their two sons to the bus stop and then finished getting ready for work. In one version, he left around 8.30 while Connie was still getting ready for her fitness class. And in another, they left the home at the same time, and he saw her backing out of the driveway. Either during his drive back for his laptop, or as he arrived home, he got a text message alert about an alarm at the home. He was fighting with the intruder upstairs when Connie entered the house, and the attacker decided to follow her into the basement, which she immediately ran to upon hearing Richard yell. The suspect walked down the stairs and into the basement.

Richard, in a panic, ran behind the intruder and fell down the stairs. While getting up, he heard one gunshot and then didn't hear anything for about five minutes. According to Connecticut Insider.com, in one recounting, Richard said to the police, I can't get it out of my head. It was the loudest bang he had ever heard. You know, and earlier we talked about, you know, why wouldn't he fight with the intruder? Well, now he's saying that he did. And I think a lot of people are always suspicious when, you know, someone gives multiple different versions of an event.

And my thought is, some of the questions that we had, you know, does a person hear those same questions from detectives? Or do they realize at some point that my story needs to answer some of these questions? Why wouldn't I have fought with the attacker? And so at some point, the narrative gets changed so that it does better align with what people would think someone would do. That's kind of the thought that I have. Yeah, my thinking is usually the truth is always going to be the same because it's the truth. You just lay out the details that they happen. There shouldn't be really any changes.

But when you lie about something and then you change lies to account. count for other things or to explain away things, the story starts to unravel and you have to remember what was said before to cover that lie. And I think that's where you get different stories going on from the same person. And it's, you know, it seems like something that it's easy to spot these changing accounts. Other versions of the story had Richard actually witnessed the shooting be pushed down the stairs by the suspect or alternatively led by the attacker who was pulling him by his wrist. Then the intruder was pointing a gun at him, forcing him to allow the zip ties to be secured around his wrist and ankle. He and the intruder wrestled over the blowtorch.

The intruder's face was burned and it caused him to flee. Richard was able to crawl upstairs and press the panic button on the alarm panel. The problem with all of Richard's claims is that really none of it was possible. Authorities were able to gather data from Connie Debates Fitbit and cell phone and from Richard's cell phone and computer and it all told a very different story. District Attorney Craig Stedman of Lancaster, Pennsylvania chimed in on the use of Fitbit to help tell the story. He once used Fitbit data in a case to prove that a woman had lied when she said someone broke into her home and sexually assaulted her. Stedman told the Hartford Current, to say it is rare to use Fitbit records would be safe, adding, it is a great tool

for investigators to use. The actual timeline in the murder was as follows. Connie left for her spin class at 846 a.m. She arrived at the YMCA at 8.53 and was captured by surveillance cameras here. She sent a Facebook message to psychotherapist asking for an appointment where she could be hypnotized. According to the Hartford Kern, she made the request saying, because there's a lot going on right now. At 901, Richard was logging on to his computer from home. He sent a supervisor at work in email, informing him that he'd be coming into the office a bit late today due to an alarm being activated at his house. He claimed that he had pulled over before heading back home so that he email his boss, but the message was sent from his laptop. He wasn't too concerned about the activation,

claiming the system frequently registered false alarms. At 9.18 a.m., Richard checked the Indian Valley YMCA's group fitness class schedule. Meanwhile, Connie was on the phone with someone and on her way home. Her Fitbit was idle for nine minutes during the drive back home by 923. When the alarm system logged the garage door opening, Connie was home and began walking around inside the home, walking. not being chased. Her heartbeat was calm, not raised. She used her iPhone to post and scroll on Facebook between 940 and 9.46 a.m. Authorities know that she was home because her phone was using the IP address assigned to the house. All this time, her Fitbit had been measuring the distances she

traveled between 918 and 10.05 a.m., which is when her Fitbit stopped recording activity. she had walked a total of 1,217 feet. But the distance from where her car was parked to the basement was only 125 feet. Her Fitbit stopped logging an hour after Richard claimed Connie had been killed. If she died while wearing the Fitbit and Richard was truthful, her heart rate would have been caught on the Fitbit stopping an hour earlier. Richard's story that she had arrived home. and immediately ran down into the basement where she was killed,

wasn't backed up by the timeline, the distance, or by Connie's recorded heart rate, which was not elevated and did not indicate she had been running or scared at any time that morning. The home security system, which logged everything, noted only one alarm activation that morning,

which was from the panic button on Richard's keychain at 10.11 a.m. The alarm system was pretty extensive, and the information contained in the data is quite damning. During the time Richard said he was driving to work, before realizing he forgot his laptop, he was actually home fiddling with the alarm system. He armed and disarmed it several times. He disarmed it at 8.55 a.m. and four minutes later, the system logged the basement door opening and closing. This is without the garage or the front door opening, indicating that he had never left the home

at all that morning. The system apparently had heat detecting motion sensors that registered movement in the home that completely contradicted Richard's story. There were no signs of forced entry to the home and no unusual movement other than Richard arming and disarming the system. And to me more, if this is really the heart of the case against Richard, I mean, this is a mountain of data contradicting his entire story. there's a lot of data coming from the home security system, which doesn't match pretty much anything that Richard said happened. And obviously you have the data from Connie's Fitbit, which is very damning.

I mean, this thing, you know, tracked her movements. It tracked her heart rate and none of it matched Richard's story of her coming home, being alerted to an intruder and running down into the basement. I mean, let's just talk about heart rate alone. If you walked into your home and your spouse yelled that there was an intruder, save yourself, your heart rate is going to spike. I mean, that would be an adrenaline-filled situation.

And the data just didn't show it. It makes me wonder if they didn't have this mountain of, data to show what was really going on, I wonder how much harder it would have been for the police to build a case against him and prove that it didn't go down the way that he said it went down. Well, I think it would have been a lot harder. You know, think about this case happening in the 1960s. You're not going to have all that stuff. It would have been much harder for police to disprove Richard's account of what happened

that morning. But you and I talk a lot about advancements in DNA. And rightfully so, they've helped solve many, many cases. But, you know, there are a lot of other things that have advanced over the years. And we're talking about some of it here. Alarm systems. The data from your cell phone. I mean, they can tell that Connie was logged on to Facebook at a certain time.

Not to mention the, you know, doorbell cameras that you and I have talked to. about extensively. You know, there's just a lot of things in this modern world that are tracking what you're doing at a certain point in time. As far as ballistics, there was gunpowder residue on Richard's shirt, but not his hands. And his DNA was found on the gun, but not his fingerprints. Richard's phone records revealed much more in the way of clues. It proved that he had been having an affair for a long time and now his mistress, a friend who had gone to high school with him, was pregnant. He told her that he and Connie were going to separate and that they were, according to People

magazine, on the same page with everything. He claimed that they were getting a slow-moving divorce to make it easier on the kids who were nine and six years old at the time. None of Connie's friends reported her saying anything about a divorce. And the very next day after Richard had sent that text to his girlfriend, Connie sent him a selfie of her wearing lingerie with a message indicating she wanted to be intimate with him, making it seem, at least in Connie's mind, that nothing was wrong in the marriage. One of Richard's friends claims that Richard was actually scared that Connie would divorce him when she found out about the affair. It seems safe to assume that Connie had no idea, her husband of over a decade, had been unfaithful. Richard had been lying to her about his whereabouts,

claiming to be working late or hanging out with friends or playing cards. It also seems safe to say that she didn't know he had a baby on the way. Just six months after Richard learned of this pregnancy, Connie was dead. So I think now we're really getting into the area of mode. We already talked about the almost half a million dollar life insurance policy. But now we find out that Richard was having an affair. and had a baby on the way. When speaking to police about the state of his marriage,

Richard didn't claim they were getting divorced. Instead, he claimed that Connie was unable to have a third child, that she longed for, so they decided to ask a family friend for help. According to People Magazine, instead of asking her to be a surrogate, they decided to do something, quote, untraditional. She and Richard would have a child,

and all three of them would call. co-parent together. It is possible that Richard was afraid that Connie would divorce him because there was proof she had wanted to in the past. A note on her iPhone from December 2014 was the list of reasons she wanted to divorce her husband. According to the Connecticut mirror, the note was literally titled, why I want to divorce. Some of the reasons included the way he treated her, how bad of a parent he was, and a tendency

to withdraw money from a lot of accounts that weren't in his name. She also noted the fact that he acts like a kid constantly. And here again, I think, you know, we see another instance of Richard having to craft a story, come up with a narrative, you know, that fits. Now, it doesn't make any sense to me and probably not to very many people listening. they won a third child. But instead of asking this woman to be a surrogate, she and Richard would have a child,

and then the three of them would co-parent. I mean, who in the world is going to believe that story? But he's got to come up with something more to explain this affair and this baby on the way. There are certain religions that men may have multiple partners or wives and then have babies with those different wives and they're, you know, supposed to support and interact with each other. But there's no evidence that that was the case here. No evidence at all that Connie knew about this or would condone it. And, you know, of course, with her being dead,

she couldn't counter what he was telling the police. Well, and the other thing is you don't have a single person that I'm aware of coming forward and saying, oh, yeah, that was the plan. Connie told me about it or, you know, anything like that. You know why? Because it's not true. Richard used one credit card, which Connie didn't even know about, to spend 1,200 hours at a strip club called the Electric Blue Cafe. He also used the car to stay at a motel 6 and buy flowers for his girlfriend. Many of their messages between Richard and Connie were lovey-dovey.

Connie called Richard Sweet Pea and Buttercup, and he professed his love for her. but many of the messages were also about money troubles. In a text conversation from December 22nd, the day before she was killed, Connie was clearly angry with Richard over a cable bill. Their bill had gone up, now costing double, because Richard decided to add the sports package without telling Connie. Connie spent hours on the phone with Comcast trying to cancel it and straighten up the billing. In the text, she was upset that she, quote, once again, had to clean up his mess.

her final text to him read, Great day off and Merry fucking Christmas. That same night, Richard texted his girlfriend saying, I'll see you tomorrow, my little love nugget. Well, I think it's clear that,

you know, Connie was upset with Richard at certain times over the way he acted, the way that he spent money. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And she didn't even know that he spent to $1,200 at a strip club. First of all,

who spends, $1,200 at a strip club. And imagine if she was upset about the sports package, how upset she would have been about the $1,200. Yeah, and I think it's just a further indication as you start peeling back these layers, you're seeing deception on Richard's part. Yeah, no doubt. There was a lot that he was keeping from his wife.

Financially, you know, the affair, all of it. forced to acknowledge the affair and his marital problems. Richard finally told detectives, this situation popped up like a frickin soap opera. He admitted that the pregnancy was unexpected and that his girlfriend did think that he was going to divorce Connie. He even visited a divorce attorney on June 30th, 2015. But he didn't go through with a retainer or a divorce petition.

Sarah Ganser, the woman who, Richard had the affair with and who was pregnant with his child at the time of Connie's murder was shocked. She didn't believe for a second that Richard was going to divorce Connie. Sarah and Richard met in junior high school and had been friends for 30 years. They spent many of those years in an on-again, off-again relationship. But it only became physically intimate in May 2015. Sarah learned she was pregnant the very next month. It all happened very quickly. When Sarah learned that she was pregnant,

she figured she would end up alone and raising the baby by herself. When the child was born, Richard wasn't there. She hadn't even been telling her family about Richard, though they knew she was pregnant. She only admitted it to her own mother after Connie's murder, when she knew it would be public news anyway. Sarah had no idea that Richard had been planning to kill Connie, and he hadn't said anything to her about it after the murder either.

According to Yahoo News, any complaints Richard made about Connie or the stress of his marriage went in one ear and out of the other. Some of her Facebook messages contradicted this sort of distance version of events, however. She was very aware that he was stressed out about the situation. She messaged one front on Facebook saying, He's going to lose so many friends. He never thought he'd be the kind of person who would have people hate him. If his parents reject him for this, where will he live? he's going to be broke.

He's already so worked up. To prosecutors, this is really the key to this murder. Richard wanted Connie gone, whether it was because he felt pressured by Sarah to leave her or really wanted to start a family with her, but he didn't want the community, Connie's family, their friends, and his own parents to look at him differently. He wanted to stay in the same house. He didn't want to pay any alimony or child support. or have to pay for any of his debts or impulsive purchases without using Connie's money.

He wanted to kill her and looked like he was a victim too so that no one would judge him for moving on with his, quote, new girlfriend. Sarah Ganser filed for full custody of their child in October of 2021. Marley Shaw, Connie's sister, who was the executor of her sister's estate, filed a wrongful death lawsuit. against Richard in November of 2017. She was requesting the money from the Fidelity Investment account, which he took from Connie's estate after her death, as well as unspecified damages.

And I think this is what we see in so many cases, right? Men wanting out of a relationship, sometimes women, but I think more often than not men, they don't want to pay any alimony. They don't want to have to pay child support, but they want out of the relationship. And this is so often a motive for people killing their spouses. And for me, every time we talk about one of these cases, it just boggles my mind how someone could think it's a better idea to try and kill somebody and get away with the murder than it

is to just cut the cord and divorce and try and start over and pick up the pieces, it just, I can't wrap my head around that. In early 2020, a jury was picked for the trial, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought the court system to a screeching halt. In June, Richard's attorney passed away unexpectedly. The jury was dismissed in August 2021. At least one of the jurors had moved out of state by then, and they all had plenty of time to hear about the case. A new jury selection was required, and Richard needed a new attorney. That new jury was finally seated in February 22, and the case was scheduled for trial. 130 witnesses testified, and the jury had to piece together 600 exhibits over 22 days of trial.

On the stand, Richard denied shooting Connie with his gun, or stabbing himself in the legs with his own box cutter, state's attorney Matthew Giddanski said to Richard, you were trying to make a bloody crime scene, were you not? But Richard denied this allegation, despite there being 90-degree drops of blood on his pants. The prosecution pointed out that the 357 used to kill Connie was purchased just months before the murder. And the address Richard used was a PO box,

not his home address. It's likely that Connie had no idea. He even had a firearm. They often argued over money, and it was probably just another expensive purchase he kept from her, knowing she wouldn't agree to it in the first place. Richard took the stand in his own defense saying, I loved two women, and I didn't want to push either of them away. Richard's new defense attorney, Trent Lalima, said to the Huffington Post,

I think we put on a very strong case for why Rick did not commit this offense. State's attorney Matthew Gadansky pushed back on that, telling the court the evidence in this case was strong, and it was made even stronger by the defendant's motive. Though the trial was referred to in the media as the Fitbit murder, according to People magazine, Wayne Rowe, a family friend who served as spokesperson for Connie's family, said the trial was not about Fitbit. It was about the cold-blooded plan murder of Connie Margata debate. State's attorney Matthew Gadanski backed that up, according to Connecticut. insider, he said, this was a cold, methodical plan to avoid the consequences of his

infidelity. In the end, on May 10, 2022, a jury found Richard DeBate guilty on all three counts, first-degree murder, evidence tampering, and false statements. He faced 60 years in prison on the murder charge alone. After his conviction, his bond was raised to $5 million. Wayne Roe, the family spokesperson, told the Huffington Post, there will be no closure. for the Margata family, but there is finally justice for Connie. And Kim Phillips, one of Connie's best friends, told Fox 61 News, I don't think it will ever bring closure to family and friends, because we'll never have her back.

And we heard this word closure a lot. And I think for a lot of, you know, the victims, family members, there really is no closure. You heard one of Connie's best friends say it. There's no closure because we'll never have her back. Now, there's justice when a killer is convicted and sentenced and all of that. But I think this notion of closure and the word itself is used a lot, but I don't think it's always used properly. Or it really doesn't come about as often as I think people believe it does.

Yeah, and I think it's a word that gets thrown around, you know, too often. To your point, there can't be closure, that person's gone forever. And even if they get justice, they still have that loss in their life that they'll have to think about for the rest of their lives. All of the data presented in the case helped sway the jury's decision. This is an interesting case for a variety of reasons. You know, one of them is that you have a suspect who was a computer technician and had such a sophisticated home security system and still felt that he would be able to lie about the entire timeline of events. He thought that using Google voice instead of his cell phone number to text

his girlfriend would keep it hidden from Connie and from authorities. He also didn't consider the Fitbit playing the role that it did. And this was something that that jumped out at me. You know, as we were going through the research, you have, you know, a person in Richard debate who I'm sure was fairly intelligent. But he was also pretty computer savvy, yet didn't seem to understand that all of this data was going to contradict this story that he concocted. It almost makes you wonder how planned out this actually was. because while he had an elaborate story,

he almost didn't account for any of this data that helped convict him. And you would think a computer technician would be more savvy than most, right? When it comes to data and, you know, was it going to show? But he didn't seem to take any of that into account. In addition to the data was the affair. The jury didn't buy it. Jury four person, Valerie Bonnet confirmed that, the data was the most important factor in the guilty verdict, but the affair too was very powerful

in swaying them. She told NBC, Connecticut, all of us were like, no matter, you know, how gracious you are, and no matter how much you want a child, we couldn't swallow that Connie would be okay with an ongoing affair. On August 18, 2022, Richard DeBate was sentenced to 65 years in prison, five more years than the prosecution asked for, and only one year less than the maximum the family asked for. Sixty years for the murder, five years for tampering with evidence, and a concurrent year for the false statements. The victim impact statements of Connie's family and friends were taken into consideration in the sentencing. Before announcing the sentence, Judge Corrine Clatt said, The world is truly a lesser place without Connie in it. I can't replace Connie in your

lies. If I could order that, I would certainly do it. The judge also explained that the nature of this offense was brutal. It was calculated. It was an incomprehensible act. Rather than accept responsibility or show any remorse, Richard responded to the judge, saying, I'm here before you as an innocent man. I will never stop fighting for justice for my wife Connie, who I think about every single day. Defense attorney Trent La Lima announced Richard's intention to appeal the verdict and the sentence. So even after being confronted with this mountain of evidence, even after the jury's decision, you know, Richard debate is defiant. I mean, he continued to say that he was an innocent man. But I think it's hard more for anyone to look at

the evidence against him and view it the same way that he does. So Connie's killer, her own husband, is in prison where he belongs. I think most people believe that. But Connie's family, as so many victims families are, we're left to pick up the pieces. Connie's brother, Keith Margata, told People magazine, as a family, we can move forward. Connie's friend, Ali Clark, told the magazine, I feel for the boys because they'll have to grow up knowing that their father killed their mother. How do you deal with that?

They were not only left with a heavy emotional burden at such a young age, there was no inheritance left for them. The boys now live with Connie's older sister, Leslie Garibetian, in her family, and there's no doubt their lives will never be the same. Their father, Richard DeBate Jr., is currently serving his time at McDougall Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, Connecticut. While the electronic data is what made headlines in this case, State's attorney Matthew Giddensky told the court,

this was another case of domestic violence. Though much progress has been made in recent years to support victims and survivors and to hold abusers accountable, these domestic violence homicides are still happening, so we must continue to work together to end domestic violence. Hopefully their efforts will have. help people going forward. But sadly, it won't help Connie debate, mother of two, who was ambushed in her own home by the person who is supposed to love and protect her. Yeah, as we wrap this case up more,

you know, Matthew Giddansky is absolutely right. You know, this was called the Fitbit murder. That grabbed, you know, a lot of the headlines. But there are so many cases like this that involve domestic violence. I talked about it earlier, right? One person, you know, one person, one wants out of a merit. And very often, it's the husband, doesn't want to pay alimony, doesn't want to give up, you know, the children, doesn't want to give up anything, really. And selfishly makes the decision that rather than, you know, have to pay out money or any of that, they're going to kill their spouse. And I think what you said really hits home, right? Connie DeBate was killed by the person who was supposed to love and protect her no matter what.

And I think that's what makes some of these cases so shocking when a spouse is murdered by, you know, their husband or wife. I mean, you think about your own marriage. You're with that person in your home all the time. You sleep side by side at night. There is a lot of trust in a marriage. It's horrible anytime someone is killed, but doesn't it seem like there's an extra added element when someone is murdered by the person who's supposed to love them the most?

There is for me, at least. And not only did Richard murder Connie, but he left his kids without either of their parents, which is just another terrible thing that he did. and I wonder, and we don't know and we probably will never know, was there any conversation that day? Did Connie confront Richard and there was a conversation in the home? Or did he just walk up to her and shoot her without her knowing what was happening? You know, how things actually went down that morning will probably never know. And I'm curious about.

Well, I don't think we'll ever know because I don't think that Richard debate is capable of being honest about what happened. I really don't. You think about all of the different stories that he's told over the years, the fact that, you know, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, he's able to stand up before the judge and continue to proclaim his innocence and then say he's going to fight for Connie. I mean, that's almost enough to make you sick, really, if you think about And I don't think I would believe anything that came out of his mouth if he did offer up additional details. How would you be able to believe him? And hopefully for Connie's family, they're, as we mentioned, they're never going to get closure.

But hopefully they're at least satisfied that he's in prison where he belongs and he's never going to hurt anyone else. Yeah, you have to take comfort in something. and hopefully they take comfort in that. But that's it for our episode on the Fitbit murder. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a rating, leave a review. Also, keep telling your friends, word of mouth about the criminology podcast goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on X with the handle at CriminologyPod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com slash criminology podcast.

And you can join our Facebook discussion group, Criminology podcast discussion and fans. So that's it for another episode of Criminology. But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone. MHP and Radio Pictures.

January 6th, 1906, Harry Houdini, the handcuff king has done it again. My name is Harry Houdini. If you have discovered these recordings, then there is every chance that I am no longer among the living. Madam Kastelba? Mr. Houdini. I have devoted much of my energy to debunking so-called spiritualism. As a practicing medium, I have always been a fraud.

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