WATERBURY, Conn. — A bill is sitting on President Biden’s desk awaiting signature that has its roots here in Connecticut. It’s tied to a nearly 20-year-old cold case homicide in Waterbury and it aims to help both law enforcement and families find closure.
Senate Bill 5230 passed through congress Wednesday night with nearly unanimous bipartisan support. It was shepherded by Sen. Chris Murphy and Rep. Jahana Hayes. The ‘Help Find the Missing Act,’ better known as ‘Billy’s Law,’ is Named after 31-year-old Billy Smolinski.
“Christmas miracle that’s what they are calling it, and it certainly is,” said Jan Smolinski, Billy’s mother.
Billy Smolinski went missing from his home in Waterbury in 2004. He’s never been seen since. Police were able to cobble together enough evidence to determine it was a murder.
“It’s been a long road. I have the Smolinski family near and dear to my heart and it’s been quite a roller coaster ride for them,” remarked Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo.
Billy’s body has never been found and no one has ever been charged.
“Billy was probably hit in the head with a hammer and buried somewhere in the Naugatuck Valley,” speculated Jan Smolinski.
There were flaws in how the initial investigation was handled.
“There were changes in policies on how we take complaints of missing persons and how quickly we enter that information into databases,” explained Chief Spagnolo.
It left the family to piece together its own clues. They rented billboards, organized search parties, established a tip line and hired private investigators.
“We're not stopping. We can’t. How can you give up on a family member?” asked Jan.
Billy’s killing has been investigated by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. But the family’s quest for justice unveiled critical flaws in cross-agency communication. For example, not matching missing persons' information to unidentified remains.
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“It will provide closure for not only law enforcement but closure for these families and give them some type of resolution,” said Connecticut State Police Sgt. Christine Jeltema.
Billy’s Law puts in place a framework to fix issues by connecting databases. State Police Trooper Christine Jeltema told FOX61 this will especially help under-resourced rural departments, but she said more needs to be done to solve continued staffing challenges within the ranks of law enforcement.
“With the decline in troopers that we have we are unable to fill units, so a lot of our missing persons unit is just an individual working within our major crimes' unit,” said Sgt. Jeltema.
Every year tens of thousands of people go missing and an estimated 40,000 sets of unidentified unclaimed human remains are held at coroner's offices or simply disposed of.
“Justice is to bring Billy home and put him in a resting place so we can go and see his grave and know that he’s with us,” said Jan.
President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law and on Friday, Senator Chris Murphy will be touting the bill alongside Congresswoman Jahana Hayes and the parents of Gabby Petito, whose high-profile missing person homicide case gained national attention.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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