Crimes & Punishments: 1979 Wolcott murder still unsolved (Connecticut)

Waterbury Republican-American ^ | July 6, 2009 | Andrew Larson

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WOLCOTT — Thirty years later, the brutal murder of a 60-year-old woman in this quiet, closely knit town still haunts its residents.

As Wolcott's only unsolved murder, the case of Anthonia Raibikis hasn't escaped the radar of police, either. They still have evidence from the scene and their hope is that technology eventually will lead them to the killer.

On June 9, 1979, a little after 9 p.m., Raibikis and her sister, Gladys Knapik, closed up shop at Liquor Locker, the package store in Waterbury Raibikis owned.

Before they left, Raibikis tucked the day's earnings — between $500 and $1,000 — into her purse.

They headed home on Wolcott Street, turning into Raibikis' daughter's driveway at 545 Bound Line Road, near the house where the two sisters lived. As they got out of the car, they saw the shadow of a man running across the lawn.

First he approached Knapik and a struggle ensued. She managed to escape, badly bruised.

Raibikis was still inside the car when the attacker came to her. She put up a fight but was no match for the 6-foot-tall assailant.

As her sister watched in horror, the man pointed a gun at Raibikis and shot her in the head. He took her purse and ran away. Raibikis was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police interviewed family, friends and co-workers, but didn't identify any serious leads.

In August 1979, police released a composite sketch of a person of interest in the case, a man riding a motorcycle on Wolcott Road who swerved into the parking lot of Town Package Store around 8:55 p.m. the night of the murder.

The motorcyclist was reportedly being tailed by a light-colored car. Police believed that the motorcyclist might have information about the murder, but provided few other details at the time.

Police saved all of the evidence they collected from the scene.

In 2002, a break seemed to emerge. Police realized they could use forensics to extract DNA from curled cigarette butts collected from the scene.

The murder investigation was reopened in 2003 when New Milford police, searching for new leads in a 1995 sexual assault, ran a DNA test on semen and found that it matched DNA found at the Wolcott murder scene.

The information gleaned from the DNA match told police more about their suspect: that he was probably still alive and might be living in the area.

However, the lead hasn't led to any recent developments.

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Police released this composite sketch of a "person of interest" in the murder of Anthonia Raibikis in August, 1979.

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“You rang?”

[WilliamofCarmichael]

The information gleaned from the DNA match told police more about their suspect: that he was probably still alive and might be living in the area.

I do not want to distract from this tragedy.

I am compelled to cite another one.

We do not need DNA to learn about the suspects in this case.. we need only scan news articles about prominent members of the academic community. They are well known and very public.

They have friends in very high places. Perhaps even lists of White House social visitors would list their names.

Officer Down Memorial Page

After nearly 40 years you'd think our local, state, and federal governments would be embarrassed enough (by their inaction) to just say what's tragically obvious.

To wit, some citizens are just too big, in the eyes of their powerful friends, to be bothered with questions about some little murder thingy -- and we as LEO are too chicken to do anything.