Husband key suspect in woman's murder- Mary Badaracco

Husband key suspect in woman's disappearance

05/06/09

Dominic Badaracco, the husband of a woman who disappeared Aug. 20, 1984, from her Sherman home, was named as the key suspect in her murder Tuesday in Danbury Superior Court.

Dominic Badaracco is alleged to have paid a family friend, Ernest Dachenhausen, to bury his slain wife Mary's Chevy Cavalier, according to testimony by state police detective Joseph Bukowski in Danbury Superior Court on Tuesday. Accused of hindering efforts to find the car 23 years after she disappeared, Dachenhausen is accused of interfering with police when they began digging in Newtown in September 2007. He was charged in April 2008 and has been free on $10,000 bond.

Bukowski, who was assigned to the cold case in 2004, was Assistant State's Attorney John Malone's first witness. Information was received through tips that Dachenhausen had buried the car, Bukowski said, along with several others, on his property on Farrell Road in Newtown.

The tip came from an alleged conversation in Abe's Bar in Danbury.

Bukowski testified that Dachenhausen had been paid by Dominic Badaracco to bury Mary Badaracco's gray Chevy Cavalier, “and not to look inside.” Police had documented Dominic Badaracco's history of abuse against his wife Mary, and extramarital affairs. He was the last one to see her alive in late August of 1984 according to testimony.

Mary Badaracco was first listed as a missing person. The case was later reclassified as an unsolved murder.

Bukowski testified that Badaracco claimed to have come home from work one day that August and found his wife gone.

But she had left all of her worldly possessions behind. And her Cavalier was in the driveway, a front window smashed. It was still there when police went through the house Sept. 3, 1984. It was gone when they returned later that month.

Dachenhausen admitted to Bukowski that he buried four cars, but claimed to know nothing of murder, according to Bukowski's recollection of an interview with him.

When police excavated the property in September 2007, the cars weren't where Dachenhausen said they were. None of what was found on the property [Dash] items which included appliances and garbage [Dash] had anything to do with Badarraco's disappearance, Bukowski said.

Defense attorney Jennifer Tunnard said the passage of time had dimmed memories. Her client, she said, has a cognitive impairment.

Tunnard also claimed Dachenhausen had no connection with the Badaracco's, and suggested in questions posed to Bukowski that Dachenhausen's arrest was simply out of frustration as the case went unsolved.

Malone revealed a police report of a drunken driving crash involving Dominic's son Joseph who was driving Dachenhausen's car while Dachenhausen was in the front seat in 1984. Bukowski said Dachenhausen was charged with what he said and did to hinder police.

Bukowski said Dachenhausen's overall attitude and responses to questions were “sending me in different directions” and hindering the investigation.

The trial resumes today.