Police analyzing sonar tests in Badaracco murder investigation

Police analyzing sonar tests in Badaracco murder investigation

By Brigitte Ruthman
9/9/08

NEW FAIRFIELD - State police are analyzing the results of ground piercing sonar testing conducted Monday as part of an ongoing search for clues in the Mary Badaracco murder case.

Detectives working with officials from the Office of State Archeology conducted a grid patterned search of the area immediately surrounding a two-story colonial home at 2 Sunswept Drive in the hopes of finding buried objects that could be linked to the case. They are currently working to identify areas of interest several feet below the surface surrounded by disturbed soil, state police spokesman Lt. J Paul Vance said.

Information developed as part of an ongoing investigation by detectives assigned to a cold case unit lead them to the home which is part of a subdivision built within weeks of Mary Badaracco's disappearance. Badaracco's husband Dominic said she vanished Aug. 20, 1984 with money taken from the home. Her car, a 1982 Chevy Cavalier, was found in the driveway with a smashed front window, but it, too, disappearance before police could seize it as evidence as part of a missing persons case. The case was reclassified as a homicide in 1990.