Shelton woman convinced she saw Billy Smolinski's truck being driven in the woods around time of disappearance

 

Jan and Bill Smolinski stand in a wooded area behind the home at 69 Wigwam Drive in Shelton, where the homeowner remembers seeing a car and truck driving behind her home in August of 2004. Their son, Billy Smolinski Jr. disappeared from Waterbury in 2004, and his parents are pushing police to investigate the area for more answers. Peter Casolino/Register

By Andy Thibault
Contributing Editor
and Michelle Tuccitto Sullo
Investigations Editor
SHELTON — On a summer evening about eight years ago, cardiac nurse Jean Petrucelli — still dressed in scrubs after work — relaxed as she grilled dinner off her back deck overlooking the woods.
The woods are a refuge for Petrucelli, a place where she gains peace just breathing air and listening to the singing birds. Occasionally the sounds of all-terrain vehicles wreck the calm throughout the natural setting of about 150 relatively unspoiled acres off Wigwam Road.
A bizarre sight jarred her.
Rays of summer sun beat down to her left and shone on a white truck and a red car being driven into the woods. Petrucelli had never seen conventional motor vehicles there. Nor has she since.
The car spun its tires, scraping rocks, trees or brush as it struggled up a hill in the challenging terrain.
“I thought, ‘What are these crazy kids doing?’” Petrucelli said. “I couldn’t figure out why anyone would take a car and a truck into the woods.”
Years later, in early 2010, Petrucelli saw an episode of the show “Disappeared” on the Investigation Discovery channel. She saw Billy Smolinski’s white truck.
The photo of Smolinski’s truck on the Discovery Channel was identical to the one she saw in the woods behind her house.
“I have no doubt in my mind,” Petrucelli said. “When I saw the Investigation Discovery Channel it clicked. I couldn’t remain silent. What I saw in those woods was so out of the ordinary. I felt obligated to tell what I saw. I couldn’t sit on it. I would do anything to help the Smolinski family. They don’t deserve to have this hanging over them.”

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