He Said a Fat Intruder Killed His Wife. Her Fitbit Said Otherwise

Richard Dabate now charged in wife's 2015 murder
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 25, 2017 10:10 AM CDT
He Said a Fat Intruder Killed His Wife. Her Fitbit Said Otherwise
The Dabate home is seen in Ellington, Conn., on Feb. 4, 2016.   (AP Photo/Dave Collins)

When Richard Dabate called 911 to report that his wife had been fatally shot inside the couple's home in Ellington, Conn., he claimed the masked killer was a "tall, obese man" with a voice like Vin Diesel, who'd also tied up Dabate, according to police. Thanks in part to his wife's Fitbit fitness tracker, that story has since unraveled. Police—who've charged Dabate with felony murder and other crimes 16 months after the Dec. 23, 2015 murder—say Dabate claimed Connie Dabate was killed around 9am, when she returned home from the gym. But police say she used Facebook some 40 minutes later, before her Fitbit recorded her last movements around 10am, reports the Hartford Courant.

An investigation uncovered Dabate was carrying on a relationship with another woman whom he'd gotten pregnant, per the New York Daily News, while his apparently unsuspecting wife had penned a list of reasons why she wanted a divorce, including that Dabate took money from "accounts that don't belong to him," police say. Her last text message to her husband read, "Merry [expletive] Christmas." According to police, Dabate checked his wife's gym schedule before arriving home and shooting her with a recently purchased Magnum .357. Five days later, he unsuccessfully tried to cash in on her $475,000 life insurance policy, police say. Dabate has posted a $1 million bond and is due in court on Friday, per Patch.com. (More murder stories.)

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