A prosecution for homicide requires an official determination of the death of the alleged victim; typically this is done by identification of a body, which was not available in this case. With the help of a forensic dentist, the tooth crown found on the water's edge was positively matched to Helle's dental records. On this evidence, the Connecticut State Medical Examiner's Office issued a death certificate on January 13, 1987; Richard was immediately arrested. In preparation for trial, state medical examiner H. Wayne Carver obtained a pig carcass that was fed through a woodchipper. The shape of, and marks on, the pig's bone chips after this process were similar to the shape of Helle's bone fragments, strengthening the hypothesis that Richard had used a woodchipper to dispose of his wife's body. Richard Crafts' murder trial began in May 1988 in New London, where it was moved due to extensive local publicity. The case went to the jury after 54 days. On July 15, 1988, the 17th day of jury deliberations, a single juror—the only juror in favor of acquittal—refused to continue with deliberations, and the judge declared a mistrial. A second trial in Norwalk ended in a guilty verdict on November 21, 1989. Richard was sentenced to serve 50 years in prison. On January 30, 2020, Richard was released from prison and sent to live at a halfway house in Bridgeport. Richard was released early because of “statutory good time,” which allows sentences to be shortened for good behavior and jailhouse jobs. Crafts's maximum release date was listed by the State Department of Correction (DOC) as August 1, 2020. In popular culture The special edition DVD of the 1996 film Fargo contains a statement that the film was inspired by the Crafts case, particularly the very end of the film where a character is killed and their body is put through a woodchipper. In "The Good Doctor", an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, the investigation into the missing wife of a plastic surgeon leads to a successful conviction without a corpse, under the theory that the body was dissolved in sulfuric acid in the bathtub, and the bones dumped out of the husband's single-engine aircraft. The opening episode of Forensic Files was about Helle Crafts' murder. See also Crime in Connecticut List of murder convictions without a body Uxoricide References Bibliography The Woodchipper Murder by Arthur Herzog 1947