On May 30, 1974, the Connecticut state police received a tip that led them to a wooded area behind a home. There, they found two deceased individuals. The male decedent was identified to be Gustavous Lee Carmichael. Carmichael was a serial bank robber who had escaped from jail on October 25, 1970.
Sometime in the following months, he met “Lorraine Stahl” and the two began to travel with each other. Carmichael ended up going by Dirk Stahl for a period of time.
The police began to close in on the two of them which led them to the house of Richard DeFreitas, a prison friend of Carmichaels.
DeFreitas lived in Ledyard along with his common-law wife, Joanne. At the time they were both using assumed names and had also just gained 30,000 dollars from a bank robbery in Newport.
On Dec. 28, DeFreitas went and split the money between himself and two men, Donald Brant and James Gardener who were also criminals. The three reportedly shared their profits and had multiple safe houses in Newport. Meanwhile, he also obtained IDs for “Lorraine” and Carmichael, who then opened up bank accounts and got a house in the area.
However, “Lorraine” began to worry about her lifestyle and using aliases. She voiced these worries to Joanne who promptly told Richard. It was agreed that Lorraine was a liability and that she was to die. There was one issue though, Carmichael would never agree with killing her. And so, due to that, on New Year’s Eve 1971, both “Lorraine” and Carmichael were shot and killed. The two of them faded into obscurity. Until 1974,of course, when Joanne left the police a tip.
Now, because of her unknown identity, the police had a difficult situation. “Lorraine’s” real name, age, and birthday were completely unknown. They could determine a few things however, such as hair color (red,although sometimes described as brown or auburn), a height and weight (5”1-5”5 and 110-115 pounds) and an age range (18-30). Law enforcement also determined that she may have gone by Sandy and Connie. They also believe that she may be from New York or Maine, and found that she drove a green 1964 Oldsmobile with either Massachusetts or Maine plates. They later found the car dumped in Hartford with a Maine inspection sticker.
As for where she was from, they discovered that she may have relatives from West Virginia, Tennessee or the Carolinas. Police also discovered a phone bill from New Jersey that revealed that she had been calling numbers from Tennessee, New York City, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
There is one lead, though, that is perhaps more important than the others. A ring found with her, believed to be a class ring, that read something like JHNS or JNHS with initials ILN on the side and the year 1917 engraved inside. So far, nothing has come of it but that could change.
Lorraine was found wearing a “Wet Look” leather vest, a gold/tan sweater, a brown tweed skirt and brown knee high “granny boots”. A yellow rain jacket that she had reportedly used was found later in the investigation.
“Lorraine” was found with some jewelry as well. Beside the aforementioned ring, there was a wooden pendant or brooch and another ring with an imitation emerald. They later found a set of Lady Clairol hair rollers that she was known to use.
Since her discovery, DeFreitas and Brant have been charged with the murders, but, she is still unidentified despite the efforts of the police.
However, with the rise of DNA testing, the chance of identification is higher than ever. In fact, Othram, a forensic genealogy company, has taken on her case. It seems identifying her is right on the horizon.
But how useful can DNA actually be?
“It depends on if they have something to compare the DNA to, like if they have family members and things like that to compare the DNA to, then yes, DNA is one of the top 99% accurate strategies,” Kathleen Yocis, NHS forensics and science teacher said. “Because DNA is almost 99% accurate, (because they can match all of their exact DNA chains) the combinations are very unique to any individual… so it would be perfect for this case so that they could identify that person.”
The investigating agency for this case would be the Connecticut Office of Chief Medical Examiner, Michelle Clark. You can contact her at 860-679-3980.
