Two suspects were arrested Thursday and more arrests are expected in the long drawn out case of the murder of cold fusion physicist and Free Energy science pillar, Dr. Eugene Mallove, formerly with MIT, most famous for his advocacy of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions.
 Chad M. Schaffer walks into the Norwich Police Department Thursday, April 1, 2010, before his arrest for the 2004 murder of Dr. Eugene Mallove. Candace L. Foster, 30, inset, was charged with accessory to murder, first-degree robbery and felony murder. Source: NorwichBulletin.com |
Norwich, Connecticut, USA – Six years after the brutal murder of the much-revered cold fusion scientist, Eugene Mallove, two arrests were made Thursday, and more arrests are expected. This time, police say these two are without a doubt responsible. (Ref.)
Founder and chief editor of Infinite Energy Magazine, Mallove was murdered on May 14, 2004, shortly after his first grandchild was born.
Police suspect Mallove had interrupted a robbery in progress or challenged the perpetrator.
On April 1, 2010, Norwich city police arrested a man and a woman and charged them each with murder in the 2004 slaying of prominent New Hampshire physicist Eugene Mallove at a family-owned home in Norwich. Mallove was cleaning out his childhood home in Norwich, which was being used as a rental property. A woman interested in renting the house found his brutally beaten body on the lawn that night.
Autopsy results indicated Mallove died of a crushed trachea. He suffered 32 lacerations to his face caused by a blunt instrument, as well as numerous other cuts and abrasions. He was 56 years old.
Thursday, Police arrested Chad M. Schaffer, 32, and charged him with murder, felony murder and first-degree robbery. He was held on $10 million bond set by New London County State's Attorney's Officer for Part "A," which issued the warrant for his arrest just minutes before police took him into custody.
Candace L. Foster, 30, was taken into custody and was charged with accessory to felony murder, murder and first-degree robbery, Patrol Division Commander Capt. Timothy Menard said Thursday in a press release. Foster's bond, also issued by the State's Attorney's Office, was set at $2.5 million.
NBC CT learned that both Foster and Shaffer knew Dr. Mallove. This was not a random crime. (Ref.)
Social workers from the Department of Children and Families took the minor children of both of the accused into protective custody.
"I'm incredibly proud of the guys who spent many long hours to bring this case nearly to a close," Menard said. "I'm happy the family will eventually get to learn why this happened. They want to know what happened. They want to know why." (http://www.norwichbulletin.com/breaking/x998202888/Norwich-detectives-arrest-two-in-Mallove-cold-case-murder)
"We are so happy that there has been a tremendous advance in Gene's murder case," said Christy Frazier, managing editor of Pembroke-based Infinite Energy Magazine, which Mallove founded in 1995. (Ref.)
Frazier, who worked with Mallove in the four years before he died, says she and other magazine employees have worked hard to carry on Mallove's legacy.
"We have struggled to keep the magazine healthy and the foundation operational as a testament to Gene's life work and commitment to the new energy field," Frazier said. "I believe he would be proud of the work have continued to do in his honor." "We await the day Gene and his family can have true justice with the reading of a guilty verdict." (ibid)
Mallove was a 1965 graduate of Norwich Free Academy. After leaving Norwich, he earned graduate degrees from MIT and Harvard University and occupied a respected position in the scientific world. He was a diligent pursuer of the cold fusion theory that hydrogen fusion can occur at room temperature rather than at extreme heat and pressure. It should be noted, though, that near the time of his death, he was questioning whether the nuclear phenomenon being observed was actually fusion. (Ref.)
Mallove wrote three books, including "Fire and Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor," a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize.
Here is Part I of a video featuring the late Eugene Mallove in a 2-hour interview with George Noory on Coast to Coast AM, rebroadcast in his honor a few days after he was murdered. In this excellent video series, user Birdland11 adds photos and video footage from the work of Dr. Mallove.
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Schaffer, complying with a request from police, showed up at police headquarters Thursday afternoon. Detectives kept him occupied while others connected to the case tried to get a signed arrest warrant. Police eventually allowed him to leave with a companion at about 6:15 p.m. but arrested him 70 minutes later.
Two men originally charged with killing Mallove had their charges dropped after an investigation and trial that lasted nearly two years unraveled.
At 10:53 p.m. on May 14, 2004, police found Mallove's body near a trash container at the rear of a family-owned home at 119 Salem Turnpike in Norwich. The house has since been demolished in the highway improvement project in that area of the city.
Police found Mallove's minivan in a parking lot at Foxwoods Resort Casino and said several personal items, including his wallet, digital camera and wedding band, had been stolen.
Two days after the murder, New Britain police stopped Joseph Reilly and Gary McAvoy in a vehicle stolen from Groton on the day of the killing. The two men admitted they had been on a crack binge that weekend and had conducted several burglaries and stolen the car.
Both men had blood on their clothing when they were arrested. Norwich police charged the men with Mallove's murder about a year later, but DNA tests revealed that none of the blood came from Mallove.
Menard said Thursday that the latest arrests are the result of a tenacious investigation by the Norwich Police Department and, later, by a task force established in November 2008, comprised of investigators from Norwich police, the New London County State's Attorney's Office, the Connecticut State Police, and the Chief State's Attorney's Office in Rocky Hill. A special arrest team from the Norwich Police Department assisted in Thursday's arrest phase of the investigation.
The task force was created when charges against McAvoy and Reilly were dropped.
Menard said Schaffer was developed as a person of interest early in the nearly six-year investigation. However, he said, it was only recently that there was sufficient evidence to support his arrest.
When the task force was formed, Norwich detective James Curtis and Terence McFadden of the state police were assigned to the investigation full time. As the case continued to expand and additional leads were developed, Norwich Sgt. Corey Poore was added as an additional full-time resource to the investigative team.
In February 2009, Gov. M. Jodi Rell authorized a $50,000 reward in the case. Two months later, the Mallove family and CBS Outdoor Advertising Agency launched a billboard advertising campaign seeking information into Mallove's homicide.
Menard credited Curtis and Poore with developing new evidence, including collecting statements, that led to the arrest warrants being issued.
He said the investigation remains open and ongoing and more arrests are anticipated in the case, therefore no further details of the investigation can be released at this time.
The Norwich Police Department encourages anyone with information pertaining to this incident to contact the Mallove Homicide Task at 860-886-5561, ex. 600.
Here's a video showing Schaffer walking into the Norwich Police Department
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Coverage
- Colleague of murdered Bow scientist expresses relief - A longtime colleague of Eugene Mallove expressed joy and relief this morning upon hearing the news of two arrests in Mallove's six-year-old homicide. (Union Leader; April 2, 2010)
- Norwich detectives arrest two in Mallove murder (Norwich Bulletin; Apri. 1, 2010)
- 2 Arrests In Scientist's Murder (NBC Connecticut; Apr. 2, 2010)
- New suspects charged in Mallove mystery slaying (Norwich Bulletin; Apri. 1, 2010)
- Arrests made in slaying (Concord Monitor; April 2, 2010)
- Police charge two in Mallove murder (The Day; April 2, 2010)
- Arrests Made In Six-Year-Old Murder Of Bow Author (WMUR; Apr. 2, 2010)
- Two arrests are made in the 2004 murder of a Bow scientist (Sentinal Source; Apr. 1, 2010)
See also
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Comments
I assume this means that the "conspiracy theory" that pointed the finger at the government is now over?
Eugene was killed by petty criminals not as part of a big plot against cold fusion. Scratch another crazy conspiracy theory held by the crazy believers in voodoo science.
Where's the Grand jury?
BY keeping facts from the Grand jury the public is being kept out of the loop of information.
Oh by the way, the Grand jury process is the law and has been the law since 1791.
The purpose of the Grand jury is to determine probable cause.
It reads:
"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury"
From: wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
They tortured him to death. Doesn't sound like burglars.
I've known candace foster since we were kids and I don't think she did it nor did chad. Were is the proof and the evidence. The only way to really know who did it is to research the crime scene but you can't do that know can you. The property has been distroyed and turned into a field or a parking lot. Get proof before you accuse the innocense.
i was accused of this crime, i fought this for 4 yrs. and the thing that set us free is the d.n.a. so there is the proff that is needed for a conviction. I also sat thru the hearing and to listen to foster tellher story, as someone who has all the crime scene reports and watched the video's I can tell you this "Her story tells it all." I came to this conclusion 5 1/2 yrs ago from the reports that i was given.anyone couldve seen this.
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