Murder in Woodstock

Where is Scott Deojay?

The bloody receipt Trooper Michael Robinson found on Redhead Hill Road was a turning point in the investigation. It told state police that something violent had occurred on that road. The question was, however, did it involve Judy Nilan? Finding a headband near the receipt, a piece of clothing that was now confirmed to be Judy's, certainly added to the gravity of the discovery, but it still didn't mean much. In light of the evidence—and the name on that receipt—it seemed the state police needed to find Scott Deojay and speak with him. Maybe he could clear up a few things.

Connecticut State Police Detective Marty Graham had been with the CSP for nearly two-and-a-half decades. He had worked several of the state's most high-profile murder cases of the past twenty years. On the morning of December 13, 2007, Detective Graham and his partner, David Lamoureux, were called into the investigation.

Connecticut State Police Detective Marty Graham

"We were mobilized," Graham told me later, "to go up to Woodstock ... and while en route, one of our guys found that receipt. We had an off-duty trooper who had seen her. We had several addresses for Mr. Deojay. It seemed he lived everywhere. We went to one address where he had lived with a woman who had three of his kids."

But no one was home.

So they went to another address connected to Deojay.

Again, no one was around.

Then they latched onto Deojay's brother, who told them, "I think he's living with this girl in Plainfield."

By now it was close to six in the morning.

"So we knocked on the door," Graham recalled.

Deojay's girlfriend, a heavyset blonde, was barely dressed. It was easy to tell she had been sleeping. "Give me a minute," she said, and then walked back into the bedroom to change.

Deojay was in bed. "Who is it?"

"The state police," the blonde said.

Hearing that, Deojay jumped out of bed and took off as fast as he could, not even stopping to get dressed.