Murder in Woodstock

Comfy Town

It's the cozy idleness of Woodstock - Connecticut's second largest town by area mass -that makes this country parish so likeable and pleasant to pass through. The rolling hills of what seem like dark green carpet during spring and summer are juxtaposed with fresh blankets of snow during winter that appear so pure and perfect you have to wonder if you're not standing inside a snow globe.

The roads of Woodstock are twisting and winding, rollercoaster-like, akin to any quaint town in New England along the way. There are general and hardware stores, café's, taverns, pizza parlors and even a winery or two. People smile at one another and wave. The 7,800 residents of Woodstock go about their daily business and head home at night to settle into the privacy they cherish so much, snuggled up alongside a sense of security that living in such a remote place, on the border of Massachusetts, offers both serenity and refuge from the larger cities of Connecticut where crime seems to be out of control.

Woodstock Fair grounds

It is a town not famous for much, but ask anyone in Connecticut about Woodstock and he or she will likely bring up the Woodstock Fair, which overtakes the center of town during the fall. More than 150 years old, the fair, according to the Agriculture Society, is, "a harvest celebration ... a homecoming: it's fun, educational, and entertaining ... an Institution of its very own."

Judith Nilan

Up on a rise, heading toward the center of Pomfret on Route 169, one of Woodstock's neighboring towns, Woodstock Middle School, a contemporary, modernized building, sits near a town green dotted with century-old homes, antique shops and oak trees older than the town itself. Jon Baker's wife, Judy Nilan, had worked at the middle school for many years. Judy was a social worker, one of those teachers students admired. "She was always so happy," one student wrote in her essay about Judy (later read in open court), "she made everyone else happy."

The middle school once received a stipend from the town to fund a program that was eventually tagged PEERS (Prevention & Education for Early Resistance of Substance Use). Teachers, of course, wanted to do everything they could to promote sobriety, instructing kids on the dangers of making such unhealthy, life-changing choices. As the program was integrated into the curriculum, it seemed to be working. To this measure, Judy Nilan later told a newspaper reporter, "I found it to be extremely successful because it focuses on the substances that adolescents are most likely to use: alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and inhalants." For Judy, the kids she taught were everything: her life, her enjoyment, her quest.