Betrayal, Lies, and Murder: He Killed His Wife to Hide His Mistress’ Pregnancy — But Her Fitbit Told the Truth

Mar. 15, 2025

Richard Dabate and Connie Dabate.Photo: Connie Dabate/Myspace

It was a murder that made headlines around the United States – not just for a mother’s tragic death and the romantic betrayal surrounding it, but for how technology ultimately helped detectives solve the case.

Connie Dabate, a Connecticut mother of two, was found shot to death in her basement, two days before Christmas Day in 2015 — a murder that left the 39-year-old’s family “at a loss for words,”Connecticut Insiderwould report seven years later when her husband, Richard Dabate, was convicted and sentenced for her killing.

Prosecutors laid out a damning theory during Richard’s trial, but to this day, Richard still claims innocence, despite the physical and digital evidence that debunked his alibi. Approaching a decade since the killing, PEOPLE is looking back at what led to Connie’s murder and how an unexpected piece of modern technology led to her husband’s conviction.

A ‘Really Solid Couple’ with an Idyllic Life

Connie Dabate and Richard Dabate.

Ten years of marriage, two children and a house: the Dabates seemed to live an idyllic life at the time of Connie’s death. Connie and Richard were “a really solid couple,” one of Connie’s friends Allie Clarketold PEOPLEin 2017. “Like, a really together couple that had made it work,” Clarke said.

“I never saw this coming, never in a million years,” Clarke added. “They really did seem to have it all.”

But Richard would later tell police: “There was cheating going on in the beginning, on both sides." And when investigators dug into Richard’s texts, they uncovered secrets that shattered the illusion of perfect love.

In the months after Connie’s death, electronic records recovered from Richard’s phone revealed the depth of his tryst. Richard would eventually tell detectives that he was having an ongoing extramarital affair, which resulted in his girlfriend becoming pregnant.

Connie’s Murder

Richard Dabate.Stephen Dunn/Hartford Courant via AP

Stephen Dunn/Hartford Courant via AP

That next day, state prosecutors said Richard staged a break-in that involved claiming he had been zip-tied while his wife was shot and killed. But later on, police dogs brought to the scene would turn up no scent of an intruder, raising some eyebrows among investigators, PEOPLEpreviously reported.

And then came an alibi and conflicting evidence that left investigators even more suspicious.

Richard told authorities that after he dropped his two sons off at their bus stop that morning, he returned home because he forgot his “work shirt,” where he then claimed to have encountered the home intruder. But police would later begin to question Richard’s alibi when it didn’t match up with physical and digital evidence collected at the scene.

“His story made no sense,” a spokesman for the Connecticut State Policetold PEOPLEin 2017. “So we had to begin a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of it.”

Then, in April 2017, Richard was arrested and charged with Connie’s murder, as well as tampering with evidence and giving false statements to police.

How a Fitbit Helped Solve the Case

Richard Dabate.Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant via AP

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But Richard remains behind bars, convicted of killing his wife to hide his affair. He isn’t scheduled to be released until 2087, though his attorneys’ appeals continue to attempt to shorten his sentencing. There has been no decision made yet on Richard’s appeal from last October, which could reexamine his conviction and his sentence.

source: people.com