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Richard Dabate: FitBit Bracelet Incriminates Man In The Murder Of His Wife

By Christian Savoy
Published on: 07:49 PST, Apr 29, 2017

A Connecticut man went from victim to victimizer because of a FitBit bracelet. Thanks to information from a FitBit wearable fitness gauge, police charged Richard Dabate a few days ago with the murder of his wife Connie, which occurred in 2015. As reported by NBC News, the FitBit bracelet showed that Connie Dabate was moving around her house well after the time that her husband, Richard, told police that a masked intruder shot her to death.

The 40-year-old man had told police that an intruder had entered his home and used a gun to kill his 39-year-old wife.

Dabate assured authorities that he had returned home around 09:00 after leaving his two children at school and then was attacked by the intruder. He even described the assailant as “an obese and tall man, with a deep voice like that of actor Vin Diesel, who wore camouflage and a mask,” according to the arrest warrant.

According to his testimony, the alleged intruder used a.357 caliber revolver — which Dabate had bought two months earlier and was registered in his name — to shoot Connie twice. However, police found evidence in the electronic device that contradicts Richard’s account and tells a different story. Data found on a Fitbit that Mrs Dabate had worn for an exercise class that morning shows she did not take her last movements until 10:05 a.m., more than an hour after her husband claimed to watch her die, the BBC wrote.

The incident occurred on December 23, 2015, in the state of Connecticut. Police found Richard Dabate with an arm and a leg fastened with plastic shackles to a chair in the kitchen, where his wife had been killed. He had minor wounds, according to police, and said he had fought with the attacker.

But the researchers say the physical evidence showed no signs that Dabate had fought with the alleged intruder. Furthermore, the data on the FitBit bracelet that Connie had used in an exercise class in the morning was the key to understanding what really happened.

The woman’s latest movements had been recorded by the device at 10:05, more than an hour after what her husband said had been the time when they were attacked. In addition, the police tracking dogs did not detect the smell of other people in the house.

The victim was shot twice, one of the bullets striking her in the back of the head.

Dabate was charged this month with murder, evidence tampering and making false statements on the death of his wife. According to investigators, a possible motive was that Richard had a pregnant girlfriend and had promised her he was getting a divorce.

“I’ll see you tomorrow my little love nugget,” he wrote in a text message to the woman the day before the murder.

Bank statements obtained by the Hartford Courant showed credit card charges at hotels as well as bouquets for his lover. Days after the killing, Richard Dabate put in a claim for his wife’s $475,000 life insurance policy, though he had canceled his own policy two years earlier, according to the affidavit. Investigators also learned that he withdrew $93,000 from an investment account in Connie Dabate’s name.

The defendant is not currently in custody, since he paid a bond of $1 million. His next court date is scheduled for May 26.

Naturally, Dabate’s lawyer says his client is innocent and the accused had little to say during a recent hearing. However, Dabate posted the following message on Facebook shortly after his wife’s death.

“Many questions, unanswered, but we are all doing our best to move forward, as impossible as it seems,” he wrote on the socia media site.

[Featured Image by Mark Mirko / Associated Press]

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