Missing East Hartford Man Identified

By Ruth Melville

The story of the man who left his car in Station Place in March 2014, and then vanished, came to a sad end on April 26, 2015, when human bones were found in the Norfolk woods.

Early that Sunday afternoon, a passerby found the bones in the woods near St. Mary’s Cemetery on North Street and reported them to the state police barracks in Canaan. Troopers who responded to the call determined that the bones were indeed human, and by Monday the Western District Major Crimes Squad had taken over the investigation.

At first it was thought the bones might have come from the nearby cemetery, but within a few days the medical examiner identified the remains as those of Joseph F. Pappalardo of East Hartford, the man who had been reported missing in March 2014. According to police, a prescription bottle was found nearby, but the cause of death has not yet officially been determined.

For over a month last spring, Pappalardo’s car, a 2006 Toyota Avalon, sat in Station Place, eventually attracting the notice of Norfolk residents. On April 6, 2014, Stephanie Gouey of Station Place Café called the police barracks to report the seemingly abandoned vehicle. Both the state troopers and the East Hartford police were quick to respond. Helicopters and dogs were used to search around town, but no trace of Pappalardo was found at that time.

At the time of his disappearance, Pappalardo, who had been a victim of blackmail and extortion, was thought to be depressed. In February 2011 he had begun corresponding with what he assumed were other gay men on an online dating service. In reality, his correspondents were inmates at the Lawton Correctional Facility in Oklahoma, seeking to target vulnerable men. Threatening to expose him to his family, the inmates blackmailed the retired high school teacher over the next several months. He eventually paid out more than $600,000, his entire life savings.

In 2013 Pappalardo sued GEO Group, the Florida-based prison company in charge of the Oklahoma prison, for failing to properly supervise the inmates under its control. His was not the first suit to be filed against GEO Group, which has repeatedly come under fire for inadequate care and oversight of its prisoners. In July 2014, a district court in Oklahoma dismissed Papparlardo’s lawsuit on procedural grounds.

In its listing, the Department of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database noted that Pappalardo had received bad news about a lawsuit, and had recently obtained sleeping medication.

For Gouey, a year of speculation—she wanted to believe the missing man had just run away—ended last month with the return of state troopers and search dogs to Station Place. A memorial mass for Joseph Pappalardo was held on May 16 in East Hartford.