Greenwich Roundup: 05/23/10 CSI: Westport

Sunday, May 23, 2010

05/23/10 CSI: Westport

The roster of police cases seem to be adding up, and too quickly.

If it's true that things happen in threes, let's hope this is the end of dead bodies turning up in Westport.

There's been a rash of such unpleasant discoveries this spring: since January, three people have been found dead within Westport boundaries.

One evening just a week and a half ago, a body washed up on the beach, right in front of the playground. Police identified her as Michiko Kamhi, the Greenwich woman who'd gone missing while walking her dog in the area three weeks earlier and had been described by her family as suicidal.

I can't even imagine what that scene must have looked like. Or more accurately, I'd rather not imagine it: the bloated, unrecognizable body that had been in the water for the better part of a month. She was identified by her dental records, which says to me that she wasn't in good shape. It was ironic that she should have landed right in front of the playground, of all places. Thank goodness a child wasn't the one to discover her.

Maybe it's all a bit less horiffic since the three cases were investigated as suicides. It's gruesome and morbid, but at least were not talking about murders and crime scenes here.

Contrary to what most of us probably think, the police say this little cluster of suicides isn't all that unusual. These things are cyclical, explained Captain Sam Arciola of the Westport Police Department. We might see nothing for quite a while, and then suddenly there are gruesome discoveries left and right.

The other two victims, Joseph Wirsing and William Bleakley, were found dead at Mahackeno. What struck me was that none of the three were Westport residents. Two were from Wilton. One from Greenwich. You've got to wonder why they left their own towns and came here to end their lives? Were they hoping to spare their families and friends from being the ones to discover them?

Things like this aren't supposed to happen here. It doesn't fit with the Westport brand. But of course, it can happen anywhere. I'm reminded of the horrible crime in Cheshire, a scenic suburban Connecticut town where two young women and their mother were killed by intruders. That sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen in a place like Cheshire, either.

Innocence lost, I think about Kamhi's body now when I'm walking on the beach. I'm sure we all hope that there won't be a body number four and that we've seen the last of this little trend for a good long while.

Source: http://westport.patch.com/articles/csi-westport

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