Andy Thibault

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Cool Justice
Old Murder Haunts Retired Cop
By ANDY THIBAULT, Columnist
Law Tribune Newspapers
March 13, 2006

` It was a terrible waste of a young person's life.'

Valentine's Day will always bother Vern Krill, a retired Shelton police detective who now teaches interrogation and report writing at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport.

Twenty-six years ago on Valentine's Day, a 16-year-old Redding Girl disappeared on the way to Joel Barlow High School. Cara Quinn was found dead, molested and frozen in Shelton about two and half weeks later. She had been raped repeatedly and shot in the back of the head and her neck. She wore a Joel Barlow jacket inscribed inside with the word, cheerleader.

"This case has haunted me for more than 25 years," Krill said. "It always will. It was a terrible waste of a young person's life."

Quinn, who missed her bus, walked toward her school and apparently hitchhiked a ride that drove her to her death. Her mother, who had terminal cancer, was at a doctor's appointment. The driver was 32-year-old Martin Shifflett, a one-man national crime wave who at 6-feet, 1-inch and 210 pounds was a formidable adversary. Shifflett, from Bridgeport, has a long rap sheet including abductions, rapes, burglaries and theft from Connecticut to New York, Alabama and Ohio. He once stole valuable coins from the state library in Hartford, which were ultimately recovered by the state police.

"I remembered him," said retired state police Lt. Charles McIntyre, who arrested Shifflett for the coin theft in 1974. "I had to tell [Cara's] mother about the death. It was the only time I ever told someone we would find the killer."

McIntyre, then a trooper, was a member of the major crime squad which joined the case and ultimately took over because the state police had greater resources than a local department. Shelton detectives continued to work the case in cooperation with the state police.

Shell casings found at the scene indicated a .380 caliber automatic pistol was used to kill Cara Quinn. A bullet was found in the ground underneath her head. Strangely, the casings were found to the left of the body. Most guns eject to the right because most people are right-handed.

Krill knew why the casings landed to the left. The gun, a Spanish Basque pistol, was traced to Shifflett. Krill owned such a pistol, given to him by his father, a World War II veteran.

In the week after he raped and killed Cara Quinn, Shifflett also abducted and raped women in Fairfield and Bridgeport. Police say he developed a ravenous appetite for anal sex while in prison in New York, an inclination which he could not fulfill with his wife.

After he killed Cara Quinn, he bought his wife two boxes of candy and a Valentine's card on borrowed money.

On July 22, 1980, Shelton and state police arrested Shifflett for murder. He admitted to the crime and was convicted in 1981. Shifflett is serving two consecutive life terms.

Krill uses this case and others while teaching interrogation techniques. He earned an associates degree in liberal arts at Housatonic before joining the Shelton police in 1974.

"I like empowering the young students," Krill said, "because professors empowered me to get my job."

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