This investigation includes strong language and descriptions/ discussion of sexual assault and may not be suitable for all readers

Keith Wortz, a former New Haven police detective and current Victim Services Advocate for Connecticut’s Judicial Branch, has a history of taking on injustice.  As a cop, he exposed corruption and murder cover-ups within the New Haven police department, leading to a Grand Jury trial, reviews of several murder investigations, and major changes in the New Haven Police Department.  His whistleblowing back then made him no friends at the department, and after filing a suit for workplace retaliation, Wortz received a $240,000 settlement from the city.

More than twenty years later, he finds himself in a similar situation, battling what he believes to be corruption and coverups in the state’s criminal justice system, and facing professional retaliation as a result. This time, however, the issue is much more personal; one of Wortz’s five daughters, who will be referred to as Angela, was the victim of an alleged sexual assault in 2021. 

He agreed to be interviewed for this story as a parent of a sexual assault victim, not in any capacity as an employee of the state’s Judicial Branch.

Wortz says he and his family felt disappointed by Connecticut’s accountability systems as they pursued justice; Wortz was concerned by the Cheshire Police Department’s (CPD) failure to investigate all the leads they were provided, “disgusted” by state prosecutors’ reluctance to charge the defendant adequately, and ultimately disappointed when prosecutors entered a nolle prosequi, which dropped all charges. Via court records, Inside Investigator was able to identify the alleged perpetrator of the assault as Talon Vadasz-Buckhout. 

“I stressed to the prosecutor; ‘Trust me, if you don’t hold this guy accountable and get him the right treatment, he is going to continue to rape and he eventually will kill somebody,’” said Wortz. “And he [State’s Attorney Corradino] said, ‘Well, I guess we’ll just have to see,’ and I said, ‘Well, when he does, I will be right here to see to it that people are held to account.’”

Unfortunately, there is evidence suggesting Wortz’s prediction has come true, and he has now turned to Inside Investigator to keep true to his promise of public accountability. Within weeks of his sexual assault case being nolled, Vadasz-Buckhout was arrested in Meriden for threatening another teenager with a knife. He was placed on Accelerated Rehabilitation, despite Wortz’s pleas to the judge.

Vadasz-Buckhout’s threatening charge also came a week after his mother’s fiancé, Shane DeJongh, was found dead in their family home. While no charges have ever been pressed in the death of DeJongh, members of DeJongh’s family are convinced that Vadasz-Buckhout is responsible for his death and are sitting on an autopsy that clearly spells out the manner of death as homicide.

“Victims of crime must be treated with dignity and their rights respected, but many victims find themselves being re-victimized by the failing system of justice,” said Wortz. “The Division of Criminal Justice and the Judicial Branch have painstakingly demonstrated that victims are subservient to the criminal who inflicted harm on them.”

Inside Investigator reached out to representatives from CPD and DCJ, as well as the lawyer representing Vadasz-Buckhout’s mother in a civil suit related to this story, but received no response.

The alleged sexual assault of Wortz’s daughter occurred on May 4, 2021.

Angela befriended Vadasz-Buckhout prior to the incident, and Wortz said that he and his wife were aware of him. Wortz also said that his wife, Diane, had met Vadasz-Buckhout one day at Cheshire High School. 

“She just said, ‘I got a really not so good vibe from this kid,’” recalled Wortz. 

His wife, who he described as having a background in forensic psychology, did not want to rush to judgment, but was cautiously curious about him. They learned he was in a difficult living situation, and had “a hard life,” said Wortz.

“My kid, she’s a sweet kid,” said Wortz. “She’s very trusting, always giving the benefit of the doubt and wanting to see the best in others. We shared our concerns with our daughter, but Vadasz-Buckhout was one of many teenagers within a larger circle of friends, so it was difficult to completely distance herself from him.”

Wortz said his daughter went missing on the night of her assault, and that he later found out Vadasz-Buckhout was texting her, “encouraging her to run away.” Eventually, Wortz said, Vadasz-Buckhout sent a driver to pick her up in a car parked at the end of the street. 

Wortz said that there were two classmates of Angela’s in the car that night, and that she was first taken to one of their houses before being taken to Vadasz-Buckhout’s. Wortz said neither accompanied her later at Vadasz-Buckhout’s house, where she was allegedly drugged and assaulted. Wortz discovered her missing when he went to check on her later that night, and said he immediately reported her missing to the police, who called him to the scene after finding her.

“The uniformed officers were wonderful, they actively searched for her, and within a few hours were able to find her,” said Wortz. “We are eternally grateful to those officers.”

When Wortz arrived at the scene, he said he found his daughter “acting in stupor and injured,” and he could tell “that something was seriously wrong.” She was taken to the emergency room, but once there, the staff refused to do a toxicology screening, telling Wortz that only his daughter could request one. Wortz said the staff also failed to treat her for anything beyond the broken arm she had sustained that night. Making matters worse, Wortz said that clothing which could have been used as evidence was lost at the hospital.

On May 24, 2021, three weeks after the incident occurred, Wortz’s daughter told her therapist that she had been sexually assaulted. Wortz said it was only then that he learned what had happened.

“She did not tell us anything about that night,” said Wortz. “But, as parents, we knew that night was physically and emotionally traumatic.”

A Department of Children and Families (DCF) official visited the Wortz residence on June 2, and police were notified of the assault that same day. Wortz said the DCF official interviewed her and other members of the family and let them know that a criminal referral had been made to the police. 

On June 16, Angela was interviewed by Detective Eric Tracy of the CPD. Tracy told Wortz that she provided valuable information, and Wortz and his wife told him about the adult driver who took Angela to Vadasz-Buckhout’s house that night, as well as the other two teenagers in the car with her. 

Wortz says that on June 21, State’s Attorney Maureen Platt told him that she had heard about the case and that, due to his past as a New Haven police officer and his current job as a Victim Services Advocate in Waterbury, the case could not be tried in either judicial district. Wortz asked to have it sent to Litchfield, not because of any connections to the district, he said, but rather because he trusted the prosecutors there. Platt told him that the case had already been sent to Bridgeport, the one place he didn’t want it to go.

“They’ve got some of the best prosecutors and victim advocates in the entire state up in Litchfield County, and they run a good ethical office,” said Wortz. “I figured, well, if it can’t come to Waterbury and it can’t go to New Haven, I sure as hell don’t want it to go to Bridgeport. I want it to go to a State’s Attorney who’s going to actually spend time solidifying evidence and strengthening the case.”

Around this time, a teenage girl in California, who will be referred to as Anna, reached out to Wortz’s daughter. Anna said she believed Angela’s story because she was a former classmate of Vadasz-Buckhout when he lived in California. Anna apparently found Wortz’s daughter via social media after seeing content Vadasz-Buckhout posted to his own social media pages, smearing her for going to the police.

“She reached out directly to my daughter, and said, ‘Hey, I just wanted to reach out to tell you I believe you, because he’s done this before,’” said Wortz.

Wortz said Anna revealed allegations that Vadasz-Buckhout was previously expelled from their high school after he was charged with three sex offenses in California. She also claimed that Vadasz-Buckhout had sent her a Snapchat of Angela naked and unconscious the night of the assault, captioned, “I just fucked her.”

“That’s a huge piece of evidence for this,” said Wortz. “They could also have used that information to arrest him for making a false statement, because in his statement, he said, ‘No, we did not have sex.’”

Wortz described Detective Tracy as a “really, really nice guy,” but he had several critiques of his work. Wortz said Diane notified Tracy of Anna’s testimony on Nov. 30, 2021. She provided Tracy with Anna’s full name and Snapchat username, the name of the school she attended, and all of the information she gave to his daughter regarding Vadasz-Buckhout.  

Furthermore, Wortz provided police with allegations of sexual assault and violence made by two other Cheshire girls against Vadasz-Buckhout, as well as the names of the girls’ parents. 

“We asked the police to reach out to all of the parents of these girls,” said Wortz. “The possibility that Detective Tracy never followed up with these alleged victims or the parents of these children haunts us because those girls never got the support that they needed and deserved.”

When Wortz followed up with Tracy sometime in December 2021, Tracy told him that he was unable to gather evidence from Snapchat and that he couldn’t locate or get a hold of Anna. The police also gave Vadasz-Buckhout ample time to clean his phone by failing to get a warrant to search his phone in a timely fashion, said Wortz.

“They failed to do a proper investigation,” said Wortz. “The first thing you do is you get a search warrant for all the electronic evidence, you pin him down on a statement, if you can, and you follow up on all your leads, right? But that’s not what he did. He let the investigation languish for nearly a year without interviewing anyone and following all of the leads he was provided.”

Instead, Tracy took a statement from Vadasz-Buckhout in which he admitted to being “on his phone all night,” said Wortz. Only after this initial questioning did they search his phone, and Wortz said police told Vadasz-Buckhout beforehand that they were going to visit his house to search his phone for evidence.

“They said, ‘Oh yeah, we need to stop by the house and take a look at your phone,’” said Wortz. “Okay, well, you might as well have just said, ‘Hey kid, we’re going to get whatever evidence is on your phone, and we’re going to use it to stick it to you, so you better delete it.’” 

The police found no messages or photos sent or taken within the 48-hour window of the alleged assault, said Wortz. Given prior statements made by Vadasz-Buckhout to the police, Wortz said the two-day gap in communications clearly indicates that he destroyed evidence.

“Why didn’t they charge him with issuing a false statement or tampering with evidence?” asked Wortz. “It’s very clear that you either lied in your statement or you destroyed evidence, clearly one or the other, or both, based on his own statement.”

Wortz said he asked Tracy if he had ever attempted to retrieve messages from Snapchat, to which Tracy told him it wasn’t possible. Wortz explained to Tracy that on Snapchat’s website, there’s a tab for law enforcement inquiries. He explained that even if the image of a Snapchat is irretrievable, authorities can still find evidence to indicate if or when a Snapchat was sent.

“Some of those snaps, the image is gone, but based on the data transfer, you can have a computer forensic expert testify to the fact that, based on, you know, the digital footprint, this is consistent with an image being sent,” said Wortz.

While Wortz is correct that authorities can get a warrant to request metadata from Snapchat, per Snapchat’s policies, it’s also likely that any request made would have been too late. Snapchat’s retention policies state that “most metadata is deleted after 30 days,” with the caveat that there are various ways users can either extend or shorten their data retention period via app settings.

“Because Snapchat user data is not typically retained for a long period, law enforcement may want to expeditiously request the preservation of relevant data as soon as possible after an alleged incident for which evidence is sought,” reads the app’s Law Enforcement Guide.

Wortz also took issue with the fact that Tracy never identified the adult driver who took his daughter to Vadasz-Buckhout’s house or interviewed the other passengers of the car. Wortz said that he gave the names of Angela’s classmates who were in the car that night to the police, and also said police failed to adequately process the crime scene. 

“CPD claimed they attempted to interview one of the juveniles, but she didn’t show up for the interview, and they did not attempt to interview the others,” said Wortz. “When Detective Tracy followed up with her, she told him she didn’t go to the interview because she decided to go to the beach.  Why did he not speak to her parents?”

Wortz complained that Tracy also could have collected physical evidence, such as bedsheets, but failed to.

“They didn’t even process the scene; they didn’t do DNA or anything, even later on,” said Wortz. “Do you think that this kid actually changes his bedsheets? You should have freaking seized them, and they just botched the whole thing.”

Several months after the investigation began, Tracy told Wortz that he was writing a warrant for the arrest of Vadasz-Buckhout for sexual assault in the first degree, a charge that would mean that the 16-year-old’s case would be transferred to adult court.

Wortz said he first reached out to the Office of Victim Services Advocate assigned to Bridgeport Court, Petrinea Cash-Deedon, on Oct. 21, 2021, to inquire about the status of any warrant for Vadasz-Buckhout. At that time, she told him she was waiting to hear back from Assistant State’s Attorney Tatiana Messina.

Wortz said he met with Cash-Deedon and Messina on Feb. 17, 2022, where the two interviewed Angela privately. Messina told her she wanted to assess “what kind of witness” Angela would make before the case would be tried, said Wortz. Wortz told Messina at that time that he and Diane would support whatever decision Angela made regarding whether to press charges.

“So, she met with our daughter alone, and afterwards she [Messina] came out, you know, to speak with us privately,” said Wortz. “And she said,’ Wow, what a sharp, intelligent young lady. She will make a spectacular witness.’” 

Messina told him she wanted to sign a warrant for first-degree sexual assault, but her boss, State’s Attorney Joe Corradino, “doesn’t like sexual assault cases, and he will not allow prosecutors to sign them without his authorization, and he already told her he would not sign a warrant as a first-degree sexual assault,” said Wortz. As Angela had already agreed to testify, Wortz said Messina agreed to vouch for the validity of the case to Corradino. Messina then told the family, “We’ll see where it goes,” said Wortz. 

Wortz told Messina his family thought it “highly important” that the police get a statement from Anna and the other witnesses who hadn’t been interviewed, search for digital evidence, and retrieve a judicial history of Vadasz-Buckhout’s previous alleged assaults in California, prior to her office signing any warrants. Messina told him she wanted to get a warrant signed as soon as possible, but that she promised Wortz that inspectors at the SAO would follow up on that information afterwards, said Wortz.

Wortz told Inside Investigator that given Tracy’s prior handling of the investigation, he preferred this route, saying that most SAO Inspectors are “retired cops, so you’re talking about really, really, experienced investigators.”

Messina advised Wortz she could “probably” get Corradino to charge Vadasz-Buckhout with second-degree sexual assault and have the case transferred from juvenile court to adult court, where it would be tried at a geographical area court (which sees lower-severity cases) instead of a judicial district one (which sees higher-severity ones).

In Connecticut, first-degree sexual assault comes with a mandatory minimum of two years in prison and a potential maximum of up to 20 years. Second-degree sexual assault has a mandatory minimum of only nine months. Wortz said that he was OK with the lowered charges and that he and his family value forgiveness based on their “very strong faith.”

“Based on everything we knew about this kid, he definitely drew a short straw,” said Wortz. “This kid’s been bumped around all over the place, and so we had said, ‘At this point, we’re not looking for this kid to go to prison for 10 years. What we want is for him to have a conviction, and we definitely want him to be prosecuted in adult court so he can be monitored for an extended period of time while receiving treatment.’”

Wortz said that he even told prosecutors they could try him as a “youthful offender” if they wished, which would allow Vadasz-Buckhout’s criminal record to be sealed.

“Specifically, why we wanted it to be done in adult court is that, based on his age and the time and everything, the most that they could have done in juvenile prosecution is four-months’ probation, right?” explained Wortz. “This kid is a persistent juvenile sex offender; that screams long term treatment program. Well, guess what? They don’t have long term treatment programs that you can do in four months.”

Wortz said “he needed” to be tried in adult court to be placed on the state’s intensive sex offender treatment program, which provides individual and group therapy. Wortz called the program “the best way to lower recidivism rates,” saying, “We wanted this kid to get the help he needed.”

“It’s not like we were like, ‘Oh, we definitely want this kid to go to prison forever,’” said Wortz. “It was — Look, our daughter has been traumatized and damaged. She’s carrying this baggage with her. Hopefully she’ll be able to put it behind her. But this — it had been life altering for her and for our entire family, and all we wanted was for them to hold him accountable, aka, conviction.”

Despite only wanting Vadasz-Buckhout “to get long term consistent help,” Wortz said he and his family were repeatedly lied to by members of the SAO.

When he and Diane left the State’s Attorney’s Office after their meeting with Messina in February 2022, Wortz remembered feeling “really good about it.”

“They expedited the warrant, they got it over there, and everybody was saying, ‘Oh yeah, so he’s going to be arraigned over at the juvenile court, and you’re more than welcome to go and meet with the prosecutor over there,’” said Wortz. “Okay, great, we’ll do that.”

Tracy notified Wortz on March 16, 2022, that he submitted the final warrant for Vadasz-Buckhout’s arrest on charges of second-degree sexual assault, and Messina told Diane that she had signed the warrant and would have an SAO inspector notify her when the judge signed. From that day until May 19, 2022, when Vadasz-Buckhout was finally arraigned in court, Wortz and his wife say they had to battle shoddy communication and disappointment over the future of Vadasz-Buckhout’s prosecution.

On March 17, 2022, Wortz reached out to Cash-Deedon for an update, who told Wortz she would update him the next day. Neither Wortz nor Diane received any updates regarding the charges from Tracy, Cash-Deedon or Messina, each of whom they reached out to multiple times, until on March 29, when Messina told Diane that the juvenile prosecutor would be receiving all the documentation necessary to proceed on April 1. 

Wortz said the Office of Victim Services (OVS) does not have a victim advocate assigned to the Bridgeport Juvenile Court.  When Wortz requested assistance, he said he was denied by OVS management, leaving his family without anyone to advocate on their behalf.  Subsequently, they had to hire an attorney.

Wortz said Messina then told Diane that the prosecutor would meet with them before arraignment once he received the Inspector’s evidence and said that because the charge is for second-degree sexual assault, the prosecutor would have to move it to adult court, as it wouldn’t be transferred automatically. Messina apologized for misinforming Diane and Wortz earlier. She then told Diane that she would have Tracy notify her when Vadasz-Buckhout was arrested.

On April 1, Diane called Supervisory State’s Attorney John Capozzi, the prosecutor on the case, who told her the case would be staying in juvenile court as that was standard procedure for the charge, and as it was Vadasz-Buckhout’s first offense. Diane told Capozzi that she and Wortz were promised a meeting with him beforehand, and that Messina then told them they would meet with the prosecutor after the arraignment, but before the decision was made as to which court the case would be tried in. Capozzi said that Corradino told him the case would stay in juvenile court when the warrant was first submitted. 

Diane also filled Capozzi in on Vadasz-Buckhout’s prior criminal history in California, and Capozzi said that if it was true, it would warrant a transfer. He promised Diane that he would get that information. 

On May 12, Wortz met with Maura Crossin of the Victim Rights Center of Connecticut, a non-profit organization that provides legal assistance to victims of sexual assault. At the May 19 arraignment, Wortz said he approached the prosecutor, Capozzi, who insisted that he still had heard nothing from Corradino about switching the case over to adult court.

“We get there and, you know, it was like we weren’t even there — it took some time to finally get the prosecutor to actually talk to us,” said Wortz. “He just basically said, ‘You know, we’re gonna do the best we can over here in juvenile, but I mean, you guys are in the business, you know basically how this is gonna play out.’”

The judge notified Vadasz-Buckhout at the arraignment that he would not have any further contact with Wortz’s daughter. Vadasz-Buckhout claimed at the hearing that he was living in North Carolina with his grandmother at the time, and a probation officer assigned to him told Wortz that he would notify the family anytime Vadasz-Buckhout visited Connecticut. At that time, Wortz and Diane met with Capozzi and told him they wished to be notified of all further court dates and case progress, and the next hearing was set for July 2022.

Over the next few months, most of the Wortz’s – and their attorneys’ – requests for updates on the case went unanswered. When Cappozzi did contact their attorney to report that he had confirmed that Vadasz-Buckhout had three previous sexual assault charges in California, he also told them that it “was too late” to transfer the case to adult court. 

On October 27, Wortz met with Corradino himself to air their grievances regarding the court’s handling of his daughter’s case. Wortz described him as “the most smug, arrogant, pompous” person he’s met “in the entire system.” Wortz said that Corradino said his office was so inundated with homicides, that they don’t have time for “he said, she said” cases, despite Wortz sharing with him the additional evidence that hadn’t been acted on.

“He would chuckle at my assertions that my daughter’s rights were violated,” said Wortz. “He literally said ‘Well, we don’t have time to deal with victim rights.’” Wortz recalled challenging him, saying, “But you make time to respect the rights of sex offenders?”  He alleged Corradino of replying, “Well yes, we have to; there’s consequences for violating a defendant’s rights.”  

As the parent of a sexual assault victim, Wortz was able to request a viewing of the arrest warrant in his daughter’s case. He met with Lisa Gilberto, an attorney from the Victim Rights Center, on Jan. 26, 2023, to view the warrant, and was incensed by what he saw.

“I read the entire arrest warrant, and that’s when I got really pissed off,” said Wortz. “They basically wrote it like, ‘she claims this, he claims that.’ There was no mention of anything with respect to the four people that picked her up that night and dropped her off there. There was no mention of his history out in California, there’s no mention of Anna. No mention of any of that, nothing.”

On April 6, 2023, Gilberto went down to the court to get ahold of Capozzi, who did not respond to repeated calls from the Wortz family and had not provided them any updates on the case. The reason for Gilberto’s visit was to follow up with Capozzi on a conversation she had with him in March, in which he told her that he needed to review the victim’s medical records from that night. Capozzi ultimately told Gilberto he didn’t want to share information with her until he talked to Vadasz-Buckhout’s attorney, but later called her to say he was waiting to hear back from a CPD officer before making Vadasz-Buckhout a plea offer. Capozzi said the officer was out until April 17, but that he would update Gilberto before the next court date, on April 20.

The court date came and went, and Capozzi didn’t provide any update to Gilberto. She went down to court again on April 27 to get hold of him, but was told by a clerk that he wasn’t available and that the next court date was set for May 4. Gilberto was then advised on May 3 by Vadasz-Buckhout’s probation officer that it was not actually a court date, but rather a meeting between the prosecutor and defense attorney. The officer then emailed her on the May 5 to say the next date was June 1.

On May 24, Capozzi told Gilberto via email that he actually wasn’t close to making an offer, because he was still working on getting ahold of Anna, and finally working on a subpoena for Snapchat. On the June 1st court date, Gilberto met Capozzi, who told her that he was still waiting on the Snapchat evidence and that after he got it, he would submit an offer. Gilberto asked if Capozzi would adjust the offer to serious sex offender treatment, meaning five years’ probation, if he received Vadasz-Buckhout’s sexual assault history, to which Capozzi said he would consider it.

On July 18, 2023, Wortz’s daughter was informed by her friends that Vadasz-Buckhout had posted snaps of him and two girls from Cheshire, implying he visited Connecticut without the family being notified, per the judge’s orders. Wortz reached out to Gilberto, who checked with Vadasz-Buckhout’s PO, who said he wasn’t notified either. The PO confirmed with Gilberto on July 26 that Vadasz-Buckhout violated his terms and that it had been addressed, but didn’t say how.

On Aug. 10, 2023, Gilberto called Diane and told her that Capozzi was going to nolle the case, meaning that he would cease to proceed with prosecution. The reason Capozzi gave was that his medical expert determined that the medication his daughter had taken 10 days prior to the assault could possibly cause hallucinations, casting doubt on any testimony she could provide.

“When they said, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to nolle it,’ it was just like, well what’s the fucking point?” said Wortz. “It doesn’t matter; you adjudicate it, he’s going to be on probation for four months.”

Gilberto emailed Capozzi on Aug. 16 with questions regarding the nolle, and on Aug. 22, she called Wortz to tell him that Capozzi also told Vadasz-Buckhout’s attorney he intended to nolle the case. Gilberto explained that the case would be administratively dismissed on Sept. 21, meaning there would be no hearing. Diane asked Gilberto if Angela could share a victim impact statement, which Gilberto said Capozzi declined, as it might cause the defense to ask for an immediate dismissal.

Wortz explained that nolles remain open for 13 months and could be reopened if additional evidence is brought to the court’s attention, while an immediate dismissal would close the case outright. Despite this, the lack of an impact statement still didn’t sit right.

“Our daughter realized that the Connecticut Judicial system didn’t care about her at all,” said Wortz. “I know many prosecutors who would never treat victims this way. Sadly, to these particular prosecutors, victims are just something in a file folder: nothing more.”

Making matters worse, they weren’t notified that the case had been nolled until after it occurred. When Gilberto arrived for the hearing on Sept. 21, she was told it had already occurred a week prior, on the 14th, with no prior notice provided to her or Wortz.

“At this point, nothing surprised us,” said Wortz. “With all my experience, my daughter still got fucked over. With all of my knowledge, my daughter still got fucked over by the court system, and it’s just sad.”

After the case was nolled, the Wortz family petitioned the court for a civil protection order against Vadasz-Buckhout. They filed the paperwork to do so on Oct. 3, and it was granted ex-parte, with a hearing set for the 13th. Wortz provided the protection order to Marshal Timothy Wall on Oct. 3, so that he could serve Vadasz-Buckhout with the papers immediately.

On the morning of Oct. 7, Wortz received a call from Wall. Wall told him that he attempted to serve the papers the afternoon of Oct. 6 and was told that Vadasz-Buckhout wasn’t there but would be back later. Wall returned that evening and was then told that Vadasz-Buckhout didn’t live there. When Wall returned to Vadasz-Buckhout’s home the morning of Oct. 7, he found CPD officers had cordoned off the house and were investigating a death at the home.

Through contacts in law enforcement, Wortz learned that the man who died was Shane DeJongh, the fiancé of Vadasz-Buckhout’s mother, Natasha. Wortz was told by CPD that they deemed it an “untimely death,” and did not suspect foul play. A month later, on Nov. 2, Wortz was notified by Gilberto that Vadasz-Buckhout had been arrested in Meriden on Oct. 14 for allegedly threatening another teenager with a knife. 

Wortz attended a court hearing for Vadasz-Buckhout’s threatening case on March 27, 2024. He intended to read a letter into the record as a friend of the court, urging the presiding judge, Thomas O’Keefe, to deny Vadasz-Buckhout’s request for accelerated rehabilitation. In a transcript of the hearing, O’Keefe provides some insight into the incident that occurred. 

“The incident itself involved him drinking too much and saying things which it looks like he had no intention of carrying out,” said Judge O’Keefe. “He had a knife and was waving it around, and he was disarmed by a young girl of his same age.”

Wortz was allowed to speak into the record, but had his testimony limited by the fact that he couldn’t speak on Vadasz-Buckhout’s previous allegations, as a result of the fact that juvenile cases are sealed and remain confidential. Despite these limitations, Wortz argued that a look at Vadasz-Buckhout’s past would indicate that he was likely to reoffend and should be denied accelerated rehabilitation as a result.

“This job isn’t easy,” replied O’Keefe. “Like I said, I don’t pass the laws that I’m expected to respect. The problem for a judge, in ruling on these, especially when it comes to future actions, is that we don’t have a crystal ball. I can’t look into the future. So, I’m doing the best I can.”

O’Keefe told Wortz that he could “imagine what the original incident that you’re talking about involves,” but said the current one is “totally unrelated.” O’Keefe said the threatening occurred in the wake of a “tragic event” in Vadasz-Buckhout’s life, likely referring to the death of DeJongh the week prior. O’Keefe noted Vadasz-Buckhout’s potential issues with alcohol and behavior but argued that those are things that can often be sorted out through counseling, medication and effort. 

O’Keefe noted a letter Vadasz-Buckhout wrote to the judge, in which the judge said “he appears to be sorry and ashamed,” highlighted Vadasz-Buckhout’s cooperation with police throughout the process, and said Vadasz-Buckhout “appears to be a stage where he might have realized what’s wrong in his life and he’s going to take steps to deal with it.”

O’Keefe told Wortz that he understood his feelings but ultimately granted one year of accelerated rehabilitation for Vadasz-Buckhout.

“He has issues —they have to be dealt with,” said O’Keefe. “I understand your objection; I’m doing the best I can. I’m going to try and create a situation where he doesn’t get in trouble again, there’s no more victims, and he can go on and live a normal life.”

O’Keefe noted that accelerated rehabilitation would require Vadasz-Buckhout to do treatment as provided by his probation officer and he advised Vadasz-Buckhout to refrain from alcohol and follow the terms of the Wortz’s restraining order. At the end of the hearing, Wortz said he was pulled aside by a lawyer after exiting the courtroom.

“As I’m walking out of the courtroom, some guy said, ‘Excuse me, can I talk to you privately?’” Wortz recalled. “I didn’t know what it was about, but it seemed important.”

Wortz said that he followed the lawyer to a stairwell, where the lawyer introduced himself as representing the family of DeJongh. Wortz was taken aback, but was even more shocked by what followed.

“He said, ‘It has all the appearances that Shane was actually killed, and did not die of a heart attack,’” Wortz recalled the lawyer telling him.

While his exact time of death is unclear, Shane DeJongh was found dead on Oct. 6, 2023, and no charges were ever pressed. CPD officials have repeatedly told Wortz and DeJongh’s families that his death was the result of a heart attack. However, as DeJongh’s family began to uncover more details of the night he died from Natasha Vadasz, and her mother, they began to suspect something else occurred, and these suspicions were bolstered by the Chief State’s Medical Examiner’s autopsy, which lists his cause of death as a homicide.

Natasha’s mother, Kathy Vadasz, called Collen Franzino, DeJongh’s mother, the afternoon of Oct. 6, to say DeJongh had died of a heart attack. Franzino notified her three daughters, Robyn Van Ekelenburg, Danielle and Kristen.

Van Ekelenburg said her, her parents, Shane’s stepfather Gary Landi, and Zoey DeJongh, Shane’s daughter from a previous relationship, all arranged to fly out that same night. When they arrived at the airport, they saw Natasha with one of her friends, who was there to pick up Kathy. Van Ekelenburg said she called Natasha repeatedly before she answered, “crying, distraught.” After Natasha confirmed she was at the airport, Van Ekelenburg then demanded that she meet with her Landi and her mother, as the others hadn’t landed at that time.

“Pull over wherever you’re at, we’re going to meet you, we need to talk,” Van Ekelenburg recalled telling Natasha. “We pulled up to some field and cried, and then we were told, ‘Hey, there was a scuffle, an argument.’ That’s what she said.”

Not knowing the severity of the “scuffle,” at that time, Van Ekelenburg comforted Natasha, thinking she was upset that her last conversation with her partner was a dispute. Van Ekelenburg estimated that her brother had been dating Natasha for over five years before he died, and said the family liked her, saying she was “smart, feisty, and seemed to bring out a good side of Shane.” Natasha was a teacher in San Jose, where the whole family is from and most are still based, until the two moved to Connecticut together in 2020.

“I would say Shane was totally in love with her,” said Van Ekelenburg. “He cooked her dinner every night, he did the yard work, he brought her flowers every single week, like who does that?”

It was only later, when DeJongh’s family began to hear conflicting stories of what had happened the night of his death, learned that it was being investigated as a homicide, and heard preliminary reports from the coroner, that they began to understand the scope of the situation.

“We had no idea about the crime scene,” said Van Ekelenburg. “We had no clue. Then we were waiting to pick up Zoey, and we get a call from a police officer, and we knew that there was an argument, we didn’t really know anything else… and that’s when we started to get insight that, wait a second, it was more than just an argument, it was more than a little scuffle, something actually happened, and that was all within an hour time span of us landing.”

After the conversation with Natasha, the two groups parted ways, and DeJongh’s family returned to the airport to await Zoey’s arrival. After she landed, the DeJongh family met Natasha and Kathy at the RV of her friend, neighbor, and realtor, Eryn Davis. Van Ekelenburg said that she and her mother spoke to Kathy, while Zoey spoke privately with Natasha. Zoey spoke to Natasha while on Facetime with Tiff Rodrigues, the child of one of DeJongh’s exes that Van Ekelenburg referred to as being his “quasi-adopted, step-kid.”

“In that conversation, and none of us were privy to that because I was outside talking to Kathy, she [Natasha] said, ‘There was a really bad fight,’” said Van Ekelenburg. “So, Zoey and Tiff got some information from her that was different than what we heard.”

Natasha admitted to the two that she had to kick and pull at Vadasz-Buckhout to get him off DeJongh, said Van Ekelenburg. Natasha said that she then dropped him off in a park to be picked up by friends. Upon returning home, she allegedly continued to argue with DeJongh before going to bed in a separate room and discovered DeJongh’s body in bed after returning home from work the next day. Vadasz-Buckhout was the one who called 911 at that time, and then apparently fled right afterwards.

Kathy told Van Ekekebburg and her mother that the fight occurred after DeJongh attempted to calm Vadasz-Buckhout, who was arguing with his biological father over the phone. She admitted the fight was physical, but said it was initiated by DeJongh, who “got this look in his eyes and went crazy,” said Van Ekelenburg. After asking her why Natasha didn’t call 911 if the fight got out of control, Kathy allegedly told Van Ekelenburg that Natasha was afraid the incident could lead to the loss of her teaching license. When asked where Talon was, Kathy told Van Ekelenburg that he was currently in North Carolina with his grandfather, preparing to enlist in the military.

“They kept saying he was going to the military, and he wasn’t by the way,” said Van Ekelenburg. “He was in Connecticut, we didn’t know that.”

Van Ekelenburg provided Inside Investigator with a Tik Tok posted by Vadasz-Buckhout on Oct. 12 with a fellow friend from high school, presumably indicating that he was still in Connecticut at the time.  The family ended up spending the night at Natasha and DeJongh’s house and Natasha and Kathy, who stayed at the Davises’, met the family on their way to go to the funeral home. 

At that time, Natasha told the family more about what happened the night of Oct. 5. She said that she, DeJongh, Davis, and her husband, Chris, went out to a karaoke bar to celebrate their listing of the house, which was put up for sale the same night. DeJongh had just received a new job down in Georgia, and he and Natasha were preparing to move. The party carried over to Natasha’s house afterwards as Davis, who listed the house for them, needed to grab paperwork. It was upon their return, that DeJongh intervened in the argument with Vadasz-Buckhout’s father and the altercation occurred. 

Upon entering the funeral home, the family was surprised to learn that DeJongh’s body could not be seen, said Van Ekelenburg. The family went to lunch with Kathy and Natasha afterwards, and at one point Zoey, Van Ekelenburg and Franzino stepped outside to take a call from the medical examiner. This call was when they first learned an autopsy was underway, and the medical examiner told them the reason for delay was due to “major concerns” surrounding DeJongh’s death, said Van Ekelenburg. Van Ekelenburg said she wished she could have “gotten a picture” of Natasha’s face upon their return to the restaurant.

“When we were walking back, the look on her face of panic on what we were going to say was the reason that Shane died,” said Van Ekelenburg. “We didn’t have answers, but we knew then that it was a very violent fight, a very violent assault.”

The medical examiner called the family again later that evening, when Kathy and Natasha weren’t present, and gave more gruesome details. The examiner told them that DeJongh had suffered from a subdural hematoma, a type of brain bleed associated with physical trauma, two black eyes, and bruising. While the examiner acknowledged the fact that DeJongh had coronary artery disease, Van Ekelenburg said the examiner found no indicators of a heart attack.

The family was finally able to see DeJongh’s body on Oct. 9, and what they saw made them fully aware of how brutal the assault truly was.

“His face was so distorted and swollen, he looked like an old man,” said Franzino. “His whole face was puffy, his neck was puffy.”

“It looked like he didn’t have a neck,” said Van Ekelenburg.

Issues between Vadasz-Buckhout and DeJongh were not unheard of, said Van Ekelenburg. She said Vadasz-Buckhout was “a concern and a problem throughout the relationship,” that only worsened as he got older. By 2020-2021, Van Ekelenburg recalled DeJongh referring to him as “a nightmare,” telling his sisters that he did not want to live in the same house with Vadasz-Buckhout anymore.  

While DeJongh kept most of the specifics under wraps, Van Ekelenburg recalled him being especially shaken by an incident in April 2023, where Vadasz-Buckhout allegedly threatened to kill DeJongh with a fishing spear. In response to the incident, she and her sisters tried to counsel him on ways to either work things out or end the relationship amicably.

“He certainly expressed to my sisters and I that the kid could kill him in his sleep,” said Van Ekelenburg. “Looking back, we all have regrets on that conversation, because we spent a couple hours talking about it, me and my sisters and Shane and we feel, you know — If we knew then what we know now, that conversation would have been a whole lot different.”

After seeing DeJongh’s body, the family remained in contact with both CPD as well as the medical examiner’s office over the following months. On Nov. 2, the family says the medical examiner told them that DeJongh also suffered a broken larynx, telling them he didn’t know how DeJongh could have made it into bed given the severity of his injuries. The family still doesn’t know how or when DeJongh died, or how he could have made it into bed after the injuries sustained in the altercation.

“We still don’t know how Shane, in his condition he was in, got to bed,” said Van Ekelenburg. “He had major trauma.”

The family kept updating CPD with the latest information from the medical examiner, pressing officers several times on the nature of his broken larynx, which CPD tried to attribute to an unrelated birth defect DeJongh was found to have had in his neck.

“They were like, ‘It’s his birth defect,’ or whatever was in his neck,” said Van Ekelenburg. “I was like ‘No, it’s not, I just got off the phone with the medical examiner and he had a broken larynx. Shane didn’t break his own larynx, my family wants to know what happened.’ They [CPD] were not real happy with me.”

CPD continued to tell DeJongh’s family that the death was due to a heart attack each time the family spoke to them. Van Ekelenburg provided a written transcript of a conversation she had with an officer on Dec. 22, 2023, in which he assured the family that CPD had investigated all leads, that the autopsy confirmed the death was due to a heart attack, and that their next steps would follow whatever the SAO deemed appropriate. He told the family that the department viewed it as a natural death, but that CPD investigated it the same as a homicide from day one, something Van Ekelenburg doesn’t believe to be true.

“They didn’t interview Talon for days, who had admittedly been in an altercation with Shane,” said Van Ekelenburg. “They didn’t interview Natasha right away because she was too distraught and grieving, and they didn’t want to do that to her in case she was the victim.”

The officer said it was, “by far the most complicated death investigation that I’ve ever worked.”

“If the injuries, in and of themselves killed him, it would go one way,” said the officer, of the SAO’s decision. “If the heart attack, in and of itself killed him, it would go one way. But because it’s kind of a combination of all of that, it makes for a very tricky decision on the part of the State’s Attorney.”

The autopsy lists DeJongh’s cause of death as, “cardiac arrythmia following physical altercation with blunt injuries of head and neck complicating hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” but the manner of death is listed plainly as “homicide (physical altercation with another).” Despite case law ruling in favor of prosecuting deaths by heart attack if the attack can be reasonably attributed to the criminal actions of another, even if those actions are non-violent, DeJongh’s death remains without charges.

Neither the Wortz nor DeJongh family have had an easy time since their experiences with Connecticut’s criminal justice system. Wortz said that while his daughter is doing better, he still can’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t able to do enough.

“As a parent, especially one that specializes in the field of criminal justice, it feels so incredibly hopeless to know all the dangers your child will face in this world, prepare them for every such danger, and yet somehow still fail to protect your child from such evils in the world,” said Wortz. “It’s an unyielding pain.”

DeJongh’s death has “been the hardest” the family has ever experienced, said Van Ekelenburg. She explained that there’s a significant difference between how a death from natural causes impacts you, as opposed to that of a murder.

“When you have something where it reads homicide on the death certificate, there is this lack of closure that I cannot explain,” said Van Ekelenburg. “We want answers. You don’t have that closure, like you would if it was a heart attack.”

Wortz also feels professional pain because of this saga. He filed a complaint against Corradino in 2022 and claims he has since been the victim of workplace retaliation because of it. Wortz said that his complaint against Corradino brought about an internal investigation that spurred several witnesses, former prosecutors who worked under him, to come forward with their own allegations of corruption. Wortz said that Corradino got a hold of this witness list and took it upon himself to threaten Wortz directly in 2024.

“I have suffered significant retaliation from the Division of Criminal Justice, and by other bad actors in the State’s Attorney’s Office and other primary state branches, personally and professionally, in an attempt to silence me about known corruption in their ranks,” said Wortz. “I will not remain quiet about widespread corruption that runs to the very top of our criminal justice system.”

A complaint was filed against Wortz in May 2025 by the Waterbury State’s Attorney. When asked if he believed the complaint represents an effort to silence his criticisms of Corradino and the criminal justice system at large, or to punish him for speaking up, Wortz declined to comment.

Both Wortz and the DeJongh family have made repeated contact with CPD and the SAO to spur greater action, but to no avail. After repeated attempts, Wortz was finally able to have a phone call with CPD Police Chief, Neil Dryfe, on May 15, 2024. Wortz wished to address both the failures noted in his daughter’s sexual assault investigation, as well as attempt to spur further investigation of DeJongh’s death, but was given little reassurance on either topic.

“Chief Dryfe told me he did not see anything wrong with how his department investigated this [Angela’s} case,” said Wortz. “That’s a disturbing statement by a police chief on so many levels.  He also told me Shane DeJongh died of a heart attack, and my suspicion that it was a wrongful death was baseless.  He told me the medical examiner had not concluded cause of death in one conversation, and said the medical examiner ruled it a heart attack in another conversation; both were lies.”

Van Ekelenburg said that she has consistently reached out to CPD since DeJongh’s death, who have told her the decision to press charges lay in the hands of the SAO. As a result, she has also repeatedly reached out to John Doyle, New Haven’s State’s Attorney, but has heard nothing in response.

“At least 20, between me and my mom, attempts have been made to reach John Doyle’s office, either on phone or on email,” said Van Ekelenburg. “So, it became evident to us pretty early on that we need to get help, because we’re not getting anywhere with the police department. They keep saying it’s at John Doyle’s office. We don’t know what’s going on, right?”

DeJongh’s family found their current attorney, Kenneth Krayeske, towards the end of 2024, said Van Ekelenburg. DeJongh’s estate filed a civil suit against Natasha in March 2025, suing her for wrongful death and negligence. Van Ekelenburg said that she doesn’t know who to blame, CPD or the SAO, but ultimately attributes the failures to inaction.

“My question is: is inaction what got us here today?” said Van Ekelenburg. “And I kind of think — yeah! I mean, had things happened differently in the case against Talon with Keith’s daughter, we wouldn’t be here, had they done what they needed to do. Had Natasha called 911 the night of the 5^th, we wouldn’t be here. There’s been so many missteps.”

Wortz fears that the reason DeJongh’s death hasn’t been investigated is the result of collusion between CPD and the SAO to bury their earlier mistake of not prosecuting Vadasz-Buckhout when they had the chance, and because they knew Wortz would be personally invested in vocalizing those mistakes to whoever would listen.

“They knew full freaking well whose house they were at, said Wortz. “I think they basically reached out to the State’s Attorney’s Office and said, ‘Oh, we may have a problem here,’ and I think that Joe Corradino, he’s calling up whoever his buddies are at Chief States’ to say, ‘Hey, listen, don’t freaking sign that warrant, because this guy, Keith, works [in Judicial] if he finds out that Shane De Jongh was killed in a physical altercation with Talon, this is going to blow up in our face.’”

Wortz said that there’s nothing more that can be done to right the wrongs inflicted upon his daughter, but that he just wants accountability to ensure that no other family must experience what his and DeJongh’s family has. He said he has met with Cheshire town officials, who he said have been “very receptive to addressing the wrongs,” but that his meetings with DCJ officials have chosen “to double down.”

“I just want the corruption to stop, and I want victims to be treated fairly by a system that is supposed to protect victims,” said Wortz. “That’s all I’m looking for.”

Van Ekelenburg said she wants accountability, and she wants answers as to what happened to her brother.

“Things could have happened differently, and we’d have more answers than we do,” said Van Ekelenburg. “And it’s tragic, it’s terrible. Zoey lost her father, my parents lost their only son, our kids lost their only uncle, we lost our only brother, and it’s such a miscarriage of justice to think that nothing happened. We have to do better than this, and there’s just no accountability it feels like, and it’s heartbreaking.”

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