And only Wednesday, the state attorney's office had asked for citizens' help solving the mystery of blood found in the van of William Devin Howell, 37, convicted that day of manslaughter in the case of Nilsa H. Arizmendi, 33, of Wethersfield, whose body was never found after she was last seen with Howell on July 25, 2003.
The blood of a second, unknown person was found in the van, but that person's body was also never found.
That's four years ago Arizmendi, and possibly another woman, were murdered.
Howell, who was doing odd jobs at the time in New Britain, Wethersfield, Hartford and West Hartford, said he's innocent of the manslaughter and witness-intimidation charges for which he's been convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the bones behind the Hartford Road shopping plaza came from one woman believed to be in her late teens or early 20s and another between 30 and 40 years old, New Britain Police Capt. Phillip Kennedy was quoted as saying Friday.
Investigators believe the bodies had been behind the shops for more than four years.
When asked about the timing - even before the discovery that the bones belonged to more than one woman - prosecutors and detectives said Thursday that they did not think the bones found behind the plaza belonged to either Arizmendi or a mystery woman possibly victimized by Howell, but noted that the state has the capability for a DNA comparison.
Regardless, although police spokesman Harold Gannon said there was nothing new to report regarding the bones, there was already a massive clearing and dig going on behind the plaza as officials searched for further remains and evidence.
New Britain detectives commissioned the city's public works and parks departments, as well as state Department of Transportation crews, to help clear the heavily wooded and steeply sloped area between Route 9 and the plaza, which was also laced with debris.
Police are remaining tight-lipped about the investigation.
"They have been blowing off [questioners] all day," said an employee at the plaza's Subway sandwich shop. "The only thing they told us is how many sandwiches they wanted."
They also ordered a lot of water, and looked as though they'd done a hard day's work by 1 p.m., he said. The employee, who wished not to be identified, said he was impressed by the landscaping service the police and city provided on a hot and humid say.
"A front loader has been going back and forth all day filled with trees," he said.
Detectives have logged a total of four days - Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday - searching for remains in challenging conditions.
Public Works General Foreman of Sanitation Matt Taricani confirmed he and a crew of three other public works employees, along with six parks department workers, began helping police Friday morning.
"Everything was under the direct supervision of Capt. Kennedy," Taricani said. "He would tell us to go in, 'Don't disturb the soil, and the trash, make a pile. [Detectives] did most of the trash handling."
He indicated he had been sworn to secrecy by Kennedy. "It's an ongoing investigation," he said. "I was just there for trash support.
"But if you want to talk trash," he said, "I'll talk trash."
There was an immense amount of it, for one thing. He cited "old box springs with the wood rotting off, rebar, masonry, concrete blocks, tires, fencing, more than 30 shopping carts, metal bedframes, fenceposts with concrete on the base," along with garbage people had thrown over the fence for years.
"All that trash accumulated over a good amount of time," he said, "It was a vast array of metals, asphalt, concrete, tires, you name it. There were even a couple of piles of blacktop that looked like they may have been dumped over a guardrail."
The bodies probably remained undiscovered for so long because the area - which has now had a complete makeover, thanks to the search - was so ideal for dumping, Taricani indicated. Including the dumping of corpses.
"Any place that is isolated with poor lighting, they are going to dump," he said. "People discard rubbish so they don't have to pay the fee."
The bodies could easily have been obscured by all the debris and years of overgrown vegetation.
"From what I have seen, everything was overgrown, and that was their first order of business: Clear the prickers, poison ivy and saplings that had grown over the past few years," Taricani said. "[Detectives] had to get to the ground level and look for their evidence. To do that, they had to remove a lot of trash and vegetation."
Public works used its largest payloader, backhoe, two roll-off Dumpsters from the landfill and two dumptrucks.
The parks department "really kicked butt and took names when they went down the hill," which, with a state forestry division, cleared all the brush, he said.
Parks Superintendent Mike Hadvab said he had six workers on the job Saturday.
"They worked their butts off," he said. "It was a very difficult place to clear out. As far as my crew, they worked in high heat, high humidity, and they worked [Friday] from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m."
The city's work is completed, Taricani said, but he and Hadvab are on call if more help is needed.
The police were environmentally correct, separating all the trash for recycling after they went through every item, Taricani said, "burnables in one can, metals in the other."