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Robert Schmidt, who was employed as an armored truck guard, found himself at the center of a daring heist that shook the Hartford, Connecticut community. The incident involved two men making off with $1 million, leaving locals in disbelief.
Fast forward two years, and Schmidt’s lifeless body was discovered in a snowbank, strangled. This grim finding led investigators, featured on Oxygen’s Buried in the Backyard, to question whether there was a connection between the robbery and his untimely death.
Robert Schmidt Found Dead in Southingham Snowbank
On the morning of December 20, 1989, Schmidt was reported missing. The previous evening, he did not return from the bar where he held a second job, raising concerns about his whereabouts.
His sister, Laura Heslin, recounted that Schmidt had called her from the bar that night. He mentioned needing to travel to New Haven but assured her that he would return her car by the following morning.
“I woke up the next morning, and my car was gone, Robert wasn’t on the couch,” Heslin recalled. “I started calling everyone I could think of, but there was no trace of Robert. This was so unlike him.”
That same morning, police in Southington received a call that a body had been found in a snowbank in a church parking lot, near a discarded glove.
“There was no signs of a struggle there. There was no footprints,” now-retired Southington Police Lt. Clifford Saucier remembered. “No blood in the snow and it looked like the body was killed somewhere else and dumped there.”
Authorities believed the victim had likely been strangled to death.
“You could see strangle marks on his neck, which went all around except for the back,” Saucier noted, “making me suspect that he was strangled in the sitting position from behind.”
Although the body had no identification, police put out a bulletin to nearby police departments and soon got word that the remains may be Schmidt, who was distinctive for his red hair and beard.
They learned the 26-year-old had been working as a bouncer at bars owned by Jeff Stenner, who agreed to come in and identify the body.
“When the sheet was pulled, I saw Jeff kind of hesitate. You could tell this affected him and he goes, ‘Yeah, that’s Robbie,’” Saucier recalled. “And he was quite upset.”
Troubling Clues in Robert Schmidt’s Murder
With his identification confirmed, detectives discovered his sister’s car in the parking lot of the New Britain bar where Schmidt worked. Inside the car, however, they found a rope that didn’t belong to her and a tag that matched the glove found at the dump site, leading them to conclude that Schmidt had likely been killed inside the vehicle.
They processed the car for fingerprints and DNA.
Detectives suspicions were raised when Stenner asked the funeral director for a death certificate for his friend. Authorities learned that the bar owner had taken out a $100,000 life insurance policy on Schmidt.
“Needless to say, I find that suspicious,” Saucier noted. “It goes to motive. He was the beneficiary of a lot of money. So that just changed my attitude on Jeff Stenner. He went from being a friend to a suspect.”
A witness also reported seeing Schmidt in the parking lot with Stenner and two other men, John Grzeszczyk and Scott Cancel, on the night of Dec. 19.
Robert Schmidt’s Link to Armored Car Robberies
Investigators delved into Schmidt’s past and learned that two years earlier Schmidt had been working as a guard for a Loomis armored car when two armed men robbed the truck on March 4, 1987, making off with an estimated $1 million, according to retired FBI agent Michael De La Pena.
A year later—on Dec. 20, 1988—a second robbery took place targeting another armored car. This time, the two suspects, including one man wearing a Santa Claus suit, made off with $800,000.
After Schmidt’s death, his brother Jay Schmidt came forward with a shocking account. He told authorities that a few months before Schmidt’s death, Schmidt confessed that Stenner had committed both crimes. Authorities believe Schmidt acted as the inside man during the first robbery and a getaway driver in the second.
“I didn’t say anything cause I was the only one that knew. It’s a brother’s bond,” his brother said. “We’re not going to snitch on each other. But Robert ended up dead, so I told him everything.”
According to his brother, Schmidt had been nervous and worried about Stenner.
As Saucer explained, “Anyone that was involved in that robbery, if they felt that Robbie was ratting them out or talking to the feds that would be motive enough for them to kill him.”
While investigators were trying to build the murder case, they arrested Stenner in 1992 and charged him for the armored car robberies and money laundering after getting someone on the inside to cooperate.
Stenner agreed to plead guilty to the second robbery, in exchange for dropping the first robbery charge, and was sentenced to eight years in prison. The stolen money has never been accounted for.
With Stenner behind bars, authorities continued to work the murder case and re-tested all the evidence. This time, they were able to match a fingerprint found on the rear view mirror of the car to Grzeszczyk.
When approached with the evidence, Grzeszczyk confessed to being the driver of the car and agreed to testify against Stenner, who arranged the hit after fearing that Schmidt might be speaking the FBI about the bank robberies.
According to Grzeszczyk, Stenner hired Gilberto Delgado, who strangled Schmidt, Cancel and Salvatore Zampi to help in carrying out the murder.
Grzeszczyk and Delgado both pled guilty and were sentenced to 25 years in prison. Zampi, who also pled guilty, was sentenced to three years behind bars for his role. Cancel and Stenner were each convicted in separate jury trials.
Both were sentenced to 60 years in prison on first-degree murder charges.
“Knowing that Jeff is going to go to jail for life is satisfying,” his brother remarked, “but it’ll never take the pain away.”