The Two Faces Of A 13-Year-Old Girl

Since learning of this I wasn't able to feel the same about going to the Danbury Mall- the parking garage gave me the creeps. The offender in this case is from Greenwich as well, great...

(CBS, May 31 2002) At her Catholic school, sixth-grader Christina Long made good grades, led the cheerleading squad and was an altar girl. On the Internet, she used provocative screen names and routinely had sex with partners she met in chat rooms, police said.

Police said 13-year-old Christina was strangled by a married restaurant worker she met on the Internet. Her body was found early Monday in a remote ravine in Greenwich.

Saul Dos Reis, 25, an undocumented immigrant from Brazil, confessed Sunday to the killing and led law officers to the body, U.S. Attorney John Danaher III said.

Classes were canceled Tuesday at the St. Peter School so students and parents could attend a memorial service and meet with grief counselors.

"I'm so devastated," former teacher Andrea Cappiello said.

"She was a very good student and a very good cheerleader. She was very spirited, just a doll," said Cappiello, who taught Christina's fifth-grade English and religion classes.

But the girl also had a tougher side, Cappiello said.

"She was streetwise," she said. "But you could see the other side coming up, too. It's clear she was very torn in both directions."

Dos Reis was arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport on a charge of using an interstate device — the Internet — to entice a child into sexual activity. He was ordered held without bond. A bail hearing was scheduled for Friday.

Police said the teen-ager routinely had sex with partners she met on the Internet and that she had been with Dos Reis several times, The News-Times of Danbury reported.

Authorities found e-mail indicating that the two had agreed to meet Friday night. Dos Reis told police he accidentally strangled Christina while they were having sex in his car in a mall parking lot, The News-Times reported.

Police said Dos Reis then dumped her body about 25 miles away.

Harold Pickerstein, Dos Reis' court-appointed attorney, declined to comment on the allegations but said he expected his client to plead innocent.

Pickerstein criticized Danaher for releasing details of the alleged confession.

"It's inappropriate, in my opinion, to discuss evidence in a case in which there has not even been a charge or an indictment," Pickerstein said.

Christina came to Danbury two years ago to live with her aunt, Shelly Rilling, because her parents had substance abuse problems.

Rilling, who was eventually awarded custody of the girl, has declined to comment. Police said she apparently did not know anything about her niece's online activities.

"There was some pretty graphic stuff," Police Chief Robert Paquette said.

Police said Dos Reis used the screen name "Hot es300," apparently referring to a Lexus model.

Dos Reis has lived in the United States since he arrived here from Brazil at age 10, Paquette said. He attended Greenwich High School and had no criminal record.

He lives in a rented apartment with his wife, a receptionist, and worked long hours at his father-in-law's restaurant in nearby Port Chester, N.Y., neighbor Omar Moreno said.

Monday night, Danbury residents gathered to voice their concerns about the violence in their community.

"It's an opportunity for parents and children to come in and talk a little bit about their feelings. And we have counselors that are in there. They'll certainly be able to express their feelings about the tragedy that has happened to the city," Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton told Hartford, Conn. CBS affiliate WFSB.

Speaking about her son, Beverly Stevens said: "Even though he's 13 years old, he has to ask me every time he goes on and he has to let me know which sites he's going on. And he's never on the Internet without my being there."

Danbury Woman Arraigned for Alleged Stalking

(11/17/10) NORWALK - A Danbury woman was arraigned in Stamford Superior Court today for allegedly stalking her former social worker twice this month.

Police say 21-year-old Sofia Gomes was charged Nov. 4 after the victim complained that Gomes followed her home to Darien after she left her Danbury office. They say they found Gomes outside the victim's home while taking down the complaint.

Officials say Gomes was also arrested on Nov. 9 after she again followed the woman home.

(Pretty crappy video on news website)

Danbury Woman Arrested for Stalking Darien Therapist Multiple Times

I'm not going to say much about the subject other than this girl who was arrested works at the other house I fill in at, and went through training with me!

DARIEN -- A woman who allegedly kept following her former therapist home from the woman's Danbury office was arrested Tuesday for the second time in a week by Darien police.

Sophia Gomes, 21, of 5 Clearbrook Road, Danbury, was arraigned at state Superior Court in Stamford on Wednesday on charges of second-degree stalking.

Because allegations in the police reports were so "scary," Judge Robert Genuario ordered her held in lieu of $50,000 bond, which could be lowered next week if her attorney, David Bothwell, can show she will be receiving supervised treatment.

At Bothwell's request, Genuario ordered Gomes be given medical treatment and be put on suicide watch.

Gomes, a job coach for the developmentally disabled at Abilis in Greenwich, was arrested in Darien on Tuesday night after her former therapist drove to Darien police headquarters to report that Gomes had just followed her home, a police report states.

Police reached Gomes on her cell phone and persuaded her to meet them at Holmes School, near the Stamford-Darien border, where she was arrested and held overnight for her arraignment.

The therapist, whose name is being withheld because she is a victim in the case, told police that Gomes has followed her during the 40 minute trip from her Danbury office on at least six occasions since July, the report said.

On Nov. 4, Gomes allegedly followed the woman home from Danbury and, after police found her just outside the therapist's apartment building, she was charged with third-degree stalking and first-degree criminal trespassing and released after her parents posted $500 bond.

After another stalking incident on Oct. 31, Darien police told Gomes that if she followed the woman home again she would be arrested, the police report states.

The therapist told police that when she took Gomes on as a patient it was determined she also followed other therapists.

The woman told Gomes she would not treat her if she followed her.

In July, she saw Gomes following her and dropped her as a patient.

Five days later, she noticed Gomes following her again and drove straight to the Wilton police department, where Gomes was held for questioning and released after it was determined she was not a danger to herself.

But before she was released in Wilton, Gomes asked if she could say goodbye to her former therapist "for closure" and the therapist allowed the request, the police report said.

In early August, the therapist said Gomes followed her to Norwalk but turned off before the woman turned toward her home in Darien.

On Oct. 31, Gomes followed the therapist home again, police said, but this time she followed the therapist directly to Darien police headquarters, where she was warned not to follow the woman anymore.

When they arrested her at the woman's Hoyt Street apartment on Nov. 4, Gomes told police that she drove by the woman's house and saw the police cruisers parked in the driveway and figured that the police would want to talk to her, the police report said.

Gomes is to return to court on Nov. 17.

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It's really weird because there's a Hoyt Street in Darien (where the woman lived and they mention in the end of article, but the house she worked for at Abilis was on Hoyt Street in Stamford...

Connecticut Be Buggin' Today!

BRANFORD, Conn. — Police and FBI agents Friday night said a tractor-trailer stopped in Branford, Conn., and suspected of carrying explosives was empty, NBC station WVIT of Hartford reported.

Branford first selectman Anthony DaRos earlier said police told him authorities were holding the semitrailer at a travel stop on Interstate 95.

The Hartford Courant reported troopers approached the vehicle and took the driver and a passenger into custody at gunpoint, then checked the vehicle for hazards. It also reported that the state police bomb squad was en route.

Police were told to be on the lookout for a brown Peterbilt tractor-trailer that may have a bomb in it that was en route from Rhode Island to New York City, the New Haven Register reported. Officers were told if they encountered it to stop it and create a perimeter and stand by.

Branford is about 80 miles north of New York City.

In another incident, around 6:21 p.m. Friday, a Connecticut state trooper shot and killed a motorist after what police said was a routine traffic stop on I-84 near Danbury, the Courant reported. Danbury is about 45 miles away from Branford.

The driver opened fire on the officer, who returned fire and shot the motorist multiple times. The trooper was uninjured, the Courant said.

The two passengers fled.

The highway was closed in both directions Friday night.

On Wednesday, two men were found in a Mercedes with what appeared to be a pipe bomb, ammunition, gas masks and other materials. Authorities say it's unclear whether they planned to use the explosives because they are not talking to investigators. Both were being held on $500,000 bond.