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A cold case investigation in New Jersey is heating up and turning into a bizarre puzzle for investigators.
Here are the basics. In the early 1990s a young, blind, mentally challenged man confined to a wheelchair goes missing. Several years later, the man's father and caretaker, and the father's best friend, die in a suspicious house fire. Then a few years after that, just yesterday in fact, Vermont State Police say a body found 200 miles north of here is that of the missing disabled man.
So why would someone want to kill the disabled man, or set his father's house on fire? Well here's one more clue: there's a million dollars at stake.
New Jersey correspondent Jen Maxfield reports from Paterson, where investigators are poring over the new evidence.
This murder mystery begins at 33 Lake Trail East, where Lewis Cutler and his best friend were killed in a suspicious house fire in July, 1996. It was then that people began asking pointed questions about the fate of Lewis's disabled son, Sean.
Cutler's neighbors say he told them his 28-year-old son was in an institution in Canada, but police didn't believe it.
Chief Glenn Brown, Passaic County Detectives Unit: "We suspected that all along. That this kid had been killed for the money."
Sean Cutler wasn't always disabled. A 1975 carbon monoxide accident killed his mother, and left him severely handicapped. A jury awarded Sean and his father more than $1 million for their pain and suffering.
Then some time in the early 90s, Lewis Cutler had a falling out with his family over Sean's trust fund. The last time anyone saw Sean alive was in 1994.
Chief Glenn Brown: "We did feel that Sean Cutler may have possibly been killed at the time. But we didn't have any information to support that."
That is until one year later, when a dog in Vermont made a gruesome discovery.
Lt. David Tetrault, Vermont State Police: "A black dog, a black Lab, had brought back a skull into his yard of his residence, and his owners called us."
With the help of an amateur sleuth who saw Sean's missing poster online, Vermont police announced yesterday that the bones are indeed Sean's remains.
Because only part of his skeleton was recovered, medical examiners say they will never know exactly how and when Sean Cutler was killed. Investigators in Passaic say they suspect either Sean's father Lewis, or his friend were responsible for Sean's murder. Both of them were killed in that suspicious Wayne fire.
But investigators still do not know who, if anyone, has the million dollars.
