New Haven Independent

The New Haven Death

It’s premature to call the death of Philip Vinci a murder. Spurred by an unusual ruling and request by the state medical examiner, New Haven cops want to find out just how Vinci died.

Vinci, 43, lived in a rooming house on Westville’s Forest Road and worked at Ferraro’s Market across town on Grand Avenue. A passerby in Edgewood park found Vinci’s dead body half-submerged in water on Oct. 16.

His body showed no apparent sign of foul play. But after conducting an autopsy, instead of ruling the death an accidental drowning, the medical examiner asked the police to investigate further.

Police discovered that a Latino man had been seen chasing a white man fitting Vinci’s description in the park with a baseball bat days prior to the death. Vinci, who’s white, may have had a dispute with a Latino man who tried unsuccessfully to get a job at Ferraro’s. That man is 38-year-old Harry Gonzalez. Police don’t know if that theory is true. They’re looking into it.

Vinci was seen right before his death with a 34-year-old woman named Jennifer Kos. Kos is friendly with both Vinci and Gonzalez, according to New Haven Sgt. Andrew Muro.

Armed with this information, the police went looking for Kos and Gonzalez, to interview them. The trail led them to Stamford, where cops were stumped about where to look next for suspects in another death, in their city.

The Stamford Death

That death, a murder, occured on Oct. 6. A 75-year-old woman named Joanne Trautwein was stabbed to death during an apparent robbery attempt inside her home.

An eyewitness described the suspects, who matched the descriptions New Haven cops had of Kos and Gonzalez, according to Muro. Stamford police arrested them on Oct. 28 and charged them with the murder.

Police say Gonzalez had met Trautwein earlier when he worked at a Stamford gas station and saw she was a generous tipper, according to an Associatd Press report.

Now New Haven police want to interview Kos and Gonzalez. That could take a few weeks, according to Sgt. Muro, because the two are behind bars, in two different jails, on the Stamford murder rap. Among other things, police want to ascertain whether Kos is the woman believed to have been seen in the park with Vinci right before his death.