A woman is shot in the face on a rural Connecticut highway.

Police sketch of caucasian male with curly blond hair

Police sketch of suspect

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 1958 to 1964
Height: 5’10”
Hair: Brown, curly
Defining Characteristics: Medium build
Remarks: Driving a well-maintained black step-side pick up truck with flared fenders, standard width blackwall tires and shiny plain wheel covers

CASE DETAILS

Arm extended aiming a silver revolver at "Carol"

The man shot at her from just a few feet away

On August 22, 1988, a woman we’ll call Carol, was headed to work along a quiet, two-lane highway near the town of Putnam, Connecticut.   Carol worked as a social worker at a local hospital, where she counseled depressed and mentally ill patients.   This particular morning, Carol was running thirty minutes late:

“The road I took that morning was my normal road and the way that I always go to work.   Sometimes I think I was at the wrong place at the wrong time… As I was driving, I all of a sudden came upon a black truck that was in front of me.   It was driving very slow, so I slowed up right behind it.”

As Carol followed the pick up, it began to behave in a bizarre fashion.   The pick up began to swerve and speed up and slow down erratically. Carol began to sense that something was clearly wrong:

“Shortly after that, he stopped the truck in front.   I can see it all happening in slow motion.   He just lit out of his truck and I realized he had a gun in his hand.   I can remember seconds after it happened that I was going to die.   I just felt or heard a rushing in my ears.   And then I heard the radio on.   And I knew that I wasn’t going to die.   So my next thought was I’m paralyzed.”

the unconcious body of Carol laying across the front seats of her car after being shot

The bullet hit just below her eye

Carol was shot in the face at point blank range.   Because she was slumped across the front seat, she was out of view of the other drivers.   A few minutes elapsed before a utility serviceman drove by.   From his elevated cab, he could see into Carol’s car.   He immediately called for help.   EMTs knew they were racing against the clock–Carol had already lost two pints of blood.

Carol was barely alive when she reached the emergency room.   The bullet had torn through her face about two inches before her left eye.   Her carotid artery had been severed, paralyzing her left vocal chord.   Detective Michael Foley of the Connecticut State Police later determined that the assailant was just ten feet away when he pulled the trigger:

“Immediately following the shooting, we had troopers and detectives on Brayman Hollow Road and all the main intersections looking for both the suspect’s vehicle and also a vehicle similar in style to the one driven by the victim.”

Black pick up truck driving down a one lane forrest road

He left her for dead and drove away

Two drivers told Detective Foley that, in the hour before the shooting, a black pick up truck had pulled on and off the highway repeatedly, taunting other motorists:

“It’s entirely possible that all of the incidents are related and it was the same black pick-up truck involved in all these incidents, interfering with the traffic. It appears that it’s a totally random shooting and the victim just happened to be the next motorist to encounter this fellow on Brayman Hollow Road.   It’s the general feeling of investigators that the suspect is still out in the area, still going to work, still going to the same gas station.   He’s just your average citizen, who for whatever reason on this particular morning, was either under the influence or angry; we just don’t know what provoked him to do this.”

Three months later, Carol’s condition had improved dramatically.   But she was left with a grim physical reminder of the incident.   The bullet that pierced Carol’s cheek is still lodged in the back of her neck:

Present day "Carol" in shadow

“… I will just leave the bullet in me …”

“I think of it every day, especially when I look in the mirror and I see the scars and think about the incident, that I’m afraid and I’m also angry that this happened to me and that he’s still out there and may be leading his normal life without any cares to what happened to my life.”

The shooting took place near Putnam, Connecticut, on Brayman Hollow Road.   The suspect is a white male, 5’10”.   He has a medium build and brown curly hair.   He was driving a well-maintained black step-side pick up truck.   It had flared fenders, standard width blackwall tires and shiny plain wheel covers.


Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season two with Robert Stack and season eight with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

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11 Comments

  1. Ernest

    This Case Will Be Solved All Y’all Have To Do Is Turn This Person In We Have A Name Ray Choquette If He Confessed To Want He Did This Case Will Close But We Need To Find That Truck And You’ll Have Him In Custody Problem Solved.

    Reply

  2. Thomas

    What is sad is that the woman didn’t immediately stop her car, turn around and speed away when she saw this man driving erratically and jerking her around. That is what a driver should always do in such a situation. The moment she saw him behaving in an odd way, turn around and get the heck out of there.

    Reply

  3. Mary

    If she ever has the bullet removed then it’ll give the police something else to compare with the owners of the truck. It would narrow the list down. If they had the caliber of bullet then they can check which truck owners owned that caliber during that time.

    Reply

  4. Kenneth colbirn

    Ray choquette of south killingly CT fits the description and has told family my embers he was one who pulled a trigger on lady partly paralyzed in Putnam

    Reply

  5. Kenneth colbirn

    Ray choquette of south killingly CT lives on Providence Pike Rd has told people he was the perpetrator

    Reply

  6. David

    I have to ask if they ever do find this person can he still be charged or is there a statue of limitations that would have run out?

    Reply

  7. Anonymous

    Between 1988 – 1991, I was traveling I-495 beltway, heading North, in Maryland. It was night and I was in the “fast lane”, next to the concrete barriers. All of a sudden, and for absolutely no reason, a black truck (similar to the description in this story) swerved at my vehicle, causing it to spin and face oncoming traffic, spin again, heading towards the barrier. Somehow, in the light from oncoming headlights (& from behind) I could see the man turned towards me, laughing. (He did look similar to the composite sketch, possibly even good – looking.) I was fortunate that my car didn’t crash but, was so busy steering that I couldn’t see the tags on the truck and he was speeding away. This location was somewhere between Greenbelt Road exit and the Baltimore – Washington Parkway exit. Every time I’ve seen this episode, I’ve intended to respond but it’s only now that I’m retired that I’ve been able. Maybe this guy is the same one, with connections here or nearby (Virginia, D. C.).

    Reply

  8. Shelly Scott

    My ex husband talk a lot about this case. He keeps saying that is his father that done that. It really does looks a lot like his father back than anyways.

    Reply

  9. Anonymous

    I’m from Ct. Has there been any kind of update to this case? I had seen the episode a few years ago and learned of it.

    Reply

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