Paul Bass Photo
Wuchek with reward poster.
Mike Wuchek and his fellow New Haven detectives delivered reward flyers to 1,000 Fair Haven doors this weekend in hopes of finding new clues to a decade-old mystery.
The mystery: What happened to Lisa Calvo?
Calvo was last heard from on Oct. 6, 2005. Originally from New Britain, she last lived at the time on a side street in Fair Haven called Murray Place, which doesn’t exist anymore. (An apartment complex was built on it.) Calvo was homeless at the time of her disappearance. She was 41 years old, stood 4’ 11”, weighed 105 pounds, had curly brown hair and brown eyes. She was the mother of toddler twins.
Over the years New Haven cops chased lead after lead. They brought cadaver dogs to Russell Street, to Middletown Avenue, to the West Haven dump, to marshes and woods. No luck.
“We haven’t been able to come up with her whereabouts, whether she’s safe or not,” said Wuchek, who took over the investigation last September.
The governor has approved a $50,000 reward for information that helps the police crack the case. Police ask people with info to call (203) 946‑6288.
NHPD
Calvo.
Calvo worked as a prostitute in Fair Haven to support a drug habit, Wuchek said. “The drug world and that lifestyle is inherently dangerous. But when people are killed in that lifestyle, they’re not usually hidden. We find them. She’s just gone.”
Wuchek said police have no idea if she’s still alive or not.
Calvo’s parents, who attended a press conference at police headquarters last week, “deserve to know what happened to her. Her kids deserve to know what happened to their mom,” Wuchek said. “She deserves our full attention.” Calvo had planned to move back with her parents and begin drug treatment when she went missing.
The state Department of Correction included Calvo’s picture and information on a pack of cold-case playing cards it distributed three years ago in prisons; she was the five of hearts. Wuchek said Calvo will be included when the DOC distributes a new deck.
NHPD
Evelyn Frisco.
Another woman who moved in similar Fair Haven circles, Evelyn Frisco, disappeared a year earlier than Calvo did. Police said they have not foudn evidence to connect the two cases. Frisco’s case, too, remains unsolved.