Landlord: John Heath 'Looks Like A Saint'

People who have met John Heath describe him as a nice guy who doesn't say much, particularly compared to his wife, Raquel, who is more emotional.

"He does not talk back," said John Kantzas, the Heaths' landlord who first met the couple in 2006 when they moved to Bridgewater. "He's always polite."

That's why news that the remains of Heath's previous wife, Elizabeth, had been found in the subfloor of a large barn had Kantzas taken aback.

"The guy looks like a saint," Kantzas said. "But you know, you never know."

On Wednesday, the owners of 89 Poverty Hollow Road were renovating a barn on their Newtown property and pulling up an old crusty linoleum floor when one of them found a secret hatch compartment in the floor. From that hole, he pulled out garbage bags containing bedding material, a mattress pad and Elizabeth Heath's remains. Authorities have labeled the case a homicide.

Elizabeth Heath was once married to John Heath and living at the Poverty Hollow Road property until April 6, 1984 when  he reported the then 30-year-old woman missing, police said. Sometime after that, he married Raquel Figueroa-Heath.

John Heath has not been charged with a crime and police have not said he is a suspect. He could not be reached for comment. No one answered the door at his Bridgewater house.

Kantzas said that when he first met John and Raquel Heath, he felt bad for them. Kantzas said he and his wife had just lost their son to suicide so the Heaths story of being down on their luck and having nowhere to go because they had just gone through foreclosure struck a cord.

"This wife of his was crying and was so desperate," Kantzas said. "My wife says they seem to be nice people, rent the house."

Four years later, the Heaths still live there with few complaints from Kantzas, who said the two are on time with their rental check.

While younger people, whom neighbors assume are the couple's children and their friends, sometimes sit outside the home during the warm months, the Heaths generally keep to themselves, neighbors said. The outside driveway and yard of the home looks untidy, which has made some neighbors unhappy.

"The property is disheveled and we're not happy with it," neighbor Diana McDowell said.

When the Heaths first moved in, much of their belongings were strewn across the yard. But when that was brought to the Heaths' attention, the couple complied and began tidying up, said neighbor Catalin Cimporescu, adding the couple probably needed some time to move in fully.

"Once you settle in, you have to find the right place for things," he said. "They went in the right direction."

Cimporescu said he doesn't have a problem with the couple.

"They seem like nice quiet people," he said.

Meanwhile, crime scene investigators were back at 89 Poverty Hollow Road on Friday.  Newtown police also met with the state attorney's office to discuss the case but said they had no updates and that the investigation was continuing.

Sandra Wright, who owns the Newtown property with her husband and son, said the area where the body was found is in a space that could have been used as living quarters or as an office. It has a kitchen and bathroom associated with it.

When the Wrights bought the house from the bank, which foreclosed on the Heaths, they renovated part of the main house but left the barns untouched believing that once they re-sold the residence, the new owners could decide what to do with the buildings.

But then the real estate market faltered, and the Wrights held on to the property, deciding instead to rent the main house and other apartments on the site. Wright's son, Jordan, then decided he would renovate part of the barn for his purposes, and that's when he made the grisly find.

Sandra Wright said that while part of the barn contained hundreds of paint cans, which were associated with Heath's work, the paint did not contain lead and was not a hazard. The bank agreed to have the paint hauled out of the barn as part of the real estate sale, she said.

Wright, who said she agrees with people who call the barn creepy,  said she never imagined  the family's real estate investment would lead to such a grisly find.

"This is your worst nightmare," she said.