In the quiet town of Bethel, Connecticut, on November 11, 2019, a family tragedy unfolded within the walls of a home on Apollo Road. That evening, a mother returned to the residence she shared with her two sons, only to make a grisly discovery. Her eldest son, 42-year-old Richard O’Dell, a male, was found deceased. Initially, the scene suggested a possible suicide, but the grim reality soon came to light as investigators determined he had been shot multiple times.
Suspicion quickly
fell upon Richard's younger brother, Matthew O’Dell, who was 40 at the time and also lived in the family home. He was conspicuously absent when his mother discovered Richard's body. Earlier that same day, Matthew had been involved in a separate incident in the nearby town of New Milford. He had attempted to steal a truck and, when confronted, brandished a. 25 caliber handgun, threatening two men before they managed to disarm and restrain him until the police arrived.
The handgun recovered from Matthew in New Milford proved to be the crucial piece of evidence linking him to his brother's death. Ballistics testing matched the caliber of the weapon to the shell casings found at the scene of the homicide in Bethel. Two days after the discovery of his brother's body, on November 13, 2019, Matthew O’Dell was arrested and charged with the murder of Richard O'Dell.
During the investigation, Matthew confessed to the killing, telling detectives that he "snapped." He claimed his anger stemmed from a belief that Richard was acting inappropriately with a family member. According to his confession, after their mother left for work that morning, he took their late father’s handgun from a drawer. Around 10 a.m., he confronted Richard in a hallway. After a brief verbal exchange, Matthew fired three shots at his brother, and then two more to the back of his head after he had fallen to the ground. Following the shooting, he wrote a message on the back of Richard's shirt and left a note nearby. He then called a family member and stated, "I killed him, he's dead."
Initially, Matthew O’Dell pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. However, in February 2024, he accepted a plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of first-degree manslaughter and first-degree threatening. Subsequently, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison, with the sentence suspended after 16 years, to be followed by five years of probation.
