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Fairfield police believe Joseph Polin, 46, of Hazelton, Pa., who shot and killed himself last week after a five-hour standoff with police was responsible for putting four local women in fear for their lives, said Fairfield Lt. Michael Gagner.
Police learned of the letters, all sent on magenta-colored paper, to the women on April 12, Gagner said.
The women, all in their early 20s, notified police after receiving the letters that included photo collages of the women, as well as sexually graphic and violent "fantasies," Gagner said.
Because of the violent nature of the letters, Gagner said police allocated a large number of officers to work the case, which at first included looking at anyone who might be involved locally.
"You never know if it was someone they knew in school who had an issue with them, or someone they all had in common," he said.
"This was a group of terrified young women and parents," Gagner said.
Once detectives had rundown local leads and had a chance to study the letters they found that the information seemed to have been "data-mined" from the victim's various social media accounts.
"The person didn't seem to actually know anything personal about them," Gagner said.
That's when the team began contacting agencies in Pennsylvania where all of the letters had been mailed and they hit on the Polin case, he added.
Hazelton police said they went to Polin's last Monday to check out a social media threat. He refused to come out, and after a five-hour standoff shot himself.
During the following investigations, police uncovered a plethora of letters, some on magenta-colored paper, that Polin had sent to victims in 29 states and several different countries.
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