Robert Dabate has been charged with killing his wife after police said data from her Fitbit contradicted his version of events.
The 40-year-old cheating husband claimed to have seen Connie Dabate shot to death more than an hour before her Fitbit device recorded her last movements.
Robert Dabate told detectives that his wife was killed by a home intruder in Connecticut on December 23, 2015.
However, police say Connie Dabate’s wearable fitness tracker tells a different story.
Robert Dabate was charged this month with murder, tampering with physical evidence and making false statements about his 39-year-old wife’s death.
Police say the man initially told them he had just returned home at around 09:00 after dropping off his two sons when he was attacked by a home intruder.
Robert Dabate claimed the perpetrator was a “tall, obese man” with a deep voice like actor Vin Diesel’s and wearing “camouflage and a mask”, according to an arrest warrant.
The accused said a .357 revolver registered in his name was used by the purported attacker to shoot Connie Dabate.
The victim, a pharmaceutical representative, was shot twice, once in the back of her head, with the pistol that her husband had purchased two months earlier, say prosecutors.
Robert Dabate, a computer technician, claimed the home intruder then tied him up after a struggle.
Police found Robert Dabate with an arm and leg bound by zip ties to a chair in the kitchen at the crime scene.
He had what police described as superficial knife wounds.
Investigators say physical evidence showed no sign of the struggle described by Robert Dabate.
Data found on a Fitbit that Connie Dabate had worn for an exercise class that morning shows she did not take her last movements until 10:05, more than an hour after her husband claimed to watch her die.
Also, police sniffer dogs picked up no scent of other people in the house in the hours before Connie Dabate’s death.
Robert Dabate was in a relationship with another woman, who was expecting his baby – which detectives suspect as a motive for the attack.
According to investigators, the man had texted his wife a year before her death saying: “I want a divorce.”
According to bank statements obtained by the Hartford Courant newspaper, credit card charges from hotels and bouquets of flowers for his girlfriend.
The accused is currently not in custody after posting bail of $1 million.
Robert Dabate’s next trial date is scheduled for April 28.
