TAUNTON — A week and a half ago, when former detective division commander Capt. Michael Silvia retired from the Taunton Police Department, he wasn’t anticipating a follow-up to his profile story in the Taunton Daily Gazette.
But shortly after the story was published, Paul Carroll, a former Chicago detective supervisor and FBI investigator, contacted the paper to say he had read the story online.
Carroll wanted it known how helpful Silvia was in 1991, when he assisted Carroll and his division in a murder investigation of a man who had murdered his Chicago girlfriend.
He says it’s quite possible “the case would be unsolved to this day if not for his (Silvia’s) dedication.”
Carroll, who at the time was a detective sergeant in Chicago, said he secured an arrest warrant for the suspect but not until the man had fled the jurisdiction.
He said the limited nature of a law enforcement “computerized” database back then meant that the warrant wasn’t entered into the FBI’s national arrest records system.
By continually checking the suspect’s arrest record, Carroll learned that he’d been arrested in Taunton for narcotics possession, as result of a search warrant executed a few weeks earlier by Silvia and other officers.
When Carroll called Silvia, who at the time was working as a detective, Silvia also informed him that when Taunton police arrested the man they not only confiscated drugs but also a 22-caliber handgun.
That was the same caliber weapon, Carroll said, used by the person who killed the Chicago woman.
The man arrested in Taunton, meanwhile, already had been arraigned and released on bail and subsequently failed to appear in court.
“I spoke to Mike, and we agreed to remain in contact,” Carroll said.
A few days later, Carroll said, Silvia called to tell him he had taken it upon himself to drive to the State Police Crime Lab in Boston so that they could test fire the gun.
Silvia requested that Carroll send ballistics evidence to the police lab, which produced a match and confirmed the gun as the weapon used in the Chicago case.
“I went out to arrest him the next morning, but he was gone,” said Silvia, who says the suspect was not a Taunton native and had used as many as 10 aliases.
It’s not clear what brought the suspect to the Bow Street apartment where the search warrant was executed.
Silvia, who retired after 41 years service with the Taunton Police Department, said he doesn’t remember the man’s name.
But he says he’ll always remember his trip to Chicago, where he testified in Cook County Superior Court before the suspect pleaded guilty to the murder charge.
“Chicago was a nice adventure. They treated me pretty well,” Silvia, 64, said.
He says he got to ride around with Chicago detectives and visit the former, and notorious, Cabrini Green housing project, where police were looking for a murder suspect.
"I've never seen a place like that," he said.
When asked for his reaction knowing that the case had been successfully wrapped up, the understated Silvia simply said, “I felt good.”
Carroll said during his career with the Chicago PD he never ran across another out of town detective who was so helpful.
“I think Mike deserves credit,” he said.
Carroll and Silvia said they occasionally keep in contact via email or mail.