First came the snow, then came the calls that bring out detectives in any weather. By the time the sun came up, Winsted police were confronted with the body of a man found along a road, and also with a severely injured man hospitalized after a fight.
Old Route 8, the surface road between Torrington and Winsted, was closed into the afternoon to give detectives room. They put up a tent over the body while they tried to determine how it wound up near the driveway to an AT&T facility. Someone reported seeing the body at 5:16 am, during the height of the storm.
At about 11 last night medics rushed a man from the bar he co-owns to the hospital. Robert Cicchetti of Watertown had apparently been beaten and he had clearly suffered a severe head injury.
"I'm in shock," said Karen Pugliese, a friend of Cicchetti. "I've been at the hospital since 12:30 and I did not leave his side but there's nothing we can do. He's in the ICU," she said, at Hartford Hospital.
Winsted Police Chief Nick Guerriero declined to release any information because detectives are still investigating the crimes.
