A Connecticut man was charged on Saturday with the death of his father, and it’s not the first time he’s been accused of violent crimes.
Joshua Popielarczyk’s arrest warrant was sealed for two weeks, so details of the murder of 62-year-old David Popielarczyk are unavailable, CT Insider reported. Police did say the the elder man was found with stab wounds in his living room Friday afternoon.
Joshua Popielarczyk, 31, was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of strangulation/suffocation last year after the victim dropped her complaint on more serious charges. According to a warrant for that 2023 arrest, police were alerted that Popielarczyk had left the scene of a crash, and the woman who was with him said he raped her at his apartment the night before.
Avon police officers spoke to the 60-year-old woman and described her as “visibly shaken.” She told them she had met Popielarczyk in rehab and “they hit it off,” so she spent some time with him after they were discharged from the facility.
But Popielarczyk began exhibiting what the victim called “weird behavior,” including going into trances and talking to himself repeatedly. She said he bought a drug from someone who came to his door, and when he took it, she described it as “like looking into the eyes of Satan,” the arrest warrant said.
Popielarczyk became increasingly violent, often pushing and slapping her and wrapping his hands around her neck. She said he punched her and strangled her, including once when she was lying down for a nap.
She told police she wanted to call 911 but feared “Joshua would hear her call and kill her.”
On September 12, 2023, she said, they were listening to music when he started pacing then shoved her over, pulled off her shorts, and raped her. The following morning, he dragged her out of bed feet first and told her to hurry and get ready — he was taking her with him because he wanted to buy marijuana — or “I’m going to kill you.”
When they left the house, the woman said, Popielarcyzk drove so erratically that she persuaded him to let her drive. When he did, however, he began ordering her to drive through stop signs and red lights. When she obeyed traffic laws, he punched her in the head.
He gave her directions to his parents house, where he reportedly banged on the door and confronted the woman who answer the door in violation of an order of protection against him, CT Insider said.
He left the parents’ home, and the 60-year-old victim said he had been “laughing maniacally” while driving and punched her in the face and neck several times. He ran traffic lights and eventually crashed into another car before leaving the scene, the report said.
The woman said she got away from him when an employee at a marijuana dispensary “separated him from her after observing that something might have been wrong,” the affidavit said.
Responding officers saw bruising and marks on her face and ear.
But the woman soon began avoiding police, who didn’t speak with her again until early October that year. At that time she said she didn’t want to pursue charges.
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[Featured image: Joshua Popielarczyk/Farmington Police Department]
