Avon/Farmington/Canton local here! Been creeping on WS for a week, joined last night, and am actively finding the courage to answer LittleBitty's call to action! (You are all geniuses, BTW). I just started a deep dive into this case a few days ago and have been FREAKED out by the stuff I've discovered so close to home. Highlights include: my oldest friend's family home shares a long stretch of woods with 585 Deercliff; I went to the same HS as MT's daughter (and discovered in an edition of the school magazine published MAY 28TH, 2019 that MT and GB recently donated a $10K ski trip to GB's ski chalet); I had the same elementary school teachers as JFD's eldest kids; I rode at the same barn (Folly Farm) as her kids; and, most chillingly, I've met Dana Hinman several times (named in AW; not someone I would call a 'good guy').
To answer the question, teens hang out in the woods here. There's a lot of pretense in the Farmington Valley, and if you're going to misbehave, you better do it in a secluded spot. For the local prep schoolers (Avon Old Farms, Ethel Walker, Miss Porter's), the go-to spot is the woods surrounding the sprawling Avon Old Farms campus. Close to AOF is another big park called Fisher Meadows. I also recently talked to a local mother with teenage kids, and she was telling me her daughters routinely walk through the woods on Deercliff Rd. If AOF is a sprawling wood, Deercliff is VAST. It is as winding, tree-covered, and secluded a residential area as it gets in Farmington/Avon. To that point, there are two types of luxury home developments in this area and they typically represent the two types of wealth we see. The first are open developments with all the houses right on top of each other -- people who purchase these houses typically want to display something (wealth, status, etc). The second are secluded developments with lots of tree-cover, private driveways, and distance between the houses -- people who purchase these homes want privacy (lots of athletes, lawyers, old money). If you look at FD's first properties (Bart Drive, Charlotte Court), they fall into the first category. But his later developments (Jefferson Xing, Olcott, Deercliff, Sky View) exemplify the second category. IMO, this transition from high-visibility properties to low-visibility properties marks a distinct shift in FD's business model and personal objectives.
Hope that helps answer your question. LMK if you have any other local questions and I'll do my best to answer!
PS I've been immersed in the archived pages of JFD's blog and the codified language she uses to discuss FD turns my stomach. I hope the state is holding out on big evidence and they nail this sociopath. Justice for Jennifer.
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