In the pre-dawn hours of May 31, 1981, 34-year-old Kenneth Bateman, a seven-year veteran of the Darien Police Department, responded to a burglar alarm at the Duchess Patio Restaurant near the Norwalk city line. He found a door pried open and, while awaiting backup, encountered a suspect breaking through a plate-glass door. A shootout followed and Bateman was struck in the neck by a single .38 caliber wad-cutter slug that severed his carotid artery. He was taken to Norwalk Hospital and died of his injuries.

Investigators from the start focused on a suspect named Anthony Sabato, believed to have a long criminal history and suspected in related burglaries along the Post Road. Police also suspected the distinctive wad-cutter bullet had been stolen in a Stamford house burglary that Sabato was linked to, but the murder weapon has never been recovered and no murder charge has ever been filed. In 2015, during sentencing on unrelated federal drug and firearms charges, a judge said Sabato had supplied the gun used to kill Bateman, but authorities still lack enough evidence to prosecute.

Rewards remain offered for information that could recover the firearm or lead to a conviction. If anyone knew Kenneth Bateman or has information about the Duchess Patio burglary or the missing firearm, please come forward.