Actor Dylan McDermott finally solves mother’s murder

Film and TV star Dylan McDermott was just five years old when his mother Diane was shot through the head.

He didn’t see it happen, because he’d already been kicked out of the house by his mum’s drug abusing gangster boyfriend.

[Related story: Hollywood's most mysterious deaths]

McDermott is now a successful actor after winning a Golden Globe for TV show ‘The Practice’, appearing in Clint Eastwood thriller ‘In The Line Of Fire’, ‘Miracle On 34th Street’ and the upcoming ‘The Perks Of Being A Wallflower’.

But he must still have been haunted by the moment, while standing outside his house, that he heard shouting, then a gunshot, before his mother was wheeled out on stretcher with a bandage around her head.

The case was deemed an accidental shooting by police back in 1967, but 45 years on McDermott helped re-open the cold case, and discovered she was violently murdered by her boyfriend.

The actor, 50, had police in Waterbury, Connecticut re-open the file on Diane McDermott’s death last year after he contacted them with questions about her death.

Until now it was believed his mother shot herself, but the only witness was her boyfriend, known criminal and drug addict John Sponza, who told police it was suicide.

According to The Republican American newspaper, the police said they had enough evidence to charge Sponza several years later. However, Sponza, who had ties to organised crime, was himself killed in 1972. His body was found in the trunk of a car.

For 40 years the case went cold, until McDermott called the Waterbury Police Department in 2011. Superintendent Michael Gugliotti, Detective Richard Baxter and Lieutenant Gary Pelosi re-opened the investigation. They insisted Dylan’s celebrity status had no bearing on the decision.

Gugliotti found many inconsistencies in the evidence.  The gunshot was on the left-hand side of the back of Diane McDermott’s head, but she was right-handed. The state medical examiner also said the gun found close to her body was too small a caliber to have killed her.

Sponza also told investigators that he and Ms McDermott never argued, but others recalled a long history of violence in the relationship.

The young Dylan McDermott was said to be terrified of his mother's boyfriend.

Gugliotti said police failed to follow-up on Sponza‘s original statement, and it’s believed that Sponza had connections that repeatedly got him out of trouble with the law. His dad worked in a prison.

The ruling ensures justice has finally been done for the McDermott family.

The actor has yet to make a statement about the investigation, but he told police why he needed to find out what really happened after 40 years of mystery.

According to Gugliotti: “He said, ‘In order for me to survive and to get where I am today, I needed to bury that moment in my life deep within myself.’

“He said it wasn’t until recently ‘that I’ve come to the point in my life where I’m able to begin to process all of this."'