Former model, Constance "Connie" Wilson" was introduced on March 18, 1981. Now living off her dwindling modeling income, her fortunes seemed to pick up with the arrival of her teenaged niece, Hayley. Sent to Oakdale to attend school, Hayley was instructed, first, to go to the mansion of James Stenbeck and present James with a gift from her father, a notable archaeology professor. In the box were precious stones from the tomb that the professor was excavating. After examining them, he urgently told Professor Wilson to keep this discovery a secret at all costs and that he was coming to Egypt immediately. Meanwhile, Hayley, as well as her sizable inheritance, were placed in Connie's care. However, Connie was too busy with her social life to even think about looking after her nice. Finally, around the first of February 1981, while James was in Egypt, Hayley fell ill and was rushed to Memorial Hospital, where John Dixon was the only doctor on call. Hayley had a very bad fever and was lucky not to die. John discovered that she had picked up a viral infection while she had been living in Egypt. While she was still delirious with the fever, James returned to Oakdale with sad news. And for a while, Hayley had no clue to exactly what James was telling her. James news: Professor Wilson had died in a cave-in! John was very concerned when he tried to reach Connie Wilson and couldn't. Then he found out about her going around with the rather dubious, Dr. Larry Travis and he had enough!

Feeling very sympathetic for Hayley's plight, John petitioned the court to become the legal guardian for Hayley and take her under his wings. Surprisingly the court agreed to give John temporary legal guardianship of Hayley, until she reached her 18th birthday in August 1981. When Connie found out that the court had awarded temporary legal guardianship, of her niece, to John. Connie decided to sue herself for guardianship, but even though John was still in the midst of the rape trial, the court refused Connie's petition saying that she was not at all ready to be a guardian for her teenaged niece. Connie was furious to say the least, but soon there would be reasons revealed why Connie not getting guardianship was a probably a very good idea.

Despite this, Connie started spending more and more time with Hayley, who was not necessarily impressed with either Connie or her social climbing and was even less impressed with Connie's boyfriend, Larry Travis. But Connie started planting suggestions to Hayley that construction worker, Eric Hollister was no good for her and beneath her niece's standing. Hayley of course was livid about her aunt's statements, but soon there would be reasons why Hayley started listening to her aunt. And unfortunately the driving force behind all of this was James Stenbeck!

Then one day, Barbara (James's wife) decided to treat Connie and Larry to a preview of Fashions, with neither woman realizing that Larry had PCP planted on him from Barbara's brother. (Connie had also been sweet talked by James in being an investor in Fashions, but James was really using Connie as a front to keep her niece from snooping around to the true intention of James wanting Barbara and Lisa to set up Fashions, running the stolen jewels, with the help of Stan Harper through Fashions -- Connie also did not tell her niece that she had invested in Fashions with Hayley's tuition money!)

While Barbara was brewing some tea that she had planned to share with Eric, Connie and Larry departed so she and Eric could celebrate a job well done on his part. Of course things went awry. Larry dropped some of the PCP, accidentally in one of the tea cups! When Connie and Larry departed, Barbara served Eric the tea and gave it to him in the cup with the PCP! Larry was soon arrested by Lt. Savage, which confused Larry and made Connie doubt that she was with the right man. (Larry went to jail, and was there until the end of the year 1981, when Lt. Savage found could find no evidence that he was involved with either the drug running or drug manufacturing.) Soon after, Barbara left on another errand for Paul and Eric was left alone (Barbara had not touched or drank the tea, herself.) Although Eric would wind up in a coma for several weeks, he would recover.

In the meantime, James quickly found another object for his affection: Connie! She was still the trustee of Hayley's considerable inheritance, and James tried to flatter her into staying involved with the Fashions, Ltd. Connie who was on the rebound from Larry and expected some romance, and James didn't discourage her. Meanwhile, John overheard James and Connie speaking and thought it wise to get Hayley out of the cottage and offered her his old apartment, which Hayley agreed to hoping as she approached 18 to have more romance with Eric. Then Hayley discovered Connie would be staying with her and she was as enthused. In the meantime, James's assistant, Nels Anderson Einar, became concerned about how James would handle both the affair with Margo Hughes and Connie! Nels was convinced that Connie would learn the truth about the tomb where her brother died and it would be dangerous if anyone knew that Barbara's bracelet and Margo's ring were stolen from the tomb. Then later Stan Harper informed James that there were trouble with the shipping of more jewels from the tomb and then Hayley got suspicious about where the jewels were coming from (Margo was proudly showing off her ring and Barbara was proudly showing off her bracelet.) Nels thought James didn't play things out right, when James ordered Stan to keep the jewels in Egypt! Meanwhile, when Hayley learned about the PCP dosing of Eric, Hayley bought into her aunt telling her that Eric may be a drug addict. For Connie knew that if Hayley married Eric, Connie would lose control of her brother's estate.

Meanwhile, when the promised returns did not materialize on Connie's investment in Fashions, Ltd., Connie reminded James that the money was Hayley's and it was needed since that was Hayley's tuition money. When Hayley (who wanted to go to college) learned what Connie had done with her inheritance, she was livid. So Connie threatened to tell Barbara about her affair with James if she didn't get the money for Hayley's tuition. James lied and told her he'd ask Barbara for a divorce soon they could marry. Impatient, Connie showed up at James' penthouse (that James and Barbara sometime stayed at) while Barbara was there and questioned James about the money. Shortly thereafter, in early October 1981, Connie was found dead in her apartment. Although the police suspected suicide, Connie was actually murdered by Bruno, the henchman of James's accomplice, Mr. Big.