04/01/01 BOSTON GLOBE: Greenwich's other murder 1984 case reopened amid spotlight on Moxley slaying

By Lisa Prevost, Boston Globe Correspondent

GREENWICH, Conn. - Maryann Margolies has long accepted that the unsolved murder of her son can't compete for public attention with the fatal bludgeoning of fellow Greenwich teen Martha Moxley.

The killings were startlingly similar: Moxley was just 15 when she was found dead in the backyard of her family's estate in affluent Greenwich. Matthew Margolies was 13 when he was slain near his home in the Glenville neighborhood.

But the media appeal of the Moxley case has - as far as the Margolies investigation was long concerned - made all the difference in the world.

While Margolies was raised in an unremarkable working-class neighborhood, Moxley lived and died in exclusive Belle Haven.

More importantly, her suspected killer is her former neighbor, Michael Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy.

''The Moxley case has gotten the amount of attention it has primarily because of the Kennedy connection,'' said Maryann Margolies, a nursing director who still lives here. ''And that's a fact of life. That's reality.''

But more than 16 years after his murder, Matthew Margolies is about to get equal time.

Though they appear to have no new evidence to go on, Greenwich police and the state's attorney's cold case unit have come back to the Margolies case - a case that has long been known here as Greenwich's other unsolved murder.

Greenwich Police Chief Peter Robbins, who was a lieutenant detective when Margolies was murdered, has vowed to bring the case to some conclusion. The police recently enlisted renowned forensics expert Dr. Henry Lee to reexamine the evidence.

Though it's hardly common for police to reopen an investigation after so many years, the media frenzy driven by Skakel's arrest and impending trial - 25 years after Moxley's death - made it increasingly difficult for police to leave the Margolies murder alone.

The local newspaper, Greenwich Time, turned up the heat on police last year when it published a severe editorial: ''Another Old Murder Waits To Be Solved.''

And a local man has helped raise the Margolies murder's profile by maintaining the Web site www.matthewmargolies.com.

Greenwich native Tom Alessi launched the site a few years ago because, he says, he was frustrated by a widespread lack of attention to Margolies's murder.

The Margolies site averages an impressive 1,000 hits a day, although they may be primarily click-through traffic from Alessi's more popular sibling site: www.marthamoxley.com.

''I thought it was sort of wrong that there was all this interest in Martha's case and there was still a second murder that was just as important and not getting as much media attention,'' he said.

By reopening the Margolies case, police are hoping to capitalize on media interest in the Moxley murder, a case that has been profiled on television's ''Unsolved Murders'' and the subject of or thinly veiled in salacious novels.

At a press conference last month, the Greenwich police more than doubled the reward they had been offering for new information in the Margolies case, from $20,000 to $50,000. They also established a hotline for tips (203-532-1949), and brought Maryann Margolies forward to make an emotive plea.

''The media attention is already there because of the Moxley case,'' said James Walters, the Greenwich Police Department's deputy chief for criminal investigations. ''It sure helped the turnout at the press conference.''

But the odds of solving such an old case are not favorable.

Obtaining enough evidence to secure an arrest and conviction is very difficult in any cold case, acknowledged Deputy Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano.

''We are very clear when we meet with victims' families that we don't have any more answers than anyone else,'' Morano said. ''But what we do have is time to look into the case.''

The state's cold case unit has obtained arrest warrants in seven of the 15 cases it is working on, he said. So far, only one of the arrest warrants has led to a conviction.

Dr. Harry Bonell, chief deputy medical examiner in San Diego and a consulting expert for the national advocacy group Parents of Murdered Children, found that as few as 10 to 15 percent of cold cases are ever solved. But those 10 to 15 percent, he said, provide crucial hope to grieving families.

On Aug. 31, 1984, Matthew Margolies was stabbed repeatedly with a boning knife and suffocated with dirt that was forced down his throat. Five days passed before police found the body in a wooded area not far from a nearby river where he often went fishing.

Though police had a roster of suspects, no arrest was made.

Officials now hope advances in forensic science will enable them to identify Margolies's killer. ''We've always felt the case was solvable,'' Walters said. ''We believe the DNA analysis is going to be instrumental.''

According to Walters, work on the Margolies case slowed to a stop between 1990 and 1996.

Then, in 1998 - about a year after Robbins became chief and about the same time a one-man grand jury was appointed to consider evidence in the Moxley case - Robbins assigned two detectives to go through the 1,000-page Margolies file. Last November, the Greenwich police asked the cold case unit to join the probe.

As with the Moxley case, Greenwich police have been long and loudly accused of mishandling the initial investigation. In a 1986 report, an outside consultant faulted the Greenwich force for, among other things, failing to assign a detective to the case until after Margolies's body was found - and then only assigning one detective to view the crime scene.

''I think that if the police had had more experience and had involved the detective division, and had listened more closely to the things we had to say, they would certainly have not gone for that length of time without finding him,'' Maryann Margolies said in a recent interview.

But from Morano's perspective, the Greenwich police may have salvaged the case - albeit years later - with their conscientious handling of the evidence.

All crucial pieces of evidence were sealed after they were last viewed in 1984. All police reports are in the file.

And, rather presciently, the Greenwich police took hair samples from their suspects. Considering that in 1984 few in law enforcement had ever heard of DNA analysis, it was either far-sighted or inadvertently fortunate, Morano said.

Maryann Margolies says the ups and downs in the investigation of her son's murder have become increasingly hard on her.

This time, she says, she needs the case to be either solved or resolved.

''It's more painful each time it resurfaces than it was at the time of the murder,'' she said. ''With the passage of time, you've started to get your life back in some semblance of order and normality.''

And while legal closure may not mean emotional closure, ''it has to be less painful.''

02/11/00 Matthew Margolies: Mother Recounts Son's Life

By Peter Moore -- Greenwich Post

Since a site dedicated to Matthew Margolies went up on the Internet, the response has been a blessing for his mother Maryann. But by adding her own personal touch, she says she was able to let web surfers know that Matthew was something far more than a 13-year-old victim of a senseless crime. He was a person.

Maryann recently arranged for a story she wrote, "A Legacy of Love," accompanied by photographs of Matthew, to be posted at www.matthewmargolies.com. Five web pages long, the story tells of a life short in length, but full of spirit.

Maryann's story is one of the latest additions to a website created and maintained by Tom Alessi, a Stamford 911 facilities manager, who maintains two sites dedicated to unsolved murders that have taken place in Greenwich. Alessi's other site profiles the case of his childhood friend Martha Moxley, a Greenwich teen who was bludgeoned to death with a golf club in 1975.

"I asked Tom Alessi to post [the story] on the Internet because I wanted my son to have an identity," Maryann said Monday. "I think that except for the people who have known him, [Matthew] probably had been looked upon as a victim without an identity. And there's been such a response on the Internet that I wanted people to get a feeling of who he really was as a human being, as a person."

The person Maryann described lived from Jan. 24, 1971 until Aug. 31, 1984. And though Matthew's murder by an unknown assailant in the Pemberwick section of Greenwich has generated far more media attention than the happenings of his life, "A Legacy of Love," does not discuss the time surrounding his death at length.

Instead, Maryann Margolies talks of her son's love of nature and uses his example to touch the net surfer's heart and remind him or her of ways to achieve inner happiness.

"Given a choice, he would always prefer to be outdoors," she writes of Matthew. "The warmth of the sun, the wetness of the rain and the coldness of the snow would all nourish his spirit. He found joy in all of it. How long has it been since you last listened to the soft music made by fresh falling snow or perhaps the deeper sounds of rain?"

She describes Matthew as a decent student, specifically mentioning books he wrote at school with titles such as "Tombstone Ghost," "Fishing" and "Merry Christmas." These books still lie on the shelves of Maryann Margolies' house where she resides with her husband Jim.

At the time of his death, Matthew was due to begin eighth grade at Western Middle School. He disappeared on Aug. 31, 1984 and his body was found five days later in a wooded hilly area near Hawthorne and Greenway Street. He had been stabbed with a boning knife and asphyxiated and his body had been left in a shallow grave. There has never been an arrest in the killing.

"I've always had hope in that at some point, whoever was responsible for my son's death would be identified and that justice would be served," Maryann Margolies said Monday.

When Martha Moxley's neighbor Michael Skakel was arrested on Jan. 19 for Martha's murder, Maryann said the arrest did not influence her hope of an eventual arrest in her son's case. But she did say that the arrest proved that there is no way of time completely standing in the way of justice.

"I think that what has happened within Martha's case supports the fact that it's never too late," she says.

In her story, Maryann also writes of the joy Matthew received at the times of holidays, particularly Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and Halloween. A picture of Matthew in a Halloween costume accompanies the story.

She also mentions Matthew's fondness for hats on a page which includes a photo of Matthew atop a fire engine, wearing the traditional red firefighter's hat. Matthew's love of sports, especially fishing is also brought to light.

"He was quite the sportsman and many a man learned from him," she says.

She also mentions remembering Matthew with a positive outlook.

"Not a day passes, that I do not think of Matthew," she writes. "It seems clear that his life ended as it began, with a struggle. However, it is his life that I have had to focus upon. I can see his smile and hear his laughter. I know his love, warmth and caring ways. God has shown his love and bestowed his blessing in choosing me to be Matthew's mother."

Matthew's mother concludes "A Legacy of Love," by urging busy grownups to take time for their little ones. She explained the passage Monday.

"I think that it would be part of a living memorial to Matthew in order for people to take the time to tell their child that they love them," she said. "With both parents working and all the changes, people are always rushing around. It's important for parents to take the time, tell their children how they feel and above all, take the time to listen to them."

The story's final paragraph reads, in part: "If you have read this, please take the time to tell a child how much you love him/her. Chase rainbows, and if you can't find one, then make it! (Ingredients: a little sun, a garden hose and some running water) The reward: FUN, LAUGHTER AND LOADS OF LOVE IN BEING TOGETHER!"

12/03/99 Moxley and Margolies web site manager keeps hope alive

By Peter Moore - Greenwich Post

Tom Alessi recalls his old Western Junior High and Greenwich High School classmate Martha Moxley as a "very nice person."

"Never had a,.bad thing to say about anybody," Alessi said. "Everybody liked her. She was very bright and intelligent." For some time now, Alessi,a resident of Stamford, has maintained and updated www.MarthaMoxley.com an informational website on the 24-year-old unsolved murder case. The site serves as a resource center for anybody wishing to learn about the case and its latest happenings as well as a forum for those wishing to air their views or even to E-mail tips about the killing.

As the Moxley site gained fans, Alessi, a facilities manager at the Stamford 911 center, began to receive correspondence from acquaintances about a different matter which had gained far less media attention.

"Several people that I knew from Greenwich, when they found out I was doing the Martha Moxley case website said, 'There's another [murder] that could use some attention too."'

On Aug. 31, 1984, 13-year-old Matthew Margolies, a resident of the Pemberwick section of Greenwich, left his grandmother's house to go fishing. He was last seen walking along the Byram River that afternoon. When he did not return home in the evening, his mother Maryann called police, but it was not until five days later before his body was finally discovered in a wooded hilly area near Hawthorne and Greenway Street.

Matthew had been stabbed several times and an autopsy revealed that his torso had been compressed to the point where breathing was impossible. The knife reportedly used to kill Matthew was found nearby several days later, but was never traced to a suspect. The Greenwich Police Department had not dealt with a homicide since the 1975 Moxley killing and as in the Moxley case, they never arrested a suspect.

Recently, Alessi became acquainted with Kevin McMurray, a reporter who had interviewed Maryann Margolies. McMurray and Alessi then struck a deal for a new site,

www.MatthewMargolies.com.

"I told [McMurray] that if he wrote the first page of the site that I would go over it and publish it," Alessi said.

The "first page" of the website actually prints out to more than seven pages on paper. McMurray's account and interviews detail how, as in the Moxley the early stages of the investigation.

In an excerpt from his book, "Murder in Greenwich; Who Killed Martha Moxley?" former Los Angeles Police detective Mark Fuhrman writes that several mistakes were noted in the Margolies report, including no detective being delegated to check the initial missing person report, only one detective viewing the crime scene, a lack of clear explanations to various officers of their assignments on the case, and the department's release of "sensitive information" to the media.

Links are also provided on the site to recent news updates on the case and excerpts on the Margolies killing from both Fuhrman's Moxley account and Tim Dumas's "A Wealth of Evil" (formerly "Greentown"), another book on the Moxley murder.

For Alessi, whose says his website programming skills are self taught, maintaining the Margolies site represents another opportunity to shed light on a case sadly still unsolved.

"The most positive thing that I've found is that people have been interested in keeping the cage going and by letting it slip by the wayside," he said. As of noon on Tuesday, the two-month old Margolies site was approaching 1900 hits.

Alessi first became involved with the Moxley site two years ago after meeting Robert Steiner ' an Austrian college student, on CyberSleuths.com, an independent news service which maintains chronicled accounts of crimes. Steiner had created several small web pages containing synopsis of different murders. One eventually became what is today his complete Moxley site.

"I expressed a desire to [Steiner] to take it over and create www.MarthaMoxley.com, since I was closer to the news and was able to devote more time to it," Alessi said.

Alessi said that his maintenance of the two websites is not driven by a need to be noticed, but by a desire to help keep the Moxley and Margolies cases alive in hopes that one day their killers will be found.

"I don't really care for publicity," he said Monday. "The story is not me, the story is the murders."

Maryann Margolies, Matthew's mother is said to be pleased with the website dedicated to solving her son's case.

"She's contacted Kevin, told him she's impressed and mentioned that she wanted to get in touch with me," Alessi said. Attempts to contact Maryann Margolies were unsuccessful.

Alessi and his wife of twelve years Moira are also parents themselves; of a seven-year old boy, also named Matthew. For Alessi, the sites serve as a reminder of how precious the life of his own child really is.

"There's not a day that goes by that you don't think it can happen to your own kid," he said. "That's the scary part. If it happens, you don't want people to forget. [Martha and Matthew] are gone, but hopefully not forgotten."

11/28/99 New Web site revisits unsolved '84 murder

By Thomas Mellana - Greenwich Time

"The Greenwich curse has manifested itself again. But unlike Martha Moxley, nobody talks about Matthew Margolies from Glenville anymore."

- From "Greentown" by Tim Dumas

Books have not been written about Matthew Margolies. For each newspaper story written about him, 10 appear about that other unsolved Greenwich murder.

But Matthew has found a place on the Web.

A Stamford Web site creator has established a new site about the unsolved 1984 killing of 13-year-old Margolies, whose body was discovered Sept. 5 of that year in the woods near his house, five days after he was reported missing.

"Some of the people from Greenwich who visited Martha's site brought up the fact there was this other unsolved murder in Greenwich," said Tom Alessi, who created the site about two months ago. "I did a little research, and decided this is something people needed to know."

Alessi, 39, a facilities manager at the Stamford 911 center, created a site about the unsolved 1975 murder of Martha Moxley two years ago. A Greenwich native, he was a childhood friend of Moxley, who lived in Belle Haven.

"I was originally from Chickahominy," he said. "I was a classmate of Martha's, and a good friend."

Alessi's strong interest in computers has led him to create Web sites for non-profit organizations in the community as a hobby. Creating one about Moxley seemed a natural.

His Margolies site, which can be reached by a link from the Moxley site, has caught on quickly with cybersleuths and the merely curious.

"In just two months, 1,600 people have looked at it - from all over the country," Alessi said.

Comments they leave on the site's bulletin board are not always flattering to the town or its police department.

"There is a lot of outrage, that two murders in the same town can go unsolved," Alessi said.

"Everyone is entitled to their opinion as to why these cases haven't been solved," Deputy Police Chief James Walters said. "But it doesn't result in anything positive to get into an argument about it. We're just continuing to try to move the investigation forward."

Margolies was an avid fisherman who frequently went fishing with his grandfather, who died shortly before Matthew disappeared. On Aug. 31, 1984, he left his grandmother's house, fishing pole in hand. nearly a week later, his body was discovered on a secluded hillside near his Glenville neighborhood. The murder weapon, a boning knife, was found near his body.

The Web site offers a lengthy synopsis of the murder and the investigation that followed, including photographs of Matthew and his family; a bulletin board on which visitors can record comments; excerpts mentioning the murder from books by Mark Fuhrman and Tim Dumas; and news updates.

"The purpose of this Web site (as well as the Martha Moxley Web site) is to keep the public informed of any developments in the case," Alessi wrote. "But most of all, it is meant to keep Matthew's memory alive for his family and friends."

The site creator's hope, of course, is that it also helps to solve the case.

"Tips would be appreciated," Alessi said. "I would certainly take them and forward them."

As of yet, that has not happened.

"We have not gained any additional information from the Martha Moxley site as of yet, or the Matthew Margolies site," Walters said. "However, as long as they're out there being talked about, we view it as a positive thing."

In May 1998, Police Chief Peter Robbins revealed plans to reinvestigate the Margolies case. Twenty suspects originally identified in the murder have been pared to five, some of whom still live in town.

Walters last week said he could not provide an update on the investigation. Greenwich Time has filed a claim with the state Freedom of Information Commission to see the Margolies investigation case file. The case is pending.

"We can't give out any additional information on that," Walters said.

The Margolies site can be found at matthewmargolies.com. The Moxley site is at marthamoxley.com.

Matthew's mother, Maryann Margolies, could not be reached for comment last week.