03/23/00 Margolies Case File is Subject of Hearing

By Ryan Jockers - Greenwich Time

The state Freedom of Information Commission next week is to hear arguments on whether Greenwich police can withhold records on the 1984 murder of 13-year-old Matthew Margolies of Glenville.

Greenwich Time, alleging a violation of the Freedom of Information Act, on Oct. 7 appealed Greenwich Police Chief Peter Robbins' denial of its request for the department's records of the case, which remains unsolved. The Freedom of Information Commission scheduled a hearing for the appeal for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in Hartford.

"The Margolies murder was a much-publicized case that is 15 years old, and we believe Greenwich residents should have information regarding the police investigation," said Joseph F. Pisani, editor and senior vice president of Greenwich Time.

Margolies' body was found partly covered with leaves on a secluded hillside outside the Glenville neighborhood near the Byram River on Sept. 5, 1984. The Greenwich Police Department began to reinvestigate the Margolies murder in June 1998, the same month in which a grand jury convened to hear witnesses in the 1975 murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley.

Eighteen months later, the grand jury found probable cause to arrest Michael Skakel, now 39, a former neighbor of Moxley's and a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, who was arrested Jan. 19 on a charge of murder. Skakel was arraigned March 14 and has claimed his innocence through his attorney, Michael Sherman of Stamford. On Aug. 31, J.A. Johnson Jr., a Greenwich Time reporter, made a formal written request to Robbins for the Police Department's records concerning the Margolies murder investigation. A month later, on Oct. 1, Robbins denied the request, citing a state law that exempts certain public records from being made public because disclosure would not be in the public interest. Robbins did not say in what way he felt the release of records would hurt the public interest. An example of such records, according to the state law, includes those that would endanger individuals who were previously unidentified, signed statements of witnesses, investigation techniques not known to the public and arrest records of juveniles.

Robbins would not comment yesterday on the forthcoming Freedom of Information Commission hearing.

According to police, Matthew Margolies set out the afternoon of Aug. 31, 1984, from his Pilgrim Drive home to pursue his pastime, fishing in the Byram River. Police said they believe Margolies was killed the same afternoon by someone who repeatedly stabbed and strangled him. The boy's partially nude body was discovered five days later in a wooded area near the river. The boning knife believed to be the murder weapon was found a short distance from the body. There was no evidence Margolies had been sexually assaulted.

Shortly after the murder, the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit profiled Margolies' killer as a white male familiar with Glenville, who knew Margolies as well as the victim's passion for fishing. In a town-funded 1986 paid consultant's critique of the Police Department's investigation, the murderer was further characterized as a sadist who lured the victim to a secluded area where he would be able to act out his gory fantasies.

02/10/00 EDITORIAL: ANOTHER OLD MURDER WAITS TO BE SOLVED

Greenwich Time

THE ISSUE: Developments in the Moxley case serve to underline the lack of an arrest in the killing of another teen.

The well-publicized arrest of a suspect in the 1975 murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley is a painful reminder to some townspeople that another slaying involving a Greenwich teen remains unsolved. For townspeople who rememberthe 1984 case involving 13-year-old Matthew Margolies, the lack of resolution is especially troubling in a community that has a reputation as a safe place to raise children.

A police investigation into the Margolies killing was reopened in 1998, but the mystery continues. For more than 15 years, questions have gone unanswered about what happened to the boy after he left his Glenville home to go fishing on August 31, 1984. His partially clad, stabbed and strangled body was discovered in a shallow grave near the Byram River five days later. Nearby was a boning knife that police believe was the murder weapon.

The single biggest similarity for the two cases is obvious: Both murders involved teens who were brutally murdered in places that residents considered to be safe.

But the differences are substatial, and some observers may find them telling. Martha Moxley's body was found on the grounds of her well-to-do family's Belle Haven mansion; Matthew Margolies remains were unearthed in a wooded area some distance from the working-class home where his mother still livesin Glenville. Dorthy Moxley, Martha's mother, spent years as an activist seeking justice, talking with receptive media representatives to press law enforcement officials to identify and charge her daughter's killer; Maryann Margolies, while cooperative and interested in the same kind of resolution, has not been able to elicit the same kind of interest.

The biggest fifference may involve the slaying suspects, which in turn may explain the amount of attention these bereaved mothers and the murder cases have received. Suspects in the Moxley case were members of the Skakel family, neighbors of the slain girl, who are related to the Kennedy family by marrage. The man who has been charged in her murder is Michael Skakel, 39, the nephew of the widow of Robert Kennedy. Police have not identified a suspect in the Margolies case.

After Mr. Skakel's arrest last month, Mrs. Margolies told staff writer Ryan Jockers, "I don't think it's done intentionally ...but the stark riality is that fame and fortune are factors to be considered." For her part, Mrs. Moxley told Mr. Jockers that Matthew Margolies should "get her story out".

The arrest in the Moxley slaying indicates that resolution of old murder cases needn't be considered forever stymied. Importantly, there are other factors involved in the Margolies case. Greenwich Police Chief Peter Robbins was the lieutenant who supervised the department's initial investigation, and he has said he wants to do all that is possible to identify the boy's killer and bring that individual to trial. Many townspeople who lived in Greenwich in 1984 recall the slaying and continue to be quietly outraged that it could occur within their community.

Beyond that, Mrs. Margolies has remained optimistic that an arrest ultimately will be made in the death of her son. That quiet confidence in the face of an unimaginable tragety is complling. We can only hope that in time authorities will solve the mystery of the awful killing of Matthew Margolies and bring his murderer to justice.