08/31/02 With one murder solved, focus shifts to another notorious case

By Lindsay Faber - Greenwich Time

Two days after a decades-old murder case closed with the sentencing of Michael Skakel, another unsolved murder has reached its 18th anniversary, invigorated by a newly condensed list of suspects and a team of investigators more encouraged than ever.

Matthew Margolies disappeared on Aug. 31, 1984, 18 years ago today. His body was found five days later on a wooded hillside near his Pilgrim Drive home. An avid angler who spent many of his days by the Byram River, Matthew was stabbed more than a dozen times. Police said he had dirt forced down his throat before being strangled with his own T-shirt. His body was placed near the knife they believe was used to stab him.

The Margolies case has sometimes been referred to as Greenwich's "other" unsolved murder, falling short of the notoriety garnered by the world-famous Skakel case.

But Margolies' family has been pushing quietly, speaking monthly with the state's cold case squad and making sure the loss of their loved one never falls on deaf ears.

Even with almost two decades behind them -- Matthew died at 13 and would have been 31 now -- Matthew's mother, Maryann Margolies, and his sister, Stacey, are encouraged by Skakel's conviction and by the news that their own case has moved a step further.

Deputy Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano, who heads the cold case squad and served as a prosecutor on the Skakel case, said yesterday that his team has "substantially" narrowed the list of suspects in Matthew's case.

"We are focused on a much smaller number of individuals than we were even six months ago," Morano said. "And of the people we're interested in, we know exactly where they are."

Morano would not detail how many suspects are now being focused on.

"I cannot say more than that because somebody out there could easily be reading this," he said. "But I'm encouraged in that while we have not yet arrested anyone, we have not encountered any fatal roadblocks that would lead me to believe we will never solve this case."

He added that the team continues to test pieces of crime scene evidence for forensic information and meet with people suspected of knowing information about the brutal murder.

He also said the forensic science aspect of the renewed investigation holds promise because physical evidence from the homicide scene was well-preserved. Forensic scientists are employing the latest in DNA testing techniques, he added.

"We don't want to get tunnel vision and totally eliminate anyone yet until we feel we have enough for probable cause," Morano said. "That's based upon several factors, like forensic evidence, clear-cut alibis and actions that just don't fit the scenario of the crime."

The case lay dormant for years until Greenwich police announced in 1998 they would re-examine it. They also sought the help of the state, whose cold case team consists of Morano, the state's second-ranking prosecutor, a state homicide investigator, two Greenwich detectives and forensic scientists. The case has been prioritized on the state level as one of its top 40 cold cases, officials said.

For Matthew's mother and sister, today represents the celebration of a 13-year-old boy's life.

"To have known his love, I couldn't ask for more," Maryann Margolies said. "Of course you can't control the mind totally and there is the pain associated with what happened to him and the fact that no one had the right to take his life. And there's the void felt on a daily basis but particularly on holidays and his birthday and a time that would be a celebration day. He was just such a loving and caring person."

Margolies and her daughter believe they will one day sit in the same seats as Dorthy and John Moxley, the mother and brother of Martha Moxley, the 15-year-old found by a jury to have been murdered by Skakel in 1975.

"I remember vividly when Michael Skakel was convicted and I remember Dorthy Moxley saying it was Martha's day," Stacey Margolies said. "I really believe Matthew will have his day and that it will be soon."

Anyone with information about the case should call Greenwich detectives Timothy Duff or Gary Hoffkins at (203) 622-8054.

Friday, June 14, 2002 - Skakel verdict a product of striking contrasts

Joe Pisani

Skakel verdict a product of striking contrasts

Dorthy Moxley began her day with a simple prayer, the same one she's said countless times since her daughter was murdered in 1975: "Dear Lord, again today, like I've been doing for 27 years, I'm praying that I can find justice for Martha....

01/25/00 A mother seeks justice in town's ‘other murder’

By Ryan Jockers - Greenwich Time

With the recent arrest in a long-unsolved murder of a Greenwich teenager, a similar case remains unsolved. This case, however, is far removed from an exclusive waterfront community, Kennedy relatives and a popular young girl from California.

And while the case of Matthew Margolies, who was 13 in 1984 when he was found in a shallow grave on a secluded hillside outside his Glenville neighborhood, does not have the made-for-television elements of the 1975 murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley, his case is equally as compelling. Thus far, no one has been arrested for killing the boy.

Michael Skakel, now 39, a former neighbor of Moxley, was arrested last week after the state, in a last-ditch attempt to solve the crime, invoked a seldom-used grand jury statute that found probable cause to arrest him after an 18-month investigation. Skakel surrendered to the murder charge but maintains his innocence through his attorney, Michael Sherman of Stamford.

Maryann Margolies, Matthew's mother, who lives in the same home in which she last saw her son, said yesterday that the idea of a grand jury investigating her son's murder was appealing, though she has not taken steps to initiate such action.

Until State's Attorney Jonathan Benedict applied for and received approval from a three-judge panel in New Haven to appoint a one-man grand jury in 1998 to investigate Moxley's death, Margolies said she was unaware the option existed.

"It's appealing because obviously it led to an arrest in the Moxley case, and very well could lead to an arrest in my son's case," Margolies said in the living room of her home, decorated with photographs of Matthew. "But I'm not rushing into anything. I guess I'm rather cautious. I like to have details. I like to think things through."

The Greenwich Police Department began to reinvestigate the murder of Matthew Margolies in June 1998, the same month the Moxley grand jury convened.

In an interview with Greenwich Time in September, Greenwich Police Chief Peter Robbins said the reinvestigation of the 1984 murder was moving slowly but he expected it to build momentum after the department settled down after a major reorganization of personnel. Calling the work environment at the time stable, Robbins said of the Margolies case, "We're really going to have to pick things up and get going."

Robbins could not be reached yesterday for comment for this article.

Robbins, who supervised the Margolies investigation as a lieutenant, has shown optimism toward solving the case in various interviews with Greenwich Time. Yesterday, Maryann Margolies said she, too, is optimistic that an arrest will ultimately be made in her son's murder.

"I think there is light at the end of the tunnel," she said.

According to police, Matthew Margolies set out on the afternoon of Aug. 31, 1984, from his Pilgrim Drive home to go fishing in the Byram River, which had become a pastime for the boy. Police said they believe the boy 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. A boning knife believed to be the murder weapon was found a short distance from the body.

Shortly after the murder, the Federal Bureau of Investigation'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 1986 the town paid an independent consultant to review the Police Department's investigation. That analysis further characterized the murderer as a sadist who lured the victim to a secluded area where he would be able to act out his gory fantasies.

Before reinvestigating the Margolies case, police tracked down occasional leads but the murder of a working-class family's only son did not attract as much attention as the Moxley case. Moxley was bludgeoned to death outside her family's mansion in the affluent Belle Haven section of town with a golf club belonging to a set owned by the prominent Skakel family.

The Moxley case maintained a high profile as Michael Skakel and his older brother Thomas, the prime suspect in the case for many years, are nephews of Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert F. Kennedy. Michael and Thomas Skakel, then 15 and 17, respectively, were with Moxley the night she was killed. Thomas Skakel has also denied any wrongdoing.

The Moxley case was the subject of two nonfiction books, the inspiration for a novel and subsequent television miniseries, and provided fodder for numerous talk shows and other television programs. In books and at a Web site devoted to the Moxley murder, the Margolies case has been referred to as "Greenwich's other unsolved murder."

"I don't think it's done intentionally," Margolies said. "I'd like to live in a naive bubble but the stark reality is that fame and fortune are factors to be considered."

Margolies, who works in a nursing capacity for the city of Stamford, said more media attention in her son's murder case "would only be helpful." Dorthy Moxley, mother of Martha Moxley, said her advice to the Margolies would be to "get her story out" to people.

Investigators and journalists who have covered the Moxley case have said that if not for Dorthy Moxley's persistence in keeping the story of her murdered daughter's death in the news, it would have faded into obscurity.

"I don't see how someone could commit a horrible crime and not tell somebody, and that somebody might be willing to tell," Moxley said yesterday from her home in Chatham Township, N.J. "Talk to the media; do television if you can. I know it's hard, but do it, and maybe someday you'll reap some success."