09/25/04 Margolies Murder Inquiry Resumes: GPD Detectives Finally Get off Their Ass And Again Fly Down To Texas To See Former PCPD Officer Roger Bates

By Martin B. Cassidy - Greenwich Time

Two Greenwich detectives interviewed former Port Chester, N.Y., police officer Roger Bates this week as part of their investigation of the 1984 murder of Greenwich teen Matthew Margolies, the police chief said yesterday.

The detectives flew to Dallas over the weekend and returned earlier this week after talking to Bates, who was recently convicted in Texas of child molestation, Greenwich Police Chief James Walters said.

"The only thing I can say is that they went out and spoke to Roger Bates about the case and we will be following up on any information he provided," Walters said.

Detectives Timothy Duff and Gary Hoffkins, along with an investigator from the Chief State's Attorney's Office, spoke to Bates, who moved to Garland, Texas, from Port Chester in 1998. Bates, 60, was convicted earlier this month of two counts of sexual assault of a child and sentenced to two consecutive 11-year prison terms for molesting a 14-year-old Garland boy.

Walters declined yesterday to say whether Bates is a suspect in the Margolies murder or what information Greenwich police sought from him.

John Read, Bates' attorney, said he had no problem with his client talking to Greenwich detectives again about the unsolved murder. Greenwich police interviewed Bates in the past, and there was no new information to uncover, said Read, who practices law in Dallas.

"This Greenwich thing is weird," Read said. "He's been through this before and has nothing to hide."

During Bates' sentencing, a friend of Matthew Margolies testified that Bates had molested him in 1984. The man, who is now 36, said he, Bates and Margolies fished together on one occasion that year, Shelley Hallman, a Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Bates, said last week.

Hallman also said last week that Bates would be required to submit a DNA sample to a centralized database kept by the FBI.

Walters has not said whether police are seeking samples of Bates' DNA.

Read said yesterday that the Connecticut man's accusations against Bates were false and his testimony about fishing irrelevant.

"So what?" Read said. "Roger was always taking someone hunting or fishing. That's what he does."

Read also said he has filed notice of appeal of the Texas conviction.

Calls to Hallman Thursday and yesterday were not returned.

Margolies disappeared Aug. 31, 1984, and his body was found five days later, buried in the woods near his Pilgrim Drive home in Pemberwick. He had been stabbed, strangled and suffocated, according to an autopsy report.

Officers who served with Bates in the Port Chester Police Department characterized him as a solid policeman with good people skills. Bates worked for the department from 1975 to 1985 after transferring from the Mount Pleasant Police Department, said Lt. James Ladeairous of the staff services division.

Port Chester Police Chief Joseph Krezeminski said Bates was quick on his feet and very persuasive with the public and fellow officers.

"Roger was a real smooth operator and he could charm you if he wanted to," Krezeminski said. "He did do a lot of good police work, but apparently he had this dark side."

Ladeairous, who joined the force the same year as Bates, remembered his colleague's neat appearance and that women would occasionally visit the station looking for him.

"He was very good with people," Ladeairous said. "There were times women would come in and ask, 'Is Roger working?' I'm not saying he was a ladies' man, but I guess he was attractive to the opposite sex."

Bates didn't chat about hobbies or other interests, Ladeairous said.

"He had a wife or two kids and he wasn't a gun nut, like some guys that you would remember them for that," Ladeairous said. "He was kind of blah."

Bates left the department with disability pay from a back injury in 1985, he said.

Capt. John Telesca said he never noticed anything strange about Bates' behavior.

"He didn't display any indication of what he's convicted of," Telesca said. "Not like people who wear it like a badge advertising their peculiarities."

Telesca recalled Bates working for a short time as a detective in the Port Chester youth bureau.

"People who worked with him here have called and asked what this is all about," Telesca said. "People are just shaking their heads because life is full of surprises."

PLEASE SEE:

TWO YEARS AGO !!!!!

02/24/02 Forget About The Greenwich Time: Independant Journalist Kevin F. McMurray Says There Is A Possible Break In The Margolis Case?

02/27/02 Forget About The Greenwich Time: Independant Journalist Kevin F. McMurray Says Juvenile Margolies Murder Suspect Has Criminal Record

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.

03/14/02 Officials narrow murder evidence: Investigators meet with Margolies family for update

By Lindsay Faber - Greenwich Time

Investigators working on the 18-year-old Matthew Margolies murder case have narrowed down their evidence to a collection of crucial pieces that are now undergoing a second round of forensic testing, a state lab director said yesterday.

"Right now we're at the more technical second layer, so to speak, on the testing," said Major Timothy Palmbach, director of scientific services at the Department of Public Safety forensic science lab in Meriden.

The update was well-received yesterday when Maryann Margolies and her daughter Stacey met for three hours with investigators, including Deputy Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano, Inspector Jim Rovella, Greenwich Police Sgt. Timothy Duff and Detective Gary Hoffkins, at the office of Greenwich attorney Tom Williams, who represents the family.

Matthew was 13 on Aug. 31, 1984, when he was stabbed, strangled and suffocated. His body was found five days later on a wooded hillside not far from his Pilgrim Drive home.

For more than a year, the investigative team that met yesterday has been turning up new leads as it re-investigates the unsolved homicide.

None of the meeting participants felt it was appropriate to discuss details of what took place at the meeting, but Williams said he was satisfied with how the case has progressed in recent months.

"I was pleased with the meeting and that's all I can say for now," Williams said.

Family members declined to comment at length about the meeting but Matthew's sister Stacey said she, too, was heartened by recent developments.

"We just don't want to disrupt what's going on right now," she said. "But it's encouraging."

Palmbach said the Margolies case is one of the top 40 cases being prioritized by the state.

"The process takes a lot of time," he said. "At any crime scene, a tremendous amount of evidence is gathered that ultimately proves to be extremely meaningless."

Palmbach added that there have not been definitive results on the testing at this point.

Morano, who is leading the investigation of the case, said the group has not had to deal with any major roadblocks and the case is proceeding as planned.

"We now know what we want to look at and we're in the process of doing so," Morano said. "We intend to conduct a thorough investigation. If and when we make an arrest, we want it to be a case we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt because that's the ultimate objective here."

Morano would not say how far the team was from making an arrest, nor would he comment about the pieces of evidence being looked at more thoroughly.

Matthew's body was discovered beneath a pile of rocks, branches and leaves, stripped to his undershorts and stabbed more than a dozen times with a knife. He had been strangled with his own clothing and suffocated with dirt that was forced down his throat. Police later determined that the young victim had been tortured before he was killed.

Eight people who either lived or worked in the Glenville area at the time of the boy's death were identified as suspects during the initial investigation, police said. They remain under suspicion.

Morano has said that 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 said.

02/27/02 Forget About The Greenwich Time: Independant Journalist Kevin F. McMurray Says Juvenile Margolies Murder Suspect Has Criminal Record

A Greenwich resident thought to be a primary suspect by the Greenwich Police Department in the disappearance/murder of 13-year old Matthew Margolies had a criminal complaint filed against him a few weeks prior to the 1984 Labor Day weekend murder of the Margolies boy.

The 16-year old individual was arrested on an assault charge after allegedly beating up another 13-year old boy not far from where the Margolies family resided.

The suspect and the young victim had gone to a vacant house owned by the suspect's family on his suggestion that they get some sodas. Ordered into the bathroom by the older boy the victim refused whereupon he was grabbed by the neck, throttled, then forced into the bathroom and punched in the face. What transpired afterwards was not publicly revealed at the time but it was reported that the boy was told by his assailant to explain that his injuries were a result of a bicycle accident.

When the police followed up on the complaint by the victim's family the suspect told them he had taken the younger boy to the house to clean up the wounds suffered by the purported bicycle accident. Due to the fact that the suspect was a juvenile adjudication of the charges were sealed.

No one has been indicted or arrested in the 18-year old murder of Matthew Margolies.

02/24/02 Forget About The Greenwich Time: Independant Journalist Kevin F. McMurray Says There Is A Possible Break In The Margolis Case?

A source in the Port Chester Police Department (PCPD) revealed that a retired detective from the department will be speaking with detectives of the Greenwich Police Department (GPD) on Monday, February 25th, regarding an arrest of a former PCPD officer on charges of pedophilia in Texas.

The former officer in custody of Texas authorities had links to the unsolved 1984 murder of 13-year old Matthew Margolies in the Glenville section of Greenwich. The retired PCPD detective who will be meeting with GPD detectives was involved in the case almost 18 years ago.

The arrested pedophile, Roger Bates, was a close family friend and neighbor of a juvenile who was questioned by GPD about his whereabouts and knowledge of the events of Labor Day weekend 1984 when the Margolies boy disappeared from near his home in the Pemberwick section of town. Matthew Margolies’s body was found less than a mile from where he was last seen on a wooded hill overlooking Pemberwick Road five days later. Although never officially acknowledged the Margolies boy’s murder has long been considered sexual driven in nature. The juvenile suspect had a police record and was known to frequent and fish in the area of the Byram River where Matthew Margolies lived. The suspect was also a known acquaintance of the victim and of other juveniles questioned in the disappearance and murder of the Margolies boy.

Bates, a PCPD officer at the time, was an obstacle in the questioning of the Port Chester suspect. Allegedly, it was Bates who convinced the suspect and his family from having him submit to a polygraph given by the GPD whose focus was the Margolies murder. It has been suspected that Bates has knowledge that could be useful in the pursuit of an arrest of a suspect in the crime.

Speculation is that the current GPD detectives in charge of the long dormant Margolies case will travel to Texas to interview the former Port Chester police officer. Conceivably, in exchange for information on the Margolies case, some leniency might be extended to Bates on his Texas charges. Bates is looking at a long sentence in the Texas penal system as a pedophile.

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.''

03/09/01 Reward doubles; officials look to DNA for clues in '84 murder

By J.A.Johnson Jr. - Greenwich Time

Matthew Margolies' mother stepped to the microphone-adorned podium, looked straight at the television cameras and pleaded for help in finding her son's killer.

"Please, I beg you to help me find some level of closure," Maryann Margolies said yesterday at a press conference convened by law enforcement officials to elicit the public's assistance in their renewed push to solve the 1984 homicide.

Deputy Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano, who since November has headed a combined state and local "cold case squad" that is probing the murder, announced that the state has more than doubled its share of the reward money for the Margolies case. He said Gov. John Rowland authorized an increase from $20,000 to $50,000. With $10,000 in private funds, the reward now totals $60,000.

Officials also announced that anyone with information about the murder can call a newly established 24-hour telephone tip line: (203) 532-1949.

In addition to unveiling measures to elicit greater public cooperation, Morano revealed that technicians at the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory in Meriden are preparing to use the latest in DNA testing on physical evidence from the case.

The evidence includes hair that Margolies' killer may have left at the crime scene.

The testing will be done at the direction of retired state public safety commissioner Dr. Henry Lee, one of the nation's preeminent forensic experts.

Of Lee's involvement in the Margolies case, Morano said, "That makes me the luckiest cold case prosecutor in the country."

While cautioning against unduly high expectations, Morano said he is optimistic about a positive outcome of the renewed probe because the original investigation was well-documented by police and physical evidence has been well preserved.

"All relevant and crucial pieces of evidence have been sealed since 1984 and have not been pawed by well-meaning individuals," Morano said, adding that the integrity of the evidence can ward off possible future claims of tampering or contamination.

Morano, the state's second highest-ranking prosecutor, said the Margolies case is unique for an old homicide case in that police had taken and retained DNA samples from suspects during the initial investigation.

"We have a veritable database, for lack of a better word, of suspects," he said.

In an interview last week, Lee said cold case investigators collected additional DNA samples from suspects who voluntarily supplied hair and saliva, and search warrants may be sought to obtain DNA from uncooperative suspects.

Margolies was killed Aug. 31, 1984, in a wooded area off Pemberwick Road, not far from his home on Pilgrim Drive, in a neighborhood of the Pemberwick section of Glenville known as "The Valley."

According to the autopsy report, Margolies had been stabbed more than a dozen times and was suffocated by dirt shoved down his throat. The boy's body was concealed under a pile of brush, rocks and leaves and, despite an extensive search, was not found for five days.

Eight people who either lived or worked in the Glenville area were identified as suspects during the initial investigation, police said, and all remain under suspicion.

The case was actively investigated through 1988, but as the killer's trail grew colder, leads trickled to a stop.

In early 1999, two Greenwich detectives were assigned to conduct a complete reinvestigation of the case. After a year of preliminary work, which included a careful review of the nearly 700-page case file, the detectives began conducting interviews in March 2000. Since then, state forensic scientists have been reviewing physical evidence in the case and DNA testing is expected to begin soon.

More leads surfaced after Greenwich Time published a five-part series about the Margolies case in early September. A month later, Greenwich police applied to have the case assigned to the state cold case unit.

Police Chief Peter Robbins said yesterday that the Margolies case file has grown to include more than 1,000 pages of police reports.

"The Greenwich Police Department has never diminished its resolve to solve this case and bring closure to the loving family members over their loss," he said.

Yesterday's press conference, Robbins said, "is yet another stage in the process to bring this case to what is hoped will be a successful solution."

But with her daughter, mother and husband looking on, Maryann Margolies held center stage yesterday as she remembered her slain son.

"He was respectful, considerate, loving and caring," the 61-year-old Pemberwick woman said. "He valued life and knew how to live it. Matthew brought us much happiness. He loved to joke and have fun.

"I wasn't able to hold him as he was dying, to take away his fear and ease his pain. What can I do? I can continue to offer him dignity and see that justice takes place. I have always felt that someone knows something and is not coming forward. Please, I beg you to help me find some level of closure. Look into your heart and soul. It takes courage to do what is right."

In addition to using the tip line, anyone with information about the Margolies case can call Greenwich police Detectives Timothy Duff, at 622-8080, and Gary Hoffkins, at 622-8037, or e-mail the state cold case squad at cold.case@po.state.ct.us .

03/06/11 Announcement Expected in Margolies Case

By J.A. Johnson Jr. - Greenwich Time

State and local law enforcement officials are planning to hold a press conference this week to announce new measures to advance the investigation into the 1984 slaying of Glenville teenager Matthew Margolies. Although not expected to publicly release details about the investigation itself, the chief state's attorneys office and Greenwich Police Department said they will announce plans which will help the public assist with the investigation.

"We feel there are people who know things and are hoping they will come forward and assist by providing what they know," Deputy Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano said on Friday. "The purpose of this press conference will be to reach out to the general public and see what assistance can be provided by them."

Morano, who has headed the Margolies investigation since November, said the appeal for help was not due to a lack of progress by the investigative team, which is composed of detectives from the Greenwich Police Department and the state's cold case unit, as well as forensic scientists.

In fact, the prosecutor said new information about the formerly dormant case has reinforced the belief that the case can be solved.

Morano said the measures to be announced at the Thursday afternoon press conference at Cole Auditorium in Greenwich Library, are part of the investigative team's strategy.

Members of the victim's family met with Morano and other team members for the first time Wednesday to be briefed on the investigation and work out details of the press conference. Maryann Margolies said she came away from the meeting feeling hopeful about her son's case.

"I was pleased," she said yesterday. "I am confident that through the efforts of this team we will reach some form of closure." Although they declined to disclose what will be announced, officials have compared the news conference to one held a decade ago concerning the 1975 Martha Moxley beating death.

In 1991, Chief State's Attorney John Bailey, flanked by local police officials, came to Greenwich to reveal that a re-investigation of the Moxley case had begun. Bailey also announced a doubling of the reward money for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the 15-year-old Greenwich girl's killer, as well as the establishment of a 24-hour tip line.

Seven years later, in 1998, and based on information gathered during the re- investigation, a grand jury was convened to further probe the crime and use its power to subpoena reluctant witnesses. After 18 months of work, the grand jury issued a report that was used in January 2000 to obtain an arrest warrant for Moxley's alleged killer, Michael Skakel.

It is expected that the officials on Thursday will announce an increase in the $30,000 reward that has been in place for the Margolies case.

Margolies was four months shy of his 14th birthday when, on Aug. 31, 1984, he was brutally slain in a wooded area off Pemberwick Road, not far from his home on Pilgrim Drive in a section of Glenville known as "The Valley." According to the autopsy report, Margolies had been stabbed over a dozen times and was suffocated by dirt the killer shoved down his throat. The boy's body was concealed under a pile of brush, rocks and leaves, and despite an extensive search was not found until Sept. 5

Eight people who either lived or worked in the Glenville area were identified as suspects during the initial investigation, police said, and all remain under suspicion.

The case was actively investigated through 1988, but as the killer's trail grew colder, leads trickled to a stop.

Then, in early 1999, two Greenwich detectives were assigned to conduct a complete re-investigation of the case. After a year of preliminary work, which included a careful review of the nearly 700-page case file, the detectives began conducting interviews in March 2000. Since then, state forensic scientists have been reviewing physical evidence in the case and testing is expected to begin soon.

More leads surfaced after Greenwich Time in early September published a five- part series about the Margolies case, which included many previously unreported details obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. A month later, Greenwich police applied to have the case assigned to the state cold case unit.

Anyone with information about the Margolies case can call Greenwich detectives Timothy Duff , at 622-8080, or Gary Hoffkins, at 622-8037, or e-mail the state cold case squad at: cold.case@po.state.ct.us.

01/01/01 2000 Year in Review: Police make gains in unsolved cases

By J.A. Johnson Jr. - Greenwich Time

The year 2000 began with an arrest in a 25-year-old Greenwich murder mystery, and it came to and end with a local man being charged with homicide only a day after allegedly committing the crime.

In between the arrests of accused killers Michael Skakel in January and Joseph Benton in December, 2000 saw new life breathed into the investigation of another long unsolved Greenwich murder, that of 13-year-old Glenville resident Matthew Margolies in 1984.

Others who find themselves in this, the least enviable of Greenwich year-end compilations, include Blane Nordahl, who in October was sent to prison nearly five years after his arrest for breaking into the Greenwich residence of Ivana Trump and into the homes of other rich or famous victims; and William P. Benedict Jr., who in September pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the driving death of a promising young Greenwich woman.

Another notable in the Year In Crime review is former Greenwich resident Martin Frankel. He was more in the news a year earlier, when his alleged fraud scheme that authorities said was used to embezzle more than $200 million from insurance companies dominated local headlines and was news around the nation. But after fleeing the country in May 1999 and being caught as a fugitive in Hamburg, Germany, four months later, Frankel spent all of 2000 languishing in a German prison cell awaiting his expected extradition to the U.S. to face dozens of federal and state charges ranging from racketeering to money laundering.

As 1999 ended, there was an air of great expectancy concerning whether an arrest would finally be made in connection with the Halloween Eve 1975 slaying of Greenwich teenager Martha Moxley. In December 1999, a Bridgeport grand jury completed an 18-month investigation into the 15-year-old girl's death and issued a report that on Jan. 18 was used to arrest Michael Skakel. At his arraignment three months later, as he waited his turn to file out of a packed Stamford courtroom, Skakel stunned the victim's mother when he walked up to Dorthy Moxley and said, "Dorthy, I feel your pain, but you've got the wrong guy."

The events led to a summer of more courtroom drama, beginning with a hearing lasting several days to determine whether there was sufficient evidence for Skakel to stand trial. After hearing from witnesses who claimed to have heard Skakel confess to the crime, Judge Maureen Dennis ruled in a courtroom packed with journalists from around the world that Skakel's case was indeed headed to trial.

But, as 2000 comes to a close, it remains unresolved whether 40-year-old Skakel will be tried as a juvenile before a juvenile court judge or as an adult before a jury of his peers for a crime he allegedly committed when he was 15 years old. A hearing to address the issue of the proper trial venue was held in October, and Judge Dennis has until mid-February to make her ruling.

Earlier this month, on Dec. 9, firefighters responded to a house fire at 37 Prospect St. in central Greenwich. No one was believed to be home at the time, but, as investigators picked through the smoldering rubble, they found behind a shut bathroom door the body of 22-year-old William DeWitt Romig. It was determined the fire had been deliberately set by one of Romig's six housemates, 42-year-old Joseph Benton, who was charged with arson murder.

In a confession to police, Benton said he lit a couch on fire because he was angry with his landlord over the $1,200 monthly rent he was being charged. Said by his attorney to be mildly retarded, Benton is to undergo a competency hearing Tuesday in state Superior Court in Stamford. If found competent to stand trial, Benton would face a possible sentence of life without parole if convicted.

On Sept. 26, 20-year-old William P. Benedict Jr. pleaded guilty to manslaughter in what authorities had called the alcohol-related automobile accident on Cat Rock Road that killed one of the three other teens Benedict had been driving home from a party early the morning of July 24, 1999. The victim was Monique Da Lan, an 18-year-old Greenwich High School graduate and National Honor Society member who was looking forward to returning to Loyola College for her sophomore year.

Benedict had been arrested on two counts of manslaughter, one count of which was dismissed because conviction would have hinged on a legal finding of intoxication. Benedict's blood-alcohol level at the time of the accident was 0.09, just below the legal limit of 0.10. Under the remaining manslaughter count, he had faced a possible 10 years in prison, but under a plea agreement, the prosecution will ask a Superior Court judge to sentence Benedict to six years in prison, and suspend that sentence after three years. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 8.

The end of the Nordahl saga came perhaps fittingly in a year that saw Greenwich burglaries at a 10-year low. Greenwich historically has attracted the best among the criminal class because of its wealth, and from time to time burglars who go on costly breaking-and-entering sprees are given nicknames by police, the media, or both. The latest in this spectrum of notoriety that includes the Dinnertime Bandit, Coastal Bandits and Social Register Bandits, is Blane Nordahl, dubbed Burglar to the Stars.

While others who preceded him snuck into backcountry mansions while residents were busy having supper, or arrived at their waterfront targets in Zodiac inflatable boats, or culled victims from the Social Register, Nordahl's specialty was ripping off his wealthy victims sterling silver service items. Among the loot taken from the 40-room Vista Drive mansion of Ivana Trump, ex-wife of real estate billionaire Donald Trump, were 24 silver dinner plates worth $30,000, 12 antique French show plates worth $14,000, and 32 pairs of salt and pepper shakers valued at $120 each.

Altogether, authorities have said, Nordahl admitted to stealing silver items worth more than $500,000 in the seven Greenwich burglaries he committed between August 1995 and August 1996. He is believed to have stolen millions more in break-ins all along the East Coast - including the homes of rock star Bruce Springsteen and sportscaster Curt Gowdy - until his spree came to an end in October 1996, when arrested on a Greenwich warrant in his native Wisconsin.

Much legal wrangling and confusion over a plea bargain stalled judgment day for the 38-year-old defendant, who was finally sentenced Oct. 26 in federal court in Central Islip, N.Y. When ordering Nordahl to a prison term of five years, U.S. District Judge Jacob Mishler credited Nordahl with "time served," meaning the burglar can be freed as early as this October.

When he fled his Lake Avenue mansion in May 1999 with suitcases full of cash and diamonds - assets which authorities said were products of money laundering - Martin Frankel was several steps ahead of federal investigators who were zeroing in on Frankel's Liberty National Securities, the bogus brokerage firm Frankel allegedly used to funnel more than $200 million in embezzled assets from nearly a dozen insurance companies in seven states.

But it was other players in Frankel's alleged criminal enterprise who made headlines in 2000, most significantly Tennessee businessman John Hackney, who on Sept. 22 admitted in U.S. District Court in New Haven to having acted as Frankel's front man in diverting more than $200 million in stolen insurance funds through Liberty National Securities and into Frankel's Swiss bank accounts. Hackney, 51, had been installed by his alleged co-conspirator as head of each of the insurance companies which Frankel secretly controlled.

Hackney pleaded guilty to racketeering and money laundering for his role in Frankel's scheme, and he could be sent to prison for as long as 40 years when sentenced March 14.

Crime related stories are almost never positive, but developments that arose during 2000 concerning the unsolved 1984 murder of 13-year-old Matthew Margolies of Pilgrim Drive in Glenville could hardly be seen as anything but encouraging.

After years of dormancy, the homicide probe was revived when two Greenwich police detectives were assigned to reinvestigate the case on nearly a full-time basis. Police officials said there had been no new leads that caused them to revive the investigation, but the Margolies murder was so brutal, and many advances in forensic science had been made in the past 16 years, that they thought it was worth the time and effort to try to solve the case.

Then in September, Greenwich Time published a series of stories on the Margolies case, based on interviews, the autopsy report, and previously unreleased police reports obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The stories contained information about the crime itself as well as the eight "key" suspects that detectives had identified and other facts never before made public. Previously, police had only publicly said that five days after Margolies disappeared his body was found in a shallow grave about a mile from his house in Glenville's Pemberwick section, and that the boy had died as a result of multiple stab wounds and asphyxiation. As a result of the newspaper's series, the public found out just how brutal the murder had been, that not only had Margolies been stabbed more than a dozen times, but there was evidence of torture as well. According to the autopsy report, a stick and dirt were forced down the victim's throat - while he was still alive.

One theory investigators have been pursuing is that the murderer was a teenager who lived near Margolies and possibly held a grudge against the victim for having blamed Margolies for telling police about a marijuana patch he was growing along the Byram River. At the time of the fatal Aug. 31, 1984, confrontation, according to the theory, the murderer was possibly under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug.

About a month later, in mid-October, a state investigative unit that specializes in old, unsolved homicides agreed to assist the Greenwich Police Department with the Margolies case. The "cold case" unit operating out of the chief state's attorney's office in Rocky Hill assigned a squad - consisting of a veteran homicide investigator, prosecutor and forensic scientist - to coordinate efforts with the two local detectives on the case.

Greenwich Police Chief Peter Robbins and Deputy Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano both confirmed the combined state and local effort would involve the forensic testing of physical evidence, but they would not be specific.

News of the state's involvement in the case had been greeted with great enthusiasm by the victim's mother.

"I think it's a very positive move," Maryann Margolies said in an Oct. 31 interview. "The Greenwich police are asking for a fresh pair of eyes to look over the material, to look over the evidence, and maybe they'll see something or find something by looking at it from a different perspective."

11/05/00 New hope for the Margolies case

By J.A. Johnson Jr. - Greenwich Time

Chiu San Wong didn't understand the English command to "lie still," so when he looked up at the men who were robbing the Fortune Restaurant, Wong was fatally shot.

A year after the robbery-murder occurred in New Britain in March 1997 local police found themselves at a dead end - the same place Greenwich police seemed to be in their probe of the 1984 murder of 13-year-old Matthew Margolies.

None of the customers in the restaurant could identify the gunman because he and his two accomplices wore ski masks. The only evidence recovered from the crime scene was the bullet that killed the 26-year-old restaurant worker.

"There comes a point in an investigation where leads dry up," New Britain police Capt. Michael Sullivan said. "The case was just kind of sitting there."

Then, in 1998, New Britain detectives teamed up with a squad from the newly formed cold case unit operating out of the chief state's attorney's office in Rocky Hill. The joint effort led to new approaches to investigating the crime and, ultimately, arrests of the alleged gunman and two accomplices.

Greenwich police are hoping for a similar outcome in the Margolies murder investigation now that the state cold case unit is assisting.

"I think they think it can be solved, so we're happy," Police Chief Peter Robbins said last week.

The Greenwich Police Department earlier this year assigned two officers full-time to re-investigate the Aug. 31, 1984, stabbing and suffocation murder of Margolies. Those officers, Sgt. Timothy Duff and Detective Gary Hoffkins, are now coordinating their efforts with the state cold case squad.

New Britain detectives investigating the Fortune Restaurant homicide informed their new partners that they had tried unsuccessfully to match the recovered bullet to a gun through the state police ballistics identification system. But the computerized system was not networked with other state's databases, so the search for the gun used to kill Wong was limited to Connecticut, Sullivan said.

The prosecutor assigned to the cold case squad for the Wong murder, Assistant State's Attorney Joan Alexander, suggested that the bullet be run through the Integrated Ballistics Identification System, a national database shared by 28 states.

The investigative team agreed to give IBIS a try, and brought the bullet that killed Wong to New Jersey, which is part of the IBIS network. There they got a hit - the bullet appeared to have come from the same gun used in another robbery-murder, in Patterson, N.J., for which an arrest had been made.

"There was a brainstorming process," Sullivan said. "Alexander devoted a lot of her time to this case looking into other forensic avenues. It helps to have extra eyes" looking at a cold case.

The man in custody in New Jersey, Gino Gentile, was subsequently identified as the shooter by the cold case squad, and earlier this year Gentile agreed to be extradicted to Connecticut to stand trial after his trial for the double homicide in Patterson is over. Once Gentile was identified, the cold case squad was able to track down and charge his two alleged accomplices.

The state's cold case unit is headed up by Deputy Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano, who said the four prosecutors and six inspectors who work full-time for the unit are investigating 17 old homicides, including that of Margolies.

"One of our inspectors, who retired from the Hartford Police Department, has over 300 homicide cases under his belt," said Morano, a Greenwich native.

The prosecutor said the unit "borrows" veteran homicide detectives from New Haven, Hartford and other large cities when they are needed.

"Our approach is to utilize the detectives that have worked on the case from the local department and have them work as a team with the attorneys and inspectors from the prosecutor's office who are able to provide their legal and investigative experience," Morano said.

When the state unit accepts a case for investigation, the case is assigned to a squad that is composed of a prosecutor, a state inspector, and at least one detective from the local police department.

In addition to the homicide experts, the cold case unit is assisted by the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory in Meriden, which Morano called "one of the best forensic labs in the country." Although badly backlogged with cases, the laboratory will expedite evidence analysis when the request comes from Morano, the state's second-highest-ranking prosecutor.

Another benefit the unit enjoys is that Dr. Henry Lee, the pre-eminent forensic scientist who retired this year as Connecticut's public safety commissioner, has signed on as an unpaid consultant.

"I'm probably the luckiest cold case prosecutor in the country - I have Dr. Lee's cell phone number and can call on him any time," Morano said. "He's always willing to help and to view things when we need it."

Another of the cold case unit's success stories involves the 1973 stabbing murder of Concetta "Penney" Serra in a downtown New Haven parking garage.

After an on-again off-again investigation that saw the emergence of three suspects - one of whom was exonerated through blood evidence on the eve of his trial - the Serra murder languished in the case files of the New Haven Police Department until pressure from the 21-year-old victim's family prompted the chief state's attorney's office to take it over.

Again using advanced methods of forensic science, members of the cold case squad last year secured an arrest warrant charging 57-year-old Edward Grant of Waterbury with Serra's murder.

The victim's sister, Rosemary Serra, praised the cold case unit for their diligence and compassion.

"This group of individuals the state has put together is a Godsend for these unsolved crimes," Sera said. "To put closure to my sister's case is their first and foremost objective."

Anyone with information about the Margolies case or any other unsolved homicide can contact the state's cold case unit by e-mail at: cold.case@po.state.ct.us.

11/01/00 State unit takes up Margolies case

By J.A. Johnson Jr.

A state investigative unit that specializes in old, unsolved homicides has agreed to help the Greenwich Police Department in its reinvestigation of the 1984 Matthew Margolies murder case.

Police Chief Peter Robbins yesterday said his request for assistance from the state's "cold case squad" was accepted in early October, and a meeting was planned for later this week at which local and state detectives will discuss possible strategies.

"I think they think it can be solved, so we're happy about that," Robbins said of the unit's involvement with the Margolies case. "We'll know better where things are going after we meet this week."

News of this latest development in the long unsolved murder mystery was greeted enthusiastically by the mother of the 13-year-old Glenville boy who was fatally stabbed and suffocated in woods less than a mile from his Pilgrim Drive home on Aug. 31, 1984.

"I think it's a very positive move," Maryann Margolies said yesterday. "The Greenwich police are asking for a fresh pair of eyes to look over the material, to look over the evidence, and maybe they'll see something or find something by looking at it from a different perspective."

The cold case unit operates out of the chief state's attorney's office in Rocky Hill, under the direction of Deputy Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano. The unit is divided into several squads, each supervised by a prosecutor and staffed by state inspectors who are seasoned homicide investigators.

When a local police department refers a case to the state unit, it also provides at least one, but usually two, of its detectives.

"The goal is to combine all those resources to give cold cases a thorough examination from all different angles," Morano said. "It's a team effort."

Sgt. Timothy Duff and Detective Gary Hoffkins, the two Greenwich officers who began a reinvestigation of the Margolies murder earlier this year, will be working closely with the state unit, Robbins said.

Morano, a native of Greenwich who is now the second-highest ranking prosecutor in the state, cautioned against any undue expectations that the Margolies case will be solved as a result of his unit's involvement.

"I want to stress that this is going to be a long and tedious process, and a majority of cold cases are not solved," he said.

Morano said that only seven of the more than 20 cold cases his unit has examined since its formation in 1998 have resulted in arrests.

Nevertheless, he said the cold case unit agrees to take on an investigation only when there appears to be a chance to solve it.

"It has to be something where we believe there are areas where that can be examined, say, forensically or suspect-wise," Morano said. "There has to be a real reason to rehash the case. If something's already been rehashed to death, and there's no fodder for further investigation, then probably we won't get involved."

Neither state or local officials would cite specific reasons why the Margolies case was a good candidate for acceptance by the state unit.

However, it was previously reported by Greenwich Time that new leads and potential witnesses had surfaced after the newspaper published a series of stories about the Margolies case in September. The stories, based on interviews, the autopsy report and police records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, contained information about the murder, suspects and other facts never before made public.

It was also learned from police that some of the new leads detectives were pursuing involved information that one of eight "key" suspects - a teenager who lived near Margolies and possibly held a grudge against the victim - may have ingested multiple doses of a hallucinogenic drug the day of the murder. Originally thought to have been sexually motivated, police are now examining whether the murder may have been committed by someone under the influence of drugs.

Robbins and Morano also indicated that the combined state and local effort will involve testing of physical evidence by forensic scientists, but they would not provide details.

10/08/00 Police probe role of drugs in Margolies murder

By J.A. Johnson Jr. - Greenwich Time

Investigators of a long unsolved Greenwich murder are examining the role drugs may have played in the killing of 13-year-old Matthew Margolies in 1984.

The detectives who began a re-investigation of the case earlier this year are looking into information that one of the suspects may have been under the influence of a hallucinogen on the afternoon of Aug. 31, 1984, the day Margolies was tortured and brutally murdered in the woods about a mile from his Pilgrim Drive home.

Police last month revealed detectives were tracking down new leads that could help them to pin down the whereabouts of one or more suspects the day of the crime, but they would not elaborate. Greenwich Time has learned that some of those leads involved information that a suspect may have ingested multiple doses of mescaline the day Matthew was slain.

Deputy Chief James Walters, commanding officer of the Greenwich Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division, refused comment when asked about the role drugs may have played in the murder. However, he did say that investigators suspect the crime may not have been premeditated.

"There is the possibility that the initial intent of the perpetrator was not murder, but it got to that stage as things spiraled out of control," Walters said this week.

One premeditation theory is that the murder may have been sexually motivated, possibly committed by a pedophile who knew Matthew and targeted him. Although there was no evidence of a sexual assault, that Matthew had been stripped to his under shorts and died from an "overkill" of multiple stab wounds and asphyxiation were among the reasons investigators had considered an FBI profiler's theory that the crime was sexual in nature.

Police Chief Peter Robbins seemed to discount that theory last month, when he said a sexually motivated murderer would likely feel compelled to kill again, but that "no similar crimes have been committed anywhere else" before or after the Margolies murder.

Another theory investigators explored is that the murder was not premeditated, but began as a confrontation that rapidly escalated because the assailant was both angry at the victim and under the influence of drugs.

In addition to being stabbed over a dozen times, mostly in the upper torso but also in the neck, Matthew had dirt and a stick forced down his throat while still alive. He was strangled with his own T-shirt and one of his socks was used to gag his mouth.

The teenager's body was concealed beneath a pile of rocks, tree branches and leaves on a wooded hillside between Pemberwick Road and Greenway Drive. The murder also occurred at that location, police said.

Charles Bahn, a forensic psychologist who reviewed the Margolies case for Greenwich Time, said the nature of the attack pointed more toward someone seeking to settle a score with the victim than being sexually motivated.

"There are patterns consistent with different kinds of motivations, and very often a very large number of multiple wounds - 30, 40 stab wounds, or more - implies a motive to obliterate an individual, wanting to literally cut them into pieces," the John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor said. "In certain sexual crimes, where the sexuality that occurred is repugnant to the doer, it produces feelings of disgust and shame, and one way to deal with that is to obliterate the victim.

"But you don't have that in this case," added Bahn, who has consulted on homicide cases for the New York City Police Department and lectures on psychological profiling of criminals at the FBI National Academy. "The number of wounds and their locations implies not only some torturing, but a revenge motivation, with the person's thinking being the victim should hurt as much as he made me hurt."

Bahn based his conclusions on details from news accounts, as well as details from the Margolies murder case file and autopsy report that were recently obtained by Greenwich Time. An edited version of the case file was given to the newspaper in a settlement brokered by the state Freedom of Information Commission.

Of the eight "key" suspects Greenwich police identified in their extensive investigation of the Margolies murder, one is thought to have had a possible revenge motive. According to police, the then-17-year-old suspect may have harbored a grudge against Matthew for having informed on him for cultivating a marijuana patch in the Glenville neighborhood known as The Valley, where both the victim and suspect lived.

According to Bahn, the dirt the killer forced down Matthew's throat may be symbolic of the motive.

"One way of looking at it is the victim was regarded as a person whose mouth was filled with dirt, who said bad and nasty things," the psychologist said. "But there's another way, and it has a semantic relationship: 'You opened your mouth, and now I'm going to make you eat dirt.' "

John Douglas, then a special agent with the FBI Behavioral Science Unit, concluded in a psychological profile he developed for Greenwich police in October 1984 that Matthew knew his attacker, and that the killer "demonstrated extensive personal anger and rage."

The suspect who police believe may have had a revenge motive, Greenwich Time has learned, is being examined by investigators for possibly having taken two or more "hits" of mescaline the afternoon of the murder, which police pinpoint between 6 and 6:30 p.m.

Mescaline, the chemical derivative of peyote, is a powerful hallucinogen that induces a sense of unreality, according to Patrick McAuliffe, executive director of the Connecticut Renaissance Inc. drug treatment program. The effects of mescaline are unpredictable, and vary with individual users, he said, but high doses of the drug can cause violent behavior.

"The wound pattern" on Matthew's body "suggests not only a revenge motive, but also someone who was out of control," Bahn said. "If taking multiple doses of mescaline, (the killer) may have been living in a fantasy world, and people on drugs have feelings of personal grandiosity and lose inhibitions against certain types of behavior."

If Matthew had been murdered out of revenge by someone high on a hallucinogen, then remarkable parallels could be drawn between that crime and another that occurred in New York two months earlier.

In June 1984, in the Long Island community of Northport, 17-year-old Ricky Kasso was reputed to be holding a grudge against friend Gary Lauwers, also 17, whom he had accused of stealing drugs. The prosecutor in the case, William Keahon, said Kasso and co-defendant James Troiano, 18, lured Lauwers into a wooded area of Northport in order to confront him about the theft.

"They had a camp fire going, and they got the victim up there by telling him they were going to share drugs with him," said Keahon, a former Suffolk County district attorney. Keahon said the confrontation quickly got out of hand because Kasso and Troiano were "tripping" on mescaline.

Keahon said the incident began with Kasso and Troiano yelling at Lauwers, but then Kasso began beating the victim and then used a pocket knife to repeatedly stab Lauwers, gouging out the victim's eyes in the process. Lauwers' body, which was concealed in a shallow grave covered with leaves, was not found until two weeks later.

"They did want to do something to Mr. Lauwers, but not with the intention of killing him," said Keahon, now in private practice in Islandia, N.Y.

The former prosecutor said the multiple doses of mescaline Kasso had taken influenced his aggressive and bizarre behavior. "From the experts I spoke with, even a small amount takes you out of reality," he said. "It releases any inhibitions you might have as a human being."

Kasso died two days after his arrest, when he hung himself in his jail cell. Troiano, charged as an accomplice, was acquitted at trial.

Troiano's attorney, Eric Naiburg, agreed the initial intent of the confrontation had not been to murder Lauwers, and when things got out of control it was unclear whether Kasso realized what he was doing when stabbing the victim.

"I remember my client asking me, 'Mr. Naiburg, when the trees are melting and the stars are racing across the sky, it's hard to know what's real and what's not,' " Naiburg said. "So you just don't know what their perceptions are. Were they killing a human being? You can't rely on what their perceptions were at the time."

John Hamilton, a licensed drug abuse counselor, said an encounter between a person high on mescaline and someone he perceives has wronged him has the potential for ending in violence.

"There is no doubt that whatever existing issues a person has can be greatly exacerbated by the mescaline," said Hamilton, senior vice president for the Stamford-based LMG Programs Inc. substance abuse treatment program. "The person might even become actively psychotic and lose control if the mescaline has exacerbated a pre-existing condition."

09/19/00 Press reports on Margolies case prompt new leads

By J.A. Johnson Jr. - Greenwich Time

The publication of newly released details about the murder of Glenville teenager Matthew Margolies nearly two decades ago has resulted in new and potentially valuable information, police said yesterday.

Those details, contained in a series of stories by Greenwich Time earlier this month, prompted some readers to come forward with previously unreported information about the activities of one or more suspects on Aug. 31, 1984, the day Margolies, 13, was believed to have been tortured and killed in a wooded area near the Byram River, according to police.

Police said a better understanding of a suspect's actions before and after the murder could help detectives more closely link a suspect to the crime. Few details about the new information were released.

The stories, based on 610 pages of police reports the newspaper obtained after filing a Freedom of Information Act complaint, gave the public the first detailed glimpse of the brutal nature of the murder and subsequent investigation, the most extensive Greenwich police said they had ever undertaken.

"It's generated a lot of activity for our investigators," Police Chief Peter Robbins said of the news articles. "We've gotten some new information from people we've heard from before, and other information has come from people we've never heard from."

Robbins would not be specific about the new information, except to say some of it concerned "the whereabouts at certain times" on the day of the murder of one or more of the eight suspects in the case.

The Margolies murder investigation was reactivated in March, when two detectives were assigned to the case on a full-time basis. According to Robbins, the detectives are now in the process of following up on the new information.

Greenwich Time had requested a copy of the Margolies murder case file from the Police Department in October, and when the request was denied a complaint was lodged with the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission. The complaint was withdrawn in June, under an FOIC-brokered settlement, in which police agreed to release reports from the Margolies case file with suspects' names and other information deemed crucial for the investigation blacked out.

Although heavily edited, it is clear from the released police reports the investigation has focused on the following suspects:

A 32-year-old maintenance worker and suspected pedophile who a year before Margolies was murdered allegedly assaulted a 16-year-old male jogger in the woods along the Byram River.

A 16-year-old boy known as a neighborhood bully who knew the victim and had roughed up Margolies weeks before the murder. He was arrested a month before Margolies was murdered for allegedly assaulting another 13-year-old boy, and had pulled a knife on another neighborhood boy in an incident that went unreported.

A 16-year-old occasional fishing companion of Margolies who once told someone that he would like to "ditch that little bastard," and whose activities the day of the murder have been questioned by detectives.

A 17-year-old boy from Margolies' neighborhood who was thought to have had a revenge motive because he blamed the victim for telling police about marijuana plants he had grown and was subsequently arrested.

A 38-year-old man who worked in Glenville who might have been familiar with the victim and whose activities shortly after the murder were viewed as suspicious.

A suspected pedophile in his late 20s who drove a red pick-up truck similar to one witnesses said they saw near the crime scene just prior to Margolies' murder.

A 47-year-old man who had aroused the suspicion of state police while being questioned about a series of shootings along Interstate 95.

A man in his 50s who lived in Margolies' neighborhood and had a history of criminal violence.

09/16/00 Series renews talk of Margolies murder

By Cameron D. Martin - Greenwich Time

Sixteen years ago, residents regularly came together at Pemberwick X-Change to share information and commiserate in the wake of the murder of 13-year-old Matthew Margolies.

Last week, after publication of a four-part Greenwich Time series on the search for the boy, the discovery of his murder, and the investigation that followed, the unsolved murder was once again the focus of talk at the Pemberwick Road deli, as regulars discussed information previously unknown to them, according to owner Steve Pugliese.

"Everybody was trying to pull things from their memory banks, to see if they could make any new connections," said Pugliese, 47, who lives on Pemberwick Road, about one mile south of where Matthew's mutilated body was discovered on a wooded hillside Sept. 5, 1984.

Copies of last week's newspaper series sold out quickly at his store each morning, Pugliese said, as he and others read about previously unknown aspects of the story.

"I thought three suspects, not eight," said Pugliese, who thought he had gone to school with one of the suspects, who were described but not named by police. "I don't think anyone was aware there were that many suspects they could build a solid case against. It would seem they all had a means and a motive."

Greenwich police have said that is one of the reasons the case is so difficult to solve.

Matthew, well-known in his close-knit western Greenwich neighborhood known as "The Valley," disappeared Aug. 31, 1984. His body was discovered five days later beneath a pile of rocks, branches and leaves in a wooded area about a mile from his Pilgrim Drive home. He had been stripped to his undershorts, stabbed over a dozen times with a knife, and suffocated with dirt that was forced down his throat.

The brutal slaying of the teenager shocked the seemingly safe neighborhood and began a massive investigation. No arrests were made nor was a prime suspect publicly named. In recent years, the investigation slowed as all leads were exhausted and no new information developed.

Greenwich Time sought to take an in-depth look at the file in order to present a detailed, public summary of the case and the investigation. An agreement for release of the file was reached through the office of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission, and Greenwich Police opened much of the file while keeping some names and details confidential to protect its investigation.

In last week's four-part series, the description of eight suspects was made available to the public for the first time. Along with details of the brutal murder, the list of suspects, although they were nameless, heightened awareness of the crime within the Pemberwick community, Pugliese said.

No new information in the Margolies case has been announced by Greenwich police since the conclusion of the series, and Police Chief Peter Robbins did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

Yet reference to the case by renowned criminal forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee during a speech at Greenwich High School Monday, and other information - mostly in the form of sentiments and condolences posted on the Margolies Web site - keeps the case fresh in the minds of residents.

"My daughter was over at Hay Day (Country Market) in Riverside last week, and there were some people there who were talking about it, and commenting about how they didn't know the whole case had gone to the extent that it had," Judy Moretti, 58, a longtime Pemberwick resident, said Wednesday. "I think most people outside our neighborhood remembered it as a kid missing, not what came afterwards."

On Monday, Dr. Lee told a Greenwich High School crowd that trace evidence found at the scene of Matthew Margolies' murder could yield a connection to a suspect. Lee, who until April served as Connecticut's public safety commissioner and has been involved in the renewed investigation through his work at the state crime lab, declined to say what that evidence might be.

"What was found at the murder site I call trace or transfer evidence," Lee said Monday. "Sometimes that can be very good and you can make a connection. But I can't really discuss any active case."

Town residents, from Pemberwick in particular, need time to absorb the information made available to them recently, Moretti said.

"It's been a good wake-up call for the public," Moretti said. "I think we have to sift through things and see if anyone remembers anything."

Matthew Margolies' mother, Maryann, said Wednesday that in the past week she has received numerous messages posted on the Web site devoted to the case of her son's murder, www.MatthewMargolies.com. The public, she said, is more aware of the case since the recent release of information.

"I think that there's a heightened awareness in the general public of what's happened, and that's good," Margolies said. "I certainly remain optimistic to come to some sort of closure on this and intend to see things through."

One message posted to the Web site, from a Greenwich woman named "Lisa," reads: "We all need to back off the Greenwich Police Department a little bit. I am sure though it is 16 years later, that they have a pretty good idea as to who murdered Matthew. I think they just lack the evidence.

"With forensic science as it is today, they may already be running tests they were not able to do in 1984. Trust in the fact that there are people out there who know things the tiniest things that may help and trust that they are speaking up.

"Trust that the Greenwich Police Department are the only ones who can help Maryann now the only ones who can avenge Matthew's death. Let's pray for the Greenwich Police Department as well and wish the nightmare to its end."

09/12/00 Dr. Henry Lee gives forensic, life lessons

By Martin B. Cassidy - Greenwich Time

Trace evidence found at the scene of 13-year-old Matthew Margolies' murder could yield a connection to a suspect, renowned criminal forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee last night told a crowd gathered at Greenwich High School.

Lee was referring to the brutal, unsolved murder of Pemberwick teenager Matthew Margolies on Aug. 31, 1984. The investigation into the slaying has been renewed by Greenwich police and has involved the examination of trace evidence by Lee, who until April served as Connecticut's public safety commissioner. Lee last night declined to say what that evidence might be.

Lee's presentation was the kickoff of the fall Greenwich Continuing Education program, and attracted about 150 residents, police officers and crime buffs.

"What was found at the murder site I call trace or transfer evidence," Lee said. "Sometimes that can be very good and you can make a connection. But I can't really discuss an active case."

Lee's comments came at the start of a biographical presentation at Greenwich High School. Lee, who was not paid for his appearance, was selected to give the address because of his role in advancements in the use of forensic DNA testing in solving crimes.

Lee, 61, retired from his state post to focus on the more than 800 open murder investigations he is assisting in nationwide. He maintains the title of chief emeritus with the state and still works in the state lab in Meriden.

With considerable humor, Lee last night narrated a slide show that touched on his early family life and police career in China; his favorite sayings and axioms; and his forensic career, including his testimony during the O.J. Simpson murder trial and his contribution to the Jon Benet Ramsey murder investigation.

Lee was born into a wealthy family in Taiwan in 1938 during a Communist uprising in China. After his family was stripped of its possessions, his father drowned under mysterious circumstances, leaving his mother to raise 13 children.

Unable to afford college tuition, Lee said he enrolled in Taiwan's police academy, graduating at the top of his class and becoming the youngest police captain in China at the age of 22.

"I cheated on all my exams. If you finished at the top of your class you were made a captain," Lee said to laughter. "My mother has always pushed me to work harder. I don't know how she did it, but we all got our educations."

Wanting to learn more about criminal science, Lee came to New York City and worked three jobs to pay for classes at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and to earn a doctorate in biochemistry from New York University. Lee said during this period he worked, studied or went to class 18 to 20 hours a day, typing all his term papers on a toy typewriter and giving kung fu lessons to earn extra cash.

Throughout last night's presentation, Lee called on audience members to answer science questions and rewarded correct answers with plastic Connecticut state trooper badges.

"In this world there are two ways to make it," Lee said. "One is to be named Rockefeller or Kennedy. The other is to work hard. It's not surprising which one I chose."

Lee ruefully joked about the calls he receives in the middle of the night when he would rather sleep, and showed a disturbing photograph of a man who died of a drug overdose to remind the audience of the value of life.

"If this man had another chance, he would probably say he wouldn't do drugs," Lee said. "Sometimes God only gives us one chance. We must teach children to cherish life."

Greenwich High School junior Joshua Mertz, 16, attended Lee's lecture and said he will take an introductory forensic science course next semester.

"I wish we had more talks like this during school," Mertz said. "I was pretty surprised at how funny it was. When I heard he was coming here to speak, I just had to go."

Greenwich Police Officer Pier Corticelli said he was struck by Lee's emphasis on striving for excellence.

"It makes you want to work harder and do better," Corticelli said. "The talk gave you a lot of history and personality."

Although retired, Lee said he still works 17-hour days because he loves criminal forensics. Lee closed the evening by telling the audience to be successful they must balance hard work, family and friends, and their spirituality.

"The master of the art of living is the man who makes his work his play and keeps his labor the same as his leisure," Lee said.

09/11/00 LETTER TO THE EDITOR

To The Editor Of The Greenwich Time.

Dear Mr. Pisani:

I would like to acknowledge the Greenwich Time in their efforts to report the material made available to them by the Greenwich Police Department through the Freedom of Information Commission.

Deserving of special recognition is Joe Johnson, staff reporter. He has demonstrated great sensitivity not only towards Matthew as a person, but also toward us, Matthew's family.

In reporting the information at hand, a sense of dignity has been maintained. It is this dignity which is of so much importance to me as Matthew's mother.

I hold great pride in being a member of such a caring community. And it is also
reassuring to know that our local newspaper exhibits such fine journalism.

I am forever and always,

Matthew's Mom
September 10, 2000

09/08/00 Analysis of a homicide investigation; where does the Matthew Margolies murder case go from here?

Police look for break in unsolved case
By Cameron Martin - Greenwich Time

Though the 1984 murder of Matthew Margolies remains unsolved, investigators need look no further than the case of Martha Moxley to know breaks can come years, even decades, after a crime is committed.

Retired Greenwich police Chief William Andersen, who initially headed the Margolies murder investigation as captain of detectives, says the recent developments in the Moxley murder case should hearten investigators frustrated by the Margolies slaying.

Andersen, who retired more than a decade ago, retains hope Matthew's murder will be solved and says his thoughts return regularly to the horrific crime committed Labor Day Weekend 1984.

Still, after 16 years, and countless leads and investigative interviews, Andersen and other officers familiar with the case say they share that common emotion: frustration.

"I certainly hope whoever is responsible, that it's weighing on their minds as much as the investigators,' " Andersen said.

Most Greenwich Police officers who were on the force in 1984, or have investigated the murder since, never knew Matthew Margolies. Lt. Ralph LoBalbo is an exception.

A patrolman assigned to the Glenville section of town from 1981 to 1986, LoBalbo was a familiar face to residents of Pemberwick, areas of which Matthew often fished with his grandfather, George Miazga.

Miazga, a longtime volunteer with the Glenville Fire Department, frequented the firehouse, often with his grandson in tow. LoBalbo said he knew them both, if only to say "hey."

"I knew who Matthew was, I knew he liked to go fishing," LoBalbo said. "When it was reported he was missing, I was concerned; he didn't seem the type of kid who would just run away."

Though officers say they considered the possibility that Matthew was distraught over the death of his grandfather, who died two weeks before Matthew's Aug. 31 disappearance, or, that he may have accidentally fallen into the water by one of his numerous fishing holes, they nevertheless say the search for a missing person was soon displaced by a notion of something more sinister.

"There was a collective thought throughout the community that something happened to the kid," LoBalbo said.

The night his mother reported him missing, even then Youth Officer Stephen Paulo suspected something far worse.

"When she called a little concerned, saying it was getting dark, I went right over," Paulo remembers. "It was a gut feeling with me."

Paulo said he immediately called the on-duty lieutenant and said, "Something's wrong with this."

From Aug. 31 until the afternoon of Sept. 5, Paulo, as youth officer, led the search for 13-year-old Matthew Margolies.

Scheduled to take a sergeant's exam the evening of Sept. 5, Paulo soon found his mind focused far from the prospect of promotion.

Notified in the afternoon that a body had been found in a wooded area on a hill overlooking Pemberwick Road, Paulo recalled, "I said, 'Well, let's go out and look.' "

Three weeks ago Paulo retraced the route he and other officers took Sept. 5, 1984.

"This was all undeveloped, all woods," he said, pointing to the apartment complex at 351 Pemberwick Road, just north of the crime scene.

Down the road a bit, hiking uphill through underbrush that has grown in since 1984, Paulo tried to recall the exact spot where Matthew's body was found.

What came to mind, instead, was the brutality of the crime scene.

Paulo had been searching the area with Fred Lambert and fellow Youth Officer Michael Panza. Lambert was the man who discovered the shoe and later the body of Matthew Margolies.

"After we saw the shoe, we said, 'Do you smell that?' I mean, you could smell (the decomposing body)," Paulo grimly recalls. "We knew we were close by."

And they were.

"Lambert says, 'Oh god,' " Paulo said. "Then we froze everything off."

There would be no sergeant's exam for Paulo on Sept. 5, 1984, as Greenwich Police undertook the investigation of the brutal mutilation murder of a 13-year-old boy.

"I was too wound up, (the investigation) meant a lot to me. I said, 'I'll take it next time.' "

Instead he was among the officers present when Maryann Margolies was told the fate of her only son and youngest child.

"I stayed there at the house for two days with her afterwards," he said.

Emotionally, officers have stayed with the case much longer. Though the two original detectives assigned to investigate the murder would not comment for this article, one of them, retired Detective Richard Haug, said in a May 1998 interview with Greenwich Time: "This case really affected me mentally - that a 13-year-old boy was brutally slain - and I really regretted it when I retired that we weren't able to solve it."

Andersen said he thinks about the Matthew Margolies case regularly,

"He's been in my prayers every Sunday since 1984," he said. "I'll never forget him, though I never met him."

Andersen now manages security for a local corporation. He was promoted to deputy chief soon after the murder and later rose to police chief - a path paralleled by present Police Chief Peter Robbins, who took over as captain of the detectives division after Andersen's promotion in Oct. 1984.

Round-the-clock commitment to the case equaled months of sleepless nights, the two recall.

The atmosphere was hectic at the police department in the months following the murder, Robbins said.

"We worked straight for four months, right through the holidays," he recalls. "We suffered a lot of frustration. We had 40 to 50 leads that looked like they had some potential. As you explored them, in time, they dissipated.

"We suffered a great deal of frustration, but you'd keep at it. We weren't sleeping much. It was 16- to 20-hour days right through the holidays that year. After we had just enough sleep we'd just get right back into it again."

The FBI drafted a psychological profile of the murderer of Matthew Margolies, concluding the assailant was someone familiar with the victim and the Pemberwick area. Robbins said the police department has conducted hundreds of interviews with that area's residents since 1984.

Is it likely the murderer was interviewed by police?

"It's possible," Robbins said. "I couldn't say with 100 percent certainty. We conducted hundreds and hundreds of interviews during the course of the investigation."

Confidence in finding the perpetrator has ebbed and flowed within the police department in the last 16 years, Robbins said. Right now he is balancing optimism with pessimism.

"I probably have a mixed feeling of confidence now. Unless some witness can come forth to point us in a particular direction, it's difficult to focus on a particular suspect, or suspects, but that doesn't mean we give up.

"We did everything that could possibly be done at that time, but it just didn't pull anything out of the woodwork, so to speak."

A Stamford judge recently decided Michael Skakel should stand trial for the 1975 slaying of Martha Moxley, both of whom were 15 years old at the time.

The judge's decision hinged upon the testimony of residents of an alcohol rehabilitation clinic Skakel attended in the years following the murder. Witnesses for the prosecution allege Skakel admitted to the murder, and a Juvenile Matters judge concluded there was enough evidence to proceed to trial, though it has yet to be determined whether the matter will be heard in juvenile or adult court.

Andersen said developments in the Moxley murder case, nearly a quarter century after the crime, provide hope that someone, "or someones," will ultimately be charged with the murder of Matthew Margolies.

"I have faith that someday it will be solved. The case is not going to go away. With the right breaks it will be solved.

"In situations like this you have to have faith, and I certainly do. I think we only need look into the recent past to see that that happens. Old cases are broken all the time."

09/08/00 16 years later, family waits for justice

By J.A. Johnson Jr. - Greenwich Time

Stella Miazga turned 84 last Friday, but she didn't really celebrate.

Sitting in the living room of her house on Morgan Avenue, the woman cheerfully accepted the love and best wishes of three generations of family that surrounded her - but real joy was not in her heart.

That's pretty much how it's been each of the 16 birthdays Miazga has observed since Sept. 1, 1984 - one day after 13-year-old grandson Matthew Margolies was reported missing, and four days before his mutilated body would be found in the woods up the road from Miazga's house.

"I miss Matthew terribly, and I wish he was here. I think about him all the time," Miazga said. "This (the murder) puts a real damper on my birthday. I just don't want to celebrate it."

When he was alive, Matthew was a constant presence in the Miazga household. Living just a few blocks away, on Pilgrim Drive, Matthew would always drop by the Miazgas, usually to go fishing with grandfather George. After George Miazga was diagnosed with cancer, Matthew began making extra visits to help care for his grandfather, who succumbed to his illness two weeks before Matthew was murdered.

"He was such a loving child," Stella Miazga said. "He cared for his grandfather when I went to work. Matthew would make his grandfather's breakfast and make sure he took his medication."

Miazga, who is in her 31st year as receptionist for the Greenwich-Laurelton Nursing & Convalescent Home, vowed: "I won't rest until the person who did this to Matthew is found."

The murder has gone unsolved this long not for lack of trying by authorities. The 610 pages of the Margolies case file recently obtained by Greenwich Time chronicle the most intensive criminal investigation ever undertaken by the Greenwich Police Department, an exhaustive effort to track down a sadistic killer who tortured, repeatedly stabbed, strangled and forced dirt and a stick down his victim's throat.

Police reports show how the investigation was guided by an FBI profiler, and physical evidence recovered at the crime scene was analyzed by one of the nation's preeminent forensic scientists, Dr. Henry Lee. Detectives canvassed the victim's neighborhood, known as The Valley - a working-class neighborhood along the banks of the Byram River in the Pemberwick section of Glenville - where they knocked on countless doors and interviewed hundreds of people looking for witnesses and possible leads.

Despite those efforts, the investigation does not appear to have resulted even in a circumstantial case against the killer or killers.

Police said they have eight "key suspects," but lack any evidence that directly links any of them to the Aug. 31, 1984 murder.

But both police and members of the Margolies family have found a new sense of optimism from an arrest earlier this year in another long-unsolved Greenwich murder case. The investigation of the 1975 Martha Moxley homicide, which culminated with the Jan. 19 arrest of former Moxley neighbor Michael Skakel, had been sustained for many years by circumstantial evidence that pointed toward members of Skakel's family.

"It certainly gives me hope in the justice system," Maryann Margolies, Matthew's mother, said of Skakel's arrest. "It's not that I've ever lost hope, it's just that (the arrest) shows that anything's possible."

Skakel, now 39, was one of the last persons seen with 15-year-old Moxley prior to her murder the evening of Oct. 30, 1975. The murder weapon was identified as a 6-iron from a set of golf clubs owned by Skakel's family, who lived across the street from the Moxleys in the town's Belle Haven neighborhood.

Those circumstances, coupled with alleged incriminating statements Skakel made years later, led to a Superior Court judge's finding last month that sufficient evidence exists for Skakel to stand trial.

As in the Moxley case, the weapon used to torture and murder Matthew Margolies was recovered at the crime scene - a 10 inch Foster Brothers knife, commonly used for de-boning fish and poultry. Police say they have been unable to determine where the knife came from, and have therefore been unable to begin circumstantially linking the weapon's owner to the crime.

Determining ownership of the knife would give police one of the three legs of a case - the means to commit murder, with the other two being opportunity and motive. Some of the key suspects appeared to have established solid alibis for their whereabouts when Matthew was killed, and so would apparently not have had an opportunity to commit the crime.

Whether all of the suspects had alibis that withstood scrutiny could not be determined from the heavily edited pages of the Margolies murder case file that were released.

And as for motive, the released reports appear to show that only one of the key suspects may have had a reason to murder Matthew - the 17-year-old neighborhood boy who was arrested for growing marijuana and apparently blamed Matthew for tipping off the police. This suspect also had been familiar with the hillside crime scene area, according to police, as he had also been arrested once for rolling logs from there into traffic on Pemberwick Road below.

The psychological profile the FBI developed a month after the murder concluded that Matthew's killer was familiar with the crime scene area and felt comfortable being there while committing the crime.

But that profile, a product of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, also provides another possible motive for the crime, one that could only be found deep within the killer's mind. The profile speculates the murder had been sexually motivated: while torturing Matthew, who had been stripped to his under shorts, and shoving dirt and a stick down the victim's throat while still alive, the killer was acting out a sexual fantasy.

Officials said that this type of killer would likely strike again. But according to Police Chief Peter Robbins, "No similar crimes have been committed anywhere else, so we're even more confident the murderer lived, and possibly still lives, locally."

Other than means, motive and opportunity, police would be able to make a case from physical evidence other than the murder weapon found at the crime scene. But this avenue of investigation was severely limited by the fact Matthew's body went undiscovered for five days.

"From the outset of the investigation we had complexities," Robbins lamented. "We had no eyewitnesses. The body wasn't located immediately, which hampered us. The elements - extreme heat and rain - had an impact on what trace evidence was left at the crime scene."

Trace evidence can be anything left at a crime scene by the killer, including hair, fibers, and bodily fluids. A medical examiner's report indicates fingernail scrapings and hairs were removed from Matthew's body during the autopsy.

"There were a number of hairs and fibers, et cetera," Robbins said. "But the crime scene was a literal dump, and it was contaminated by wild and domestic animals, so distinguishing what came from where was nearly impossible."

The hillside crime scene was behind a group of homes on Greenway Drive, where appliances, mattresses and other household refuse had been discarded.

There were other problems early on as well. A 1986 critique by a paid consultant praised the Police Department for a thorough and largely competent investigation, but it also noted the following missteps:

Despite indications Margolies' disappearance might be due to foul play, a detective was not assigned to the case until after the boy's body was found. This meant six days of investigative opportunities were lost.

Only one detective was given the opportunity to view the crime scene while it remained intact, which placed severe limits on different perspectives that could be brought to bear.

When officers were given assignments to assist with the homicide investigation, explanations of what those assignments meant to the probe were not given;

Sensitive information was given to the press, decreasing the amount of information that would only be known solely by Margolies' murderer, a crucial element when questioning suspects.

The new push in the Margolies case began in earnest in March of this year, when Sgt. Timothy Duff, who had recently completed specialized training in cold case investigations, and Detective Gary Hoffkins started re-interviewing witnesses and suspects. Assisting them is Richard Haug, a retired Greenwich detective and one of the original lead Margolies case investigators, who has been retained as a consultant. All three investigators declined comment.

In the year leading up to active stage of the re-investigation, in which much preliminary work was done, police had trace evidence re-examined by forensic scientists for possible DNA identification. They have not disclosed what, if any, results those efforts have produced. In fact, none of the reports generated by the current re-investigation were released to Greenwich Time.

The emergence of new physical evidence notwithstanding, police have not placed all of their eggs in the basket of forensic science.

"I don't want to leave the impression that this is the only opportunity we have to bring this case to a successful conclusion," Deputy Chief James Walters of the Criminal Investigations Division said of the new round of laboratory testing.

Another potential solution to the Margolies murder mystery could come in the form of an admission someone may have made concerning the murder. Having already had somewhat of a circumstantial case against Michael Skakel, it was only after people began coming forward with recollections of admissions to the Martha Moxley murder that authorities sought the grand jury that ultimately issued a report that was used to obtain an arrest warrant.

The Margolies investigators are hoping for a similar break.

"The murderer could have made a slip or established a relationship with someone who has seen or heard him do or say something unusual that could implicate him," Robbins said.

The police chief added, "Relationships change through the years. Some people may be more willing to talk about an individual now because they've taken separate paths than people they were once friends with."

Maryann Margolies met with the investigators last month, and nothing she heard changed her belief that Matthew's killer will someday be identified and brought to justice.

"I met with them as recently as the 31st of August and was updated on the investigation," the 59-year-old Pemberwick woman said. "I remain optimistic that at some point we will find some form of closure."

Maryann Margolies said she suggested specific ways she believed she and her family could assist the investigation, but she declined to say what they were.

Also attending the meeting with Greenwich police was Greenwich attorney Thomas J. Williams, who has been retained by the Margolies family to provide legal advice pertaining to Matthew's case.

"It is unfortunate that this horrific crime has remained unsolved for 16 years because Matthew and his family are entitled to justice," Williams said. "In our recent meeting with the Greenwich Police Department, the department confirmed to us its determination to pursue this case and bring it to a resolution. I am hopeful that determination will continue until such time that there is an arrest."

With success, Greenwich police may be able to lessen the pain Stella Miazga feels on her future birthdays.

"My hopes are we can bring this to a successful conclusion," Robbins said. "But it's not going to be easy. It's going to take a lot of time and a lot of work."