Wednesday, December 16, 2015

A Follow-up on the Issue of Who Was on the Scene of Mark’s Truck Fire and What They Said


This comes as a follow-up on the previous post (November 15, 2015).  It adds further information and questions on two interrelated issues: what specific individuals were on the scene of my brother’s truck fire in Great Valley, N.Y, in 2003 and what they revealed to the State Police investigator.

The previous post reported that Shawn Gregory, a deputy sheriff, was not only present on the scene but was also a close neighbor of my brother’s on Whalen Rd.  It added that Mr. Gregory’s wife was the daughter of another close neighbor of Mark’s, Alana Lindell Cloud (recently deceased), who was the sister of Sidney Lindell and the cousin of Todd Lindell, both of whom were also neighbors and close friends of Mark’s.  In addition, it mentioned other Lindells and their relatives living in that immediate neighborhood.  The Lindell clan, then, seems to have had a very strong presence in that sparsely populated rural area.

That post also called attention to statements reportedly made by Alana Lindell Cloud in a telephone conversation with a friend of hers named Linda Askey Albrecht, who brought them up in an e-mail forwarded to me.  In particular, Linda reported damaging claims about my brother’s alleged drinking that are demonstrably false.

Other remarks reported by Linda are of concern here.  As a result of her conversation with Alana, Linda referred to being made aware that Mark’s truck fire took place “virtually, in fact, in Alana’s back yard [o]n Hungry Hollow [Road].”  Obviously, Alana had drawn attention to the very close proximity of her property to the field where Mark was burned to death.  If Mark’s truck fire happened practically “in Alana’s back yard,” was Alana aware of the fire when it was happening or at least when emergency vehicles arrived with sirens blaring?  Was Alana--perhaps along with her husband at the time--one of the many individuals reportedly milling around on the scene?

According to Linda, Alana reported that a member of the State Police “came to Alana’s house and asked all kinds [o]f question[s], including some about whether she knew anything about the marital [r]elationship.”  Linda did not specify what, if anything, Alana had told her about her responses to the State Police investigator.  But one must wonder how Alana herself replied to the investigator’s questions, including those about Mark’s and Susan’s marital relations.

It seems apparent that Alana did not know Mark all that well, given that she was so misinformed about his personal history with the railroad as to assert mistakenly that he had been involved in a serious train accident several years earlier and suffered from PTSD, which led to heavy drinking and kept him from ever going back to work again.  She seems to have had some level of acquaintance with his wife, for Linda mentioned a comment by Alana that Susan “had retired from her clerical job at the school district, sold her [h]ouse and moved to whereever [sic] her daughter lived as the daughter had recently had a baby.”  Linda also implied a history of familiarity with Susan’s own family since she referred to her as “one of Calla Smith’s twin sisters.”

In any case, what might Alana have known about Mark’s and Susan’s troubled marriage, given her proximity to their house?  On the day my brother died, my aunt Dorothy Pavlock, in referring to the poor state of Mark’s and Susan’s marriage, informed me that neighbors had heard their arguments.  Some time ago, one of my brother’s neighbors, who lived farther from his house than Alana, acknowledged knowing that all was not well in Mark’s and Susan’s marriage (see June14, 2015).  So, what did Alana tell the State Police investigator about that issue?

In addition, according to Linda, Alana asserted that “the state police did interview
[n]eighbors up and down the road.”  As mentioned in a previous post, all the neighbors with whom I spoke insisted that they had not been interviewed (see April 17, 2015).  Most recently, Mark’s neighbor at the corner of Cross and Hungry Hollow roads, Charles Rinko, confirmed that neither he nor his wife had been questioned by the State Police.  Was Alana completely mistaken about the extent of the State Police interviews of Mark’s neighbors?  Or have the neighbors been less than honest with me?  If so, why would they want to deny that the State Police had questioned them?

I have become aware of a discrepancy between what both Todd and Sidney Lindell told me and what another neighbor reported not long after Mark was killed.  In my one conversation with him, in November 2003, Todd said that he had not been interviewed.  Not long ago, Sid Lindell told me that he had never been interviewed (see April 17, 2015).  When I called Alexis Wright in July 2004 and asked if Mark’s friends Todd and Sid Lindell had been questioned by the State Police, she was not certain and asked her husband Jim.  He, however, replied that both of them had been interviewed. Was Jim Wright mistaken?

One must wonder if the author of the anonymous letter referring to an affair between Mark’s wife and Ofc. Mark Marowski was ever interviewed by the State Police.  The letter writer mentioned that the two were observed driving around on an ATV on numerous occasions (see August 11, 2014).  As several individuals have indicated, if Susan and Marowski had been riding around together on an ATV, they would probably have done it close by, in the fields in that neighborhood.  The writer of the anonymous letter, then, was likely one of Mark’s neighbors.  If interviewed by the State Police investigator, did that person mention seeing Susan and Marowski together or allude in any way to this alleged affair?

It is troubling that virtually no one in Mark’s neighborhood will admit to being questioned by the State Police about his death.  Who, then, informed Inv. Kalfas about the very poor state of Mark’s and Susan’s marriage?  Early in the investigation, he told me that many people had brought it up.  Even more to the point: why is that issue never mentioned in the police report?

Sunday, November 15, 2015

More on the Issue of Who Was on the Scene of Mark’s Truck Fire and What They Said


This post takes up the issue of specific individuals who were on the scene of my brother’s truck fire in Great Valley, N.Y.  The subject is discussed in an earlier post (December 31, 2011), which mentions those known to have been on the scene as emergency workers and raises questions about certain others who were reportedly also there.  Among the latter were two individuals identified as Salamanca police officers: Steve Arrowsmith and Patrick Welch.

Several months after I put up that post (June 20, 2012), Mr. Welch sent in a lengthy comment to the blog stating that he had been a police cadet at the time and joined the Salamanca police force two months later and that he had been on the scene as “a friend of the family.”  After I posted the relevant part of his comment, another individual replied, observing that Mr. Welch had not really responded to my concern in the post and posed a question about “what he [Welch] was doing during the time that he was on the scene of the fire.”  Mr. Welch did not reply.  I have also learned nothing further about the reason for Mr. Arrowsmith’s presence on the scene.  However, I have since learned that another member of local law enforcement, Robert Buchhardt, a senior member of the Sheriff’s Department, was also on the scene.  The post of December 2011 mentioned Shawn Gregory as another individual on the scene, who reportedly was also a deputy sheriff.

Subsequently, I learned that Shawn Gregory in fact not only was present on the scene and employed as a deputy sheriff but also was a close neighbor of my brother’s on Whalen Rd.  In addition, it turns out that Shawn Gregory’s wife is the daughter of another close neighbor of Mark’s, a woman (recently deceased) named Alana Lindell Cloud, whose house on Hungry Hollow Rd. was directly opposite Mark’s across the open field on Whalen Rd.  Alana was the sister of Sidney Lindell and the cousin of Todd Lindell, both of whom were also neighbors and close friends of Mark’s.

Todd Lindell, furthermore, has been mentioned on this blog as the individual who said to me that “Mark would be alive today if he had not gotten the DWI,” yet did not return my calls when I tried to get clarification on that statement (see posts of September 23, 2010; March 3, 2014; and August 14, 2015).  The elder Sidney Lindell and his wife, parents of Mark’s friend Sid, also resided close by on Hungry Hollow Rd.  In addition, the Lindells, I have been told, are related to the Mendells, an elderly couple who lived on Cross Rd., adjacent to the field where Mark’s truck went up in flames.  Thus, Shawn Gregory is related by marriage to five separate families in Mark’s neighborhood.

That striking nexus of family relationships in a sparsely populated rural neighborhood is not per se my concern here.  Instead, I am concerned about statements that Alana Lindell Cloud reportedly made to a friend of hers named Linda Askey Albrecht, who conveyed them in an e-mail to another individual and gave him permission to pass the e-mail on to me.  According to Linda in her e-mail, Alana told her the following: “Mark was a serious serious drinker and had been since that horrible train [a]ccident in which Sid Smith and the others were killed.  The survivors has [sic] all [s]uffered from PTSD.”  She added that “Mark never went back [t]o work.”

Unfortunately, all of this supposed information is demonstrably false.  First, Mark was not involved in that terrible train wreck and thus never had any post-traumatic stress syndrome related to it.  Second, Mark stayed off alcohol for many years (certainly over a decade), which included the period around and after that train accident.  Third, Mark continued to work for several years, until he himself suffered an eye injury on the job.

There is no reason to believe that Linda Albrecht failed to report Alana’s statements to her accurately.  But unfortunately she accepted false statements about Mark without question as true. Certainly, as numerous individuals who knew my brother well have said, Mark began drinking alcohol again to some extent around two years before his death and more heavily in the last six months or so.  My brother’s friend Sid Lindell in fact told me in November 2003 that he had been surprised to learn that Mark had started drinking again since he had stayed off alcohol for so long.  The claims about Mark in Alana’s reported statements are very damaging and clearly false.

Did such distorted views about my brother affect what was said publicly and privately during the investigation into his death?  Linda’s e-mail also reports that Alana herself was interviewed about Mark.  Did Alana make such statements to the State Police investigator?  Had she said similar things to others, including her daughter and her son-in-law Shawn Gregory?

The question is relevant for at least two reasons.  First, negative remarks about Mark’s drinking by “neighbors” were cited by Inv. Kalfas in his narrative in the police report, yet the people who made them have not been held accountable for those statements, since their names have all been blacked out (see post of April 17, 2015).  Was Alana one of the neighbors who reported such information?  Statements of that nature had a significant impact on the investigation, making it appear that Mark was responsible for his own death, whether by suicide or by accident.

Second, in the investigation conducted by Nationwide Insurance, according to a company representative, their investigator interviewed certain individuals who had been on the scene but who agreed to speak with him only “off the record.”  These individuals insisting on anonymity told the insurance investigator that it looked like a suicide (see post of January 27, 2014).

Did these individuals fail to see the pool of blood on the section off Mark’s driveway where he normally parked his truck?  Or had they already made their minds up in advance?  Who were these individuals?  Were they exclusively emergency workers?  Or did they also include law enforcement officials (deputy sheriffs or Salamanca police)?  Was Shawn Gregory among them?  As mentioned previously (January 27, 2014), Gary Wind (firefighter and deputy sheriff), Wayne Frank (firefighter), and Cheryl Simcox (EMT) are certainly not among those who told the investigator for Nationwide that it looked like a suicide.

According to the company representative with whom I spoke, Inv. Kalfas refused to let them see the police report, and therefore they did not know about the pool of Mark’s blood on the driveway.  If Nationwide had had full knowledge of the facts, there might well be a report on Mark’s death that draws a very different conclusion from that of the State Police.  One must wonder what the motive was for individuals who insisted on anonymity and why Alana Lindell Cloud herself reported such distorted and inaccurate information about my brother.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Expressed Concerns about Suspicious Deaths in Vehicle Fires in the Salamanca Area


Over the years since my brother’s death, numerous individuals have informed me that Mark’s was one of several suspicious deaths in the Salamanca area within a relatively short period and that two of these other incidents involved vehicle fires.  One of the latter has already been mentioned on this blog: Mark himself discovered a burned-out vehicle with the body of a man named Bill Duhan, whom he actually knew but apparently did not recognize under those circumstances (see post of February 4, 2013).  The other was the death of a young local pharmacist named Dale Tarapacki, whose body was discovered in his burned-out truck off a rural road outside of Salamanca about a year and a half after my brother was killed.

There appears to have been no newspaper publicity about the manner of either of these other two deaths involving vehicle fires.  There was also clearly no news report in the local newspapers about Mark’s case, in spite of my efforts in 2004 (see post of November 30, 2011).  Since I have not had access to the police report on either Bill Duhan’s or Dale Tarapacki’s death, I do not know for certain any of the specific details of these two cases.  It is not clear to me, for instance, if Mr. Duhan’s death was ruled a suicide or an accident.  I was informed by a reliable source that Mr. Tarapacki’s death was ruled a suicide and that a suicide letter was apparently discovered by the investigating authorities.

In Dale Tarapacki’s case, however, many people are skeptical of, or flatly reject, the explanation of suicide.  As I have searched for answers in my brother’s death, numerous individuals have brought up the case of this young pharmacist as another very suspicious death.  Two people who apparently knew him quite well mentioned character traits that would not suggest a suicidal frame of mind.  One referred to his clearly sociable nature, and the other to his attachment to his two very young daughters.  The latter brought up some other things as well, which I cannot mention on this blog.

In addition to such individual conversations, this pharmacist’s death has come up on two local Topix sites.  The following comment from February 2010, taken verbatim from the Allegany Topix site, reflects some local people’s concern: “friends and i were just talking about things that never get solved in salamanca. we could never figure out what happened to dale the pharmacist from rite aid. that never seemed to fit. they found him in his truck in the woods..........just never fit.”  The writer both makes it clear that the official explanation for Dale Tarapacki’s death did not make sense and implies that many questionable deaths in Salamanca are left unresolved.  Here are two comments from May 2013, the one a reply to the other, taken verbatim from the Salamanca Topix site:         

            How about the pharmacist that worked at Rite Aid. Found him burnt
            in his truck. He was about to open with the nation pharmacy that
            was on Main st. Rumor was that there was something shady going on
            and he backed out. Less then a week later he was dead.

            yep and it wasn't suiside, that same year mark pavlock gets fried almost in his own yard and tim nye also gets killed of course it was all covered up calling them suicide. The bromley was laying on his couch in his own house and shot it the head,

I’d like to make it clear that the first comment from the Salamanca Topix site repeats a rumor that has not been verified and that I myself am not endorsing, nor am I endorsing the view in the second of a cover-up in all three cases (Tarapacki, Pavlock, and Nye).  I have made clear the numerous--some very serious--failures of the New York State Police investigation into Mark’s death throughout this blog.  But since I don’t have official information about the deaths of Tarapacki and Nye, I cannot make any assumption about the nature of the investigations into their deaths.

I’m not even certain what the second commenter on the Topix post is implying about the Bromley case.  But I quote these comments because together they reflect a publicly expressed concern about the two truck fires that took the lives of Dale Tarapacki and my brother and because the second raises concern about two other local deaths, the first of which (Nye’s) happened in the same general time frame as Mark’s.

Beyond the remarks made by individuals with whom I have actually spoken (in two cases the individuals knew this local pharmacist) and by posters using pseudonyms on the public forum of the Topix sites, a comment sent in to this blog some time ago adds another level of concern about the deaths of Dale Tarapacki and my brother.  In the summer of 2014, I decided to try and contact Dale Tarapacki’s parents to learn what they thought about his death.  I found a phone number for his mother Rosanne and left a voice mail message for her.

Shortly afterward (July 20, 2014), the following comment arrived on my blog (linked to the post “A Follow-up on Mark’s Blood Alcohol Level”).  I quote it verbatim: “Barbara, Received voice message Sunday 7/20. I would very much like to talk to you about similar circumstances and my son's death. I, too, have exercised various options and am convinced his death was murder. Can you call me again--leave a phone number or email? I am moving this week.”  The sender was listed as “Ro.”  I have now published the comment (to the relevant post of September 23, 2013).

As soon as possible after receiving that message, I called Mrs. Tarapacki’s number again and left the requested information.  However, I did not hear back from her and assumed that she was settling into a new place and would give me a call at a convenient time.  Perhaps she did not receive my information by the time she moved.  But since I have no longer had an operative phone number for her, I have not been able to contact her and find out what specific similarities she sees between her son’s death and my brother’s, other than the fact that each victim’s truck unexpectedly burned up in an isolated area near Salamanca.  I assume that she has some potentially useful information, since a family member of hers reportedly hired a private investigator.

In any case, I hope that Mrs. Tarapacki reads this post, and I ask that she contact me again to discuss her concerns.  Likewise, if readers have information relevant to any of these deaths, I ask that they contact me by sending in a comment to the blog or by e-mailing me (through the link “View my complete profile” at the right side of this page, where there is an “Email” link).

Sunday, September 13, 2015

An Informative E-mail about Officer Mark Marowski and about the Investigation into My Brother’s Death


As the twelfth anniversary of my brother Mark’s suspicious truck fire approaches, this post makes public an e-mail sent to me by former Salamanca police officer James Campbell concerning Officer Mark Marowski.  Ofc. Campbell’s communication is based on his experience working with Marowski in the 1970’s.

Ofc. Campbell appears to have had a long, productive career as a police official.  The following is an excerpt from an official press release on a new position awarded him in 2003: “Sheriff George T. Lasater is proud to announce the appointment of James Andrew Campbell, Deputy Sheriff, to the position of Officer in Charge of the Beaver Island Sub-Station.  Deputy Sheriff Campbell brings an extensive background in law enforcement experience.  He started his law enforcement career in Salamanca, New York, in 1974 where he served for four years.  Deputy Campbell then relocated to Michigan and has been employed with the Rockwood Police Department for the past 25 years.”

Here is the complete e-mail I received from Ofc. Campbell, verbatim:

“I have been following your blog for about 2 years. I was a PO in Salamanca from 1974 to 1978. I worked with Mark Marowski and knew him pretty well. He had a problem with alcohol and perscription drugs even then. He was also very good friends with Michael Malick, who was also an ex Salamanca PO. Mark was a consummate lier. But he was also a complete coward. I don't think he would have had much to do with what appears to be the very suspicious death of your brother. Marowski using his position to have your brother arrested is right in character for him, that didn't surprise me at all. I read through all the reports and it doesn't appear that much of an investigation was done because, I think, they thought no one would give a damn anyway. Anything that was done subsequent to the original shoddy investigation was only an effort to justify what had not been done in the first place. In other words the NYSP will not admit that their man was a lazy ass and did not do the job that he was paid to do.”
 
First of all, I am grateful to Ofc. Campbell for his informed assessment based on his professional experience with Marowski. It is disturbing to learn that Marowski abused alcohol and prescription drugs as far back as the mid-1970’s, yet was allowed to continue his career in law enforcement without addressing and rectifying those problems.  Marowski in fact remained on the Salamanca police force until he himself was finally arrested for DWI and speeding in 2006.

It is reassuring that, contrary to the New York State Police and the District Attorney’s office, Ofc. Campbell indicates that my brother’s death looks “very suspicious.”  In considering Marowski cowardly and likely to have used his position to have my brother arrested, he concludes that Marowski would not have had “much to do” with Mark’s death.  The word “much” is key. 

On this point, I would say that in general cowards get others to do the dirty work for them.  Before being doused with gasoline and set on fire, my brother appears to have been beaten up in a paved area off his driveway, where he left a pool of blood, right after he drove in with his truck.  Presumably, assailants were waiting for him, perhaps hiding by the shed close to where my brother pulled in.  More than one person would have to have been involved in the attack since Mark was physically fit and very strong.  Whoever wanted my brother dead didn’t have the courage to face him alone.

In the chain of events that ended in my brother’s death, I myself do not know what Marowski did beyond abusing his power as a police officer to call in and have Mark arrested after getting into a personal argument with him.  But Marowski clearly had animosity toward my brother (see esp. post of October 17, 2014), and the claim that he was having an affair with Mark’s wife Susan needs to be taken seriously (see post of August 11, 2014).  If the latter is indeed true, what would those two issues alone suggest about some level of involvement by Marowski in Mark’s death?  Marowski certainly should be investigated (see esp. posts of July 28, 2011, April 18, 2013, August 11, 2014, September 14, 2014, October 17, 2014, December 14, 2014, and February 15, 2015).

I am grateful to Ofc. Campbell for taking the time to read through the official reports (i.e., the police and the fire investigator’s report, available through links on this blog).  Ofc. Campbell’s conclusion is to the point: “it doesn’t appear that much of an investigation was done.”  His view is thus in obvious contrast to the State Police’s insistence that the investigation was “thorough.”  Ofc. Campbell, furthermore, alludes to one specific issue that might well have affected the investigation.

It came as a surprise to me to learn that Marowski “was also very good friends with Michael Malick [i.e., Malak], who was also an ex Salamanca PO.”  Michael Malak was District Attorney Edward Sharkey’s investigator when my brother was killed.  He was in fact heavily involved in the discussions about the case during the investigation (see Inv. Kalfas’s narrative in the police report). Of course, I do not know whether Malak and Marowski remained “very good friends” up to Mark’s death, but they appear to have had a tight bond for some years.  Malak, to say the least, had a potential conflict of interest in the investigation.

I am also grateful for Ofc. Campbell’s assessment of the failure by the New York State Police to make any meaningful effort to act on new information given to them since 2005, beginning with Atty. Michael Kelly’s efforts to get them to re-open the case.  Here is Ofc. Campbell’s conclusion: “Anything that was done subsequent to the original shoddy investigation was only an effort to justify what had not been done in the first place.  In other words the NYSP will not admit that their man was a lazy ass and did not do the job that he was paid to do.”  What recourse does a private citizen have when the official investigating agency does not do its job?

The problem is more egregious when there are legitimate grounds for suspecting a cover-up.  The State Police not only failed to look closely at Ofc. Marowski as a possible suspect; they also failed to verify that alleged lengthy phone call immediately before the fire between my brother’s wife and Pete Rapacioli, who himself had a police connection (see post of December 24, 2013).  I have no doubt that Ofc. Campbell is right about the State Police’s refusal to admit that Inv. Kalfas did not do his job, and so they will not re-investigate.  Are there no viable options for redress?

The phone records (landline and cell) would be one source of important information.  They could have been used to test the credibility of key participants in the events and to provide a more detailed timeline. They would reveal, for instance, if Marowski called Mark’s and Susan’s house or their cell phone in the period immediately before and up to the night Mark was killed and if that alleged phone call between Susan and Rapacioli actually took place.  Any competent investigator would have obtained them.

Is there a way a private citizen can obtain access to phone records?  If anyone reading this blog should have information about getting access to phone records, it would be much appreciated.