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.

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).

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.

Who Was the Neighbor Mark Visited Just before the Fire?

This post considers the issue of my brother’s whereabouts the evening of his truck fire.  In spite of N. Y. S. P. Inv. Kalfas’s claim that he couldn’t find anyone who had seen my brother out the entire day of the fire, the anonymous letter sent to me late last summer (see post of August 11, 2014, with a copy of the letter) provides significant information on that issue.

According to the letter, immediately before the truck fire Mark was at the house of a neighbor, who said that my brother could not have had a .25 blood alcohol level.  Unfortunately, the author of the anonymous letter did not reveal the identity of the neighbor Mark was visiting.  But that person’s information about my brother’s lucidness and ability to function is very important as a counter to the State Police’s insistence that Mark caused the truck fire and his own death in a highly intoxicated state, either by accident or by suicide.

Shortly after my brother’s death, his close friend Jim Poole told me that the last person who he knew had seen Mark was Todd Lindell, and advising me to call Todd, he gave me his cell phone number.  Recently, another individual indicated that, among the neighbors, Mark would likely have been visiting Sidney Lindell or Todd Lindell, both good friends of my brother (the two Lindells are cousins of each other).  However, Sid Lindell specifically told me that he had not seen Mark on the day of the fire.

Previous posts (September 22, 2011, and March 3, 2014) have discussed the problem of Todd Lindell’s statement to me that “Mark would be alive today if he had not gotten the DWI.”  As indicated, Todd did not return my calls when I tried to get clarification from him on that issue and on the time Mark left his house the evening before the fire.  I found Todd’s behavior perplexing because he had told me that he would be happy to talk to me anytime.

Apparently, Todd is unwilling to discuss the matter with me.  In the spring, Mark’s long-time friend Bill Lewis told me that he would be golfing with Todd this summer and offered to ask him if he would speak with me.  Yet after hearing nothing from Bill, I tried calling him several times to find out if he had made contact with Todd.  But now he, too, has not returned my calls, even though he had indicated a willingness to help and expressed a desire to have the truth about Mark’s death finally brought to light.

If for some reason he had not ended up golfing with Todd, Bill could easily have let me know that.  Moreover, Bill also told me that he had run into Todd at a bar in the local casino.  He thus had other opportunities to speak with Todd about Mark’s death.  It would appear likely that he did talk to Todd.  But it is difficult to understand why Bill would not want to tell me what Todd said.  Bill’s silence is both surprising and disturbing.

Early in the investigation, Inv. Kalfas claimed that Mark had been “depressed” not only over his own DWI the day before but also over his son’s DWI a week or so before.  Presumably, at least one person had informed Kalfas about Brian’s DWI and made an issue of it.  Immediately after Mark’s death, a relative mentioned that Brian had got a DWI around a week before Mark’s death.  But neither that person nor anyone else with whom I spoke referred to any depression on Mark’s part because of it—quite the contrary (see post of March 27, 2012).  However, information recently obtained suggests that there would likely have been additional tension in my brother’s household, beyond the serious marriage problems acknowledged by the State Police investigator, following Brian’s arrest.

Public records in the nearby Ellicottville, NY, court clerk’s office reveal that on September 10, 2003, Brian was arrested for DWI by Troy Westfall, a Salamanca police officer (and currently Chief of Police) who also worked part-time on the Ellicottville force, and that he had the very high blood-alcohol level of .219.  The records also state that on September 19, 2003, Brian pleaded guilty in court and was fined $500, along with a $125 surcharge.  Court personnel informed me that his driver’s license would also have been revoked for six months.  This must have been a very difficult situation for both parents, since Brian, to all appearances, had been a model youth.  He had been his class valedictorian and a star golfer in high school and had recently begun his junior year in college.

Just three days after Brian’s court date, Mark himself was arrested for DWI after getting into a personal argument with off-duty Salamanca police officer Mark Marowski, with whom the writer of the anonymous letter says my brother’s wife was having an affair (see esp. posts of July 28, 2011; April 18, 2013; August 11, 2014; and September 14, 2014).  With Mark’s DWI following on the heels of Brian’s, tensions in the house would obviously have escalated.

According to the individual who drove him home after his arrest, Mark's wife Susan reacted vehemently, among other things telling him to pack his bags and “get the hell out” (see post of August 22, 2012).  It seems difficult to believe Susan’s account of the next evening in her witness statement, namely that she and Mark were watching television until he left for downtown Salamanca around 8:45 p.m.  It seems very likely, however, that Mark would have preferred to be out of the house and to be with someone he knew well enough, with whom he could feel comfortable under the circumstances.

It is most important to know who last saw Mark before the fire.  If that person was not Todd Lindell, who could it have been?

Problems Concerning the Former Railroaders

This post considers puzzling and problematic statements relevant to my brother’s death made by members of a group of former railroaders that had also included Mark.  As I have been told, during their period of employment on the railroad, these individuals routinely had drinks together and were in some ways a close-knit group.  That kind of socializing has apparently continued to some degree to this day, long after their employment with the railroad ceased.

At the time of Mark’s death, the railroad group included the following: Jim Poole, Gary Subulski, Jack Plonka, Bill Lewis, Jim Wright, Pete Rapacioli, and Eugene Woodworth.  Poole, Subulski, Plonka, and Lewis, who were close to my brother in age and had thus known him from their school days, remained close friends.  Lewis, however, had moved to suburban Buffalo and thus did not see Mark on a regular basis.  Wright was a few years older and, according to Jim Poole, a more recent friend.  Woodworth, a neighbor of Marks’s on Whalen Road in Great Valley, was considerably older but still had connections with my brother: as he informed me, he shared a wood splitter with Mark and Jack Plonka and sometimes saw my brother socially.  Rapacioli was also several years older than Mark but worked with him on a football pool and in little league baseball.  Unfortunately, Jim Poole and Jim Wright are now also deceased.

Pete Rapacioli has previously been the subject of discussion on this blog.  Of particular concern is the phone conversation that he allegedly had with my brother’s wife Susan for nearly half an hour immediately before Mark’s truck fire.  Another problematic issue is his claim that his daughter and her husband (the brother of a veteran Salamanca police officer), who were nearby neighbors of Mark’s, had slept through the entire incident of the fire, in spite of the noise of sirens and of the Medivac helicopter (see esp. posts of May 15, 2013, June 26, 2013, and April 19, 2014).  Furthermore, when I informed him that his cousin and fellow railroader Jack Plonka had mentioned that Pete planned to read the police report through a relative on the force, Rapacioli claimed to be unable to recall who his relative on the police force could have been (see post of June 26, 2013).

Another issue concerns Rapacioli's silence about the argument between my brother and Salamanca police officer Mark Marowski that resulted in Marowski calling in to have Mark arrested for DWI.  When he called me in June 2013 to complain about being mentioned on my blog, I brought up the subject of that argument at the Holy Cross Club.  Rapacioli had nothing to say about it and insisted that he had not been present at the club during that argument.  Yet the woman who answered the phone when I called Rapacioli in November 2003 said that Pete had told her very specifically about that argument.  In addition, I was recently told that Rapacioli knew Ofc. Mark Marowski very well, as both of them frequented the Holy Cross Club and other social clubs in Salamanca.

When I talked to Gary Subulski not long after Mark’s death, he mentioned what a good friend my brother had been and how much help Mark had given him when he was undergoing cancer treatments.  He told me to feel free to call if I thought there was anything he could do.  Much later, he mentioned that he had visited my brother’s grave a number of times and noticed the flowers I had planted.  He also said that he was glad that I was continuing to try and get justice for Mark.  My cousin Dennis Pavlock mentioned that Gary had relayed specific information to him about the argument between Mark and Marowski at the Holy Cross Club the day before the truck fire.  Yet Gary insisted to me that he had not been present at the time of the argument with Marowski and that he would have told me if he had been.

However, a few days after I put up a post on the problematic phone call to me from Pete Rapacioli in June 2013, I called Gary and told him that I had a question about Rapacioli.  Gary immediately shouted that he was busy and abruptly hung up the phone on me.  Needless to say, his reaction was completely unexpected and seemed very much out of character.  Had someone told him about my post on Rapacioli?  If so, why would that have mattered, since I reported only the facts about the phone call that formed the substance of my post?

Another member of the railroad group, Eugene Woodworth, made statements about Mark’s truck fire that raise serious concerns.  A previous post (July 28, 2014) discusses contradictions by Mark’s neighbor about the night of the truck fire to then church secretary Judy Bess and to me when I called Woodworth after talking to Judy.  I remain especially concerned about Woodworth’s reported comment to Judy that he had heard a commotion and screams on Mark’s property shortly before my brother’s truck went down the driveway and into the field, where it burst into flames.  Those details do not appear to be of the kind one would fabricate.

Recently, another individual connected to the same local Catholic church mentioned discussing Mark’s truck fire with Woodworth.  According to that person, Woodworth was at first hesitant but then said he thought Mark’s death was likely a murder.  He reportedly also said that he and his wife had seen the flames from their house and that he had gone to the scene.  However, as I was told, Woodworth would not discuss the matter any further.  According to my informant, Woodworth was afraid.

Fear--and perhaps various social ties--clearly seem to have kept numerous individuals from coming forward with information they have about my brother’s death.  The State Police and District Attorney’s office made it abundantly clear that they wanted to close the case definitively on Mark’s death.  It is appalling that there is no venue for individuals to relay relevant information without worries about offending their friends or risking retribution.  Why is there no ombudsman?  Where are concerned and responsive state and federal authorities?  What can people do if they are legitimately afraid?