A Report about Other Suspicious Deaths in Cattaraugus County

As previously mentioned in this blog (see post of October 16, 2015), over the years since my brother Mark was killed in a suspicious truck fire, many people have mentioned that his was one of several suspicious deaths in the Salamanca area within the same general period of time.  A number of recent posts have dealt with the very troubling deaths of two individuals who were killed within a year or so after my brother, Tim Nye and Dale Tarapacki (see October 16, 2015; February 16, March 19, April 19, May 19, July 23, August 24, September 24, and October 25, 2016; February 26, April 30, and June 13, 2017).

As with my brother’s case, the investigations into these two suspicious deaths seem to have been very inadequate, glossing over or ignoring evidence that appears incompatible with an alleged suicide in the one instance and accident in the other.  As with my brother’s case as well, there was apparently no newspaper publicity about the manner of either of these two deaths.  The suspicious nature of all three of these deaths was swept under the rug.

Recent information from a reliable source suggests that a number of suspicious deaths in Cattaraugus County may have been ignored by police authorities.  This source reported that a young man was paid five-hundred dollars per body to bury individuals who had been murdered.  According to this source, the person did not know who actually supplied the money he was paid for burying the bodies. But the young man at some point apparently felt remorseful about performing such tasks and informed the police about what he had been paid to do.  Reportedly, however, the police response was dismissive, claiming that the “mafia” must have been behind the apparent murders and payments for burial.

Assuming that there is a basis to this report, one wonders if the police had these bodies exhumed for identification.  Or was the whole business simply covered up?  Attributing such apparent murders to the mafia seems to reflect an unwillingness by the authorities to look more deeply into the problem.

The Problematic Issue of the Whereabouts in the Three Suspicious Deaths

One troubling element linking the suspicious deaths of my brother Mark, Tim Nye, and Dale Tarapacki is the mystery of their whereabouts in the hours before their deaths (on the similarities in general, see esp. posts of April 19, July 23, and December 26, 2016).  Previous posts (August 22, 2012, March 3, 2014, and August 14, 2015) have discussed the problem of my brother’s whereabouts the evening of his truck fire.  This post considers that issue for all three suspicious deaths.

In my brother’s case, it is important to establish a time frame because Mark must have been attacked soon after he arrived home, not long before his truck went up in flames in the field across from his house in Great Valley, N.Y., about 11:00 p.m.  The pool of Mark’s blood found by investigators in the area of his driveway where he normally parked his truck and the head wounds observed by his attending physician at the burn unit make it evident that my brother was assaulted before he was burned to death.

The only formally documented information about Mark’s whereabouts that day is in his wife Susan’s witness statement (see the link at the top right for “police report,” where the witness statement are located).  Susan says that Mark was home in the afternoon but left the house about 8:45 p.m. to go to “downtown Salamanca.”  However, it is difficult to understand why several people either failed to hear from my brother by phone, as expected that day, or attempted unsuccessfully to reach him.

An anonymous letter sent to me in August 2014 offers an important—but unfortunately incomplete—piece of information, which differs from the statement of Mark’s wife.  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 the high blood alcohol level of about .25 reported in the autopsy report (see post of August 11, 2014).

Regrettably, the author of the anonymous letter did not reveal the identity of the neighbor Mark was visiting, and that person has not come forward.  But 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.  Todd himself then told me that Mark had stayed at his house for some time after returning from his DWI the evening before the fire (on Salamanca policeman Mark Marowski’s role in my brother’s DWI, see posts of July 28, 2011, April 18, 2013, September 14, 2014, October 17, 2014, and July 15, 2015, and June 21, 2016).  Knowing when Mark left that person’s house would help to fix the time when he actually arrived home and to determine how much time lapsed before his truck mysteriously went into that field and up in flames.

In Tim Nye’s case, knowledge of his whereabouts for the two days prior to his death could offer important information about the reason he was killed.  According to reliable sources, he left his residence abruptly after he received a phone call that seemed to cause him considerable anxiety.  According to one source in particular, Nye’s whereabouts were unknown for almost two days, during which he did not answer his cell phone or return calls, something completely uncharacteristic of him (see post of April 19, 2016).  When his body was discovered in a remote location in Great Valley, a shotgun was found lying close by, and he had apparently been shot in the gut.  Unlike my brother’s and Dale Tarapacki’s deaths which were ruled “accidental,” Nye’s was apparently—and very oddly—ruled a suicide.

In Dale Tarapacki’s case, the very bizarre nature of his truck fire and the apparent gunshot wound to his leg (see posts of May 19, July 23, 2016, and April 30, 2017) should have made his whereabouts that day imperative for the investigation into his death.  But information the police seem to have had about his whereabouts on the day his truck went up in flames on a remote road in Great Valley (before 3:19 p.m., when fire investigators arrived) appears to have been inaccurate.

According to a reliable source, the police claimed that Tarapacki had left to go fishing that day.  However, someone who had spoken to Tarapacki informed me that he had been drinking heavily the evening before his death and that he could not possibly have got up that next morning to go fishing.  One must wonder how the investigators from the Sheriff’s office got the idea that Tarapacki had gone on a fishing trip the day of his death.  How thoroughly did the Sheriff’s investigators check their sources?  Or did they check them at all?

The Problematic Issue of Guns in the Three Suspicious Deaths

Previous posts have raised the puzzling and problematic issue concerning guns in the deaths of my brother Mark, Tim Nye, and Dale Tarapacki, all of which occurred under suspicious circumstances in rural Great Valley, New York, in a period of roughly a year and a half (see esp. posts of April 19, July 23, and December 26, 2016).  This post considers the gun issue further.

My brother’s case involves a gun that seems to have disappeared.  According to a number of individuals, Mark had bought a pistol (a forty-five) for protection at his job as a security guard at M&M’s, a Seneca Indian-owned business in nearby Steamburg selling cigarettes and gasoline, and kept it in the glove compartment of his truck.  Yet neither the police report nor the fire investigator’s report mentions a gun among the items found in his burned-out truck.  Since firefighter Wayne Frank noticed a wound on my brother’s forehead that looked as if he had been hit by a nine-iron, one must wonder if Mark’s pistol might have been used to cause that wound and essentially knock him out.  When was that pistol removed from Mark’s glove compartment?  And by whom?

Tim Nye’s death was in fact caused by a gunshot wound.  Although Cattaraugus County denied my FOIL request for the police investigation report, they provided a brief document in which the officer who discovered Nye’s body on remote McCarthy Hill Road mentions that a shotgun was lying close by.  However, a relative of Tim Nye added that he had been shot in the gut, confirming what an EMT who knew Nye had told me some time ago.  Many individuals who knew Nye do not believe that he took his own life.  It also seems highly unlikely that Nye could have aimed and fired a shotgun (or rifle, as one individual referred to the weapon that killed him) at his own gut.  Yet the Sheriff’s office, which investigated Nye’s case, apparently ruled his death a suicide.

As a number of reliable sources have stated, Dale Tarapacki had a gunshot wound in the area of his right leg.  According to my sources, the investigators from the Sheriff's office claimed that two rifles in the back of the cab went off in the extreme heat of the truck fire and that a bullet hit Tarapacki.  Yet, as many individuals have insisted, it does not seem possible that either of the two rifles in the back of the cab could have hit Tarapacki in the leg while he was in the driver's seat.

A question that should have been asked during the investigation into Tarapacki’s death is why there were two rifles in the cab of his truck.  It seems unlikely that he owned two rifles rather than just one.  Did the Sheriff’s investigators make an effort to find out what specific gun (or guns) were licensed to Tarapacki?

Did the investigators also consider why he would have had any rifle in the cab of his truck on that April day, apparently in the afternoon?  What use would he have had for a rifle, not to mention two rifles, on that day?  Certainly, one would not normally keep any rifles open to view in the back of one’s cab.  A person might take a rifle on a hunting or camping trip for shooting prey, target practice, or protection but would normally take the rifle out when he came home.  The very presence of the two rifles in Tarapacki’s truck seems troublesome, especially given the gunshot wound to his leg and his reportedly cracked skull.

One must wonder if Tarapacki’s family considered having his body exhumed to determine what injuries must actually have been inflicted on him prior to his death (according to his death certificate) from alprazolam intoxication, inhalation of toxic fumes from the fire, and thermal injury.  My brother Mark’s body, unfortunately, cannot be exhumed, since his wife had him cremated.

Efforts to Interfere with the Search for Justice

For the past year and a half, this blog has reported on suspicious circumstances that link the truck fires of my brother Mark and Dale Tarapacki, which were determined by officials to be “accidents” in spite of a number of facts pointing to foul play (see esp. posts of July 23, August 24, October 25, 2016, and February 26, 2017).  Although not involving a vehicle fire, Tim Nye’s death in the same general time frame in Great Valley, N. Y., was also very suspicious, but it was reportedly ruled a “suicide” (see post of April 19, 2016).

Various kinds of pressure appear to have been applied to hinder the search for justice underlying this blog.  In my efforts to get publicity on my brother’s death, for instance, I was informed that efforts had been made by certain individuals to stop a newspaper article on Mark’s truck fire from going into print.  Some individuals have expressed strong objections to my putting up any posts at all on Tim Nye’s death.  A number of persons who actually volunteered information on their own initiative and even expressed their gratitude for what I have been trying to do suddenly stopped communicating with me altogether.  One must wonder why.

In one particular case, however, a chilling form of pressure has been exerted.  An individual who has supplied important information relevant to this blog was threatened.  Fear tactics, of course, would likely intimidate anyone.  But a person who is married and has children naturally has to take such threats even more seriously. 

If the deaths discussed in this blog were “accidents” or “suicides,” why would threats need to be made to keep a person silent?  Those who resort to such tactics must have a lot to worry about.