What Did Mark Really Say on the Scene of the Fire?

      This post examines the problematic issue of statements reportedly made by my brother on the scene of his truck fire before he was airlifted to the Erie County Medical Center.

    Officials involved in the investigation basically took such remarks as hard fact and interpreted them as evidence that my brother’s truck fire and his death were accidental.  Yet if one examines what individuals on the scene actually say in their official witness statements, serious questions arise about the plausibility of these reports.  Oral remarks by emergency workers and others on the scene, as reported later, make these alleged statements by my brother even more questionable.

     Here are the statements by individuals on the scene about what they heard Mark say, as recorded in their witness statements or reported to me in my own inquiries:
             
    (1) In her witness statement, my brother’s wife Susan says that she saw Mark crawling away from the truck and tried to put out the flames on him.  She adds that she asked him, "What did you do?" and that he replied, "I did nothing."

    (2) In his witness statement, firefighter Gary Wind (also at the time a deputy sheriff) describes my brother's efforts to speak as follows: "He was talking to me and said something about gas.  I couldn't make out what he was saying."

    (3) In his witness statement, firefighter Mark Ward (also at the time superintendent of the Salamanca school system and thus Susan's boss and reportedly a close personal friend of hers) states that Mark "was able to talk," but he could understand only the words "gasoline can," which he says my brother uttered twice.

    (4) Although not asked to give a witness statement, firefighter Wayne Frank, who arrived on the scene immediately after Wind and Ward, told me that they had not been able to understand anything Mark tried to say.  He added that he wished that he and Gary Wind had gone down on their knees in an effort to grasp what my brother was trying to tell them.

    (5) Dan Smith, Mark's neighbor at the opposite end of Whalen Rd., who arrived on the scene some time after the first three firefighters, told me that my brother had spoken several words–around ten--to him. He stated that Mark had recognized him and said, "Hi!"  But when I asked Mr. Smith what else Mark had said, he replied that he could not recall.

    (6) Another person on the scene, whose name will not be disclosed at this point, informed me that one of the principal firefighters on the scene, whose name will also not be disclosed at this point, stated that he heard Mark say, “I didn’t do anything.”

    (7) In November 2004, John Eberth, at the time a reporter for the Olean Times-Herald, abruptly cancelled an article on Mark’s death that he had said was “set to run.”  He explained this decision in an e-mail, in which he stated the following: “After conducting follow-up interviews with State Police supervisors and fire investigation officials and learning that Mark spoke to an off-duty Cattaraugus County Sheriff's deputy with whom he was acquainted before he was taken to the hospital, we have decided to not write a story at this time.”

    What do these reports of words Mark supposedly uttered really indicate?  Let’s consider some of the problems and questions that emerge from these statements.

    First, if the New York State Police investigators took seriously Susan’s report that Mark said, “I did nothing,” how could they claim that they really believed my brother’s death was a suicide?  The words “I did nothing” clearly imply no self-inflicted injuries.  And what person near death in an act of suicide would bother to deny it?  No one would.  Yet both the New York State Police and the Cattaraugus County District Attorney stated that they really considered Mark’s death a suicide.  If so, then they presumably didn’t believe what Mark’s wife said in her witness statement.  Shouldn’t they have then questioned her further about Mark’s supposed statement, “I did nothing”?

    Second, why would the (unnamed) firefighter have told another individual on the scene that he heard Mark say, “I didn’t do anything”?  That individual clearly did not record it officially.  None of the witness statements, except the one by Mark’s wife Susan, indicates that my brother made any such remark.

    Third, firefighter (and deputy sheriff) Gary Wind in his witness statement is very tentative about what Mark tried to say (i.e., “...something about gas.  I couldn't make out what he was saying").  What deputy sheriff, then, told John Eberth that my brother had talked to him on the scene (i.e., “...and learning that Mark spoke to an off-duty Cattaraugus County Sheriff's deputy with whom he was acquainted before he was taken to the hospital”)?  That statement was a major factor in Eberth’s decision to cancel his article on Mark’s death.  Oddly, there was no local newspaper publicity about my brother’s death.  In fact, many people in the Salamanca area told me–even long afterwards–that they had never been informed about the suspicious circumstances, including the pool of Mark’s blood found in his driveway that night.

    Fourth, firefighter Mark Ward’s reference to hearing my brother say “gasoline can” twice differs from Gary Wind’s mention of “gas” and, even more, from Wayne Frank’s insistence that my brother could not be understood at all.  Even N.Y.S.P. Lt. Allen in a telephone conversation with me in April 2007 acknowledged that the power of suggestion might have influenced some of the witness statements.  He explained that someone, for instance, might have asked, “Did Mark say ‘gas’?” and the others around picked up on it.  Yet the N.Y.S.P. investigators involved in the case appear to have relied heavily on Ward’s and Wind’s statements in ruling out the possibility of murder in my brother’s case.

    Fifth, how is it that Dan Smith could not remember anything my brother said to him except the word “Hi!”?  Granted, considerable time had passed since the night of the truck fire.  But can you really forget the words of a dying man calling out to you in such a pitiable state?  Wouldn’t they rather be permanently etched in your mind?

    The reliance on what appears to be very tenuous evidence of statements made by my brother on the scene of his truck fire has also influenced the thinking of current Cattaraugus County District Attorney Lori Rieman.  At the meeting I had with her in May 2010, D.A. Rieman claimed that Mark had spoken to several people on the scene and that he would have said the name of the guilty person if the fire had been deliberately set.

    I’ll end this post with two questions.  First, could my brother really have said anything intelligible under the circumstances?  Someone with medical training explained to me that Mark’s extremely severe burns, third degree even on his head, would have constricted his trachea and made it very difficult for him to speak.  Second, if by chance Mark said any of the phrases mentioned in the witness statements (“I did nothing”/“I didn’t do anything,” “gas,” and “gasoline can”), might he not have meant something very different from what the authorities have assumed?  Those words could just as easily fit into a scenario in which my brother was attempting to reveal that he was a victim of foul play.