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.