A previous post (April 20, 2011) discussed information reported to me about a ruckus on my brother Mark’s property immediately before his truck went into the field across from his house and burst into flames. This post expands on the issue and the failure to follow up by the N.Y.S. P. Senior Investigator at the time of Mark’s death and in 2010 an investigator for the Cattaraugus County District Attorney.
The report of a ruckus was brought to my attention by chance in late September 2009, when I stopped by the office of Our Lady of Peace Church in Salamanca to arrange for a Mass in memory of my brother. The secretary at the time said that she should have introduced me to the man who had just left because he had told her about being outside of his house and hearing a commotion on Mark’s property just before his truck went into the field. I had mentioned my brother’s suspicious death to the secretary, Judy Bess, on a previous visit to the church office to arrange for a Mass for him. Judy was straightforward in stating that she would normally not want to get involved in such a situation but that she felt very sorry for me.
According to Judy Bess, my brother’s neighbor Gene Woodworth told her the following: he happened to be outdoors and heard a ruckus going on outside Mark's house; he observed the truck go down the driveway and saw Mark; and he then rushed over and helped bat the flames out on Mark. No one had previously claimed to have seen my brother that night before the fire, though EMT and neighbor Cheryl Simcox told me that Mark’s wife Susan mentioned being aware of Mark’s presence on the property prior to the fire.
When I contacted Woodworth himself by phone the next day and mentioned hearing that he had been on the scene of my brother’s truck fire, he gave me a very different account of what he had heard and done. According to Woodworth, he first saw lights flashing and learned what was going on from another neighbor, Dan Smith, who was leaving as he arrived. Stating that he never saw Mark at all, Woodworth added that he thought "something [had] happened on the property" and surmised that Mark had backed the truck all the way across the road.
When I called Judy the following day to inform her of Woodworth’s account of his actions the night of Mark’s fire, she seemed shocked and said that she was sorry that he would not tell me the truth. She insisted that she had reported Woodworth’s statements accurately and added that he had mentioned “screaming” specifically coming from Mark’s property. I, of course, do not know what Woodworth really saw or did that night. But if he actually did hear a ruckus, that would have been an important detail for the investigation into my brother’s death, given that a wound was observed on Mark’s forehead by at least two emergency workers on the scene.
When I met with Cattaraugus County D. A. Lori Rieman and John Ensell in May 2010, I brought up Judy Bess’s account of what Gene Woodworth had told her, including the issue of a ruckus on Mark’s property. Ensell immediately insisted that it was not true, asserting that people tend to exaggerate their roles in events afterwards. But specific details may well be true. I also explained how Woodworth’s account to me was very different from Judy’s. D. A. Rieman instructed Ensell to contact Judy Bess and ask her about her conversation with Woodworth. Rieman informed me that they would follow up on Judy Bess’s information and send me a letter.
Ensell later responded by e-mail that Woodworth told him very little. As Ensell put it, Woodworth “saw yellow off in the distance, walked about half way down, and turned around and came back.” However, it was important to explain the contradictions with what Woodworth reportedly told Judy Bess. Yet Ensell claimed that he could not find a phone number for Judy.
It seems inconceivable that Ensell, a retired N.Y.S. P. Senior Investigator and then an investigator for the District Attorney, would be unable to locate a phone number for Judy. She apparently still lived in New York State and presumably had a New York State driver’s license. Tracking Judy down would have taken very little effort.
Given that Ensell did not contact Judy Bess as instructed, why didn’t D. A. Rieman press him harder or have another investigator do the job? Why was the whole issue of what Judy Bess had reported to me dropped by D. A. Rieman?
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