The lead investigator of my brother’s death Edward Kalfas told Atty. Michael Kelly that he had not found anyone who saw Mark out the day of his truck fire. An anonymous letter sent to me, however, stated that just before the fire my brother had been at the house of a neighbor, who said that Mark could not have had the kind of high blood alcohol level the police claimed (see esp. post of August 11, 2014). Several of Mark’s close friends were neighbors, that is, they lived within a mile or so of his house in rural Great Valley, NY, and saw him on a regular basis.
It was certainly important for the NYSP investigators to find out if anyone had seen Mark in the evening around the time he returned home just before his truck burned in the field across from his house. Inv. Kalfas stated that Mark was depressed about his DWI the day before the truck fire (on the problematic circumstances leading up to that DWI, see most recently post of February 28, 2021) and, with no real basis for that claim, stated very early on in the investigation that it looked as if my brother had committed suicide (see most recently post of November 30, 2023).
How many of Mark’s close friends who saw him regularly were actually interviewed, and to what extent were they questioned? The police report that I obtained through a FOIL request in September 2004 is heavily redacted, and in Kalfas’s narrative the names of all private citizens interviewed are blacked out, with the exception of Mark’s wife Susan and my own name (in particular, concerning a phone conversation with Inv. Kalfas on September 29, 2003, that does not accurately summarize information I gave the investigator).
Although the name of the individual is blacked out, Kalfas’s entry in the police report for November 22, 2003, clearly represents his interview with Mark’s friend Jim Poole, whom Mark had known since high school. Kalfas quotes Jim as follows: “[W]hen he got the DWI with his name in the paper, I think it pushed him over the edge.” Yet when I myself spoke by telephone with Jim Poole on November 11, 2003, he said that he considered Mark "a proud man" who would be humiliated by publicity about the DWI, especially because he did a lot of charity work, but added that he did not find that a very convincing as a motive for suicide (see post of November 1, 2012). Jim also commented on the shouting that went on between my brother and his wife whenever he happened to be at their house and mentioned that, as far as he knew, the last person who saw my brother was Todd Lindell, another close friend of Mark’s.
To judge by his entry on Jim Poole in the police report, Kalfas appears to have asked Jim only about Mark’s drinking and about a possible motive for suicide. He seems not to have been interested in finding out who had contact with my brother the day of his truck fire, and he was obviously not interested in finding out about any other relevant issue.
Kalfas’s interview of Mark’s friend Jim Wright is revealed in a witness statement dated October 24, 2003. Although Jim’s signature is blacked out, the identities of the five individuals who gave witness statements were left unredacted by the NYSP, presumably inadvertently. Oddly, Jim Wright’s is the only witness statement by any close friend of Mark’s, whether a neighbor or not.
Stating that he knew Mark for many years and that they were very good friends, Jim mentions that he picked Mark up from his DWI the day before the truck fire. Although noting that Mark was a regular smoker, he contradicts rumors that Mark caught on fire as he was filling up his tank, since he knew for certain that Mark never let his tank go below half-full (and therefore presumably would have had no reason to fill it up late at night at home). Jim ends by insisting that Mark had no “suicidal tendencies.”
As with Jim Poole, it seems clear that Kalfas was most interested to know if Jim Wright thought Mark was suicidal. There is nothing in Jim Wright’s witness statement about what Jim and his wife Alexis revealed to Kalfas (presumably at the time of Kalfas’s interview of Jim) about the reaction of Mark’s wife when they dropped Mark off at his house from the DWI (see post of August 22, 2012). When later asked by Atty. Kelly about the absence of that information, Kalfas replied that he didn’t consider it important.
Like Jim Poole and Jim Wright, Mark’s friend Sidney Lindell had known him for many years and saw him frequently. In a phone conversation with me on December 16, 2003, Sid said that he had seen Mark about a week before his death. He also mentioned that he was surprised to learn that Mark had started drinking again because he had been completely sober for years. Since Kalfas seemed to think that my brother was an inveterate alcoholic, Sid’s information would have provided Kalfas a useful corrective to distorted views about Mark’s drinking. However, in a later conversation, Sid told me that he had not been interviewed by the NYSP investigator.
In a phone conversation with me on November 13, 2003, Mark’s friend Todd Lindell mentioned that he had seen my brother on a daily basis for years and had an "open door" policy for him. Todd informed me that he had retrieved Mark’s truck from impoundment the evening of his DWI and stated that on the day before the truck fire Mark was at his house well into the evening. Without any explanation, Todd suddenly said, “Mark would be alive today if he had not gotten the DWI" (see most recently post of February 28, 2020, and March 31, 2021). Although I was later unable to reach Todd, that comment suggests that he may have had some potentially important information for the investigation. However, he indicated that he had not been interviewed.
In his narrative in the police report for October 25, 2002, Kalfas reports his interviews of three individuals, all of whom, he says, “are friends and neighbors of the victim.” Kalfas’s summary of these interviews records only references to Mark’s drinking. In addition to a more extended comment by one of the interviewees about seeing Mark sitting in his truck drinking, the investigator lumps together their views on that subject, as follows: “Each agreed that the victim used to hang around their houses a lot and was often drinking.”
Were Sidney Lindell and his cousin Todd Lindell among these three individuals, even though they told me they were not interviewed? If so, it is difficult to reconcile the disparity between what Kalfas records and what each one said to me.
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