DNA Identifies 'Montauk Mary' And Links Killing To Jersey Thrill Killer

Suffolk County officials on Long Island have identified the young woman long known only as "Montauk Mary" as Sofia Margherita Marrone and are now investigating whether she was an uncounted victim of notorious New Jersey "thrill killer" Richard Biegenwald.^[1]

The breakthrough came after nearly five decades, when cold case detectives used modern DNA techniques and genealogical research to match remains found near Montauk's Camp Hero radar tower in 1978 to Marrone, whose family had long lost contact with her.^[1] Investigators say Marrone was killed with rare .22-caliber short ammunition that matches rounds recovered from Biegenwald when he was arrested in 1983, and they are re-examining files and witness accounts for a formal link.^[1]

On March 22, 1978, an Air Force airman found Marrone's body near the decommissioned radar tower at Camp Hero in Montauk, a remote tip of Long Island that was then only loosely patrolled. Her identity could not be confirmed at the time, and she became known in police files and local lore as "Montauk Mary" as leads dried up and the case turned cold. The weapon was never recovered, but ballistic work indicated she had been shot with .22-caliber short rounds, a comparatively uncommon type of ammunition.

Attention has returned to Biegenwald because of several overlaps with the Montauk case. A witness in 1978 reported seeing a bearded man driving a gold-colored car with New Jersey plates near the crime scene around the time Marrone is believed to have been killed, a description that broadly fits Biegenwald and one of the vehicles he used.^[1] When New Jersey authorities arrested him in 1983, they found a cache of weapons and rare .22-caliber short ammunition that ballistics experts say is consistent with that used on Marrone.^[1]

Biegenwald was later convicted in New Jersey of five murders and admitted to a sixth, earning the nickname "Jersey Shore thrill killer" for a series of seemingly random slayings in the late 1970s and early 1980s.^[1] Prosecutors have long suspected he was responsible for more killings than those charged, and Suffolk County investigators now say they are working with counterparts in New Jersey to determine whether Marrone can be added to that list, even though Biegenwald died in prison in 2008.^[1]

Detectives say the DNA identification offers a rare chance to resolve one of Long Island's lingering mysteries and to give Marrone's surviving relatives a measure of closure, even if a definitive prosecution is no longer possible. They are asking anyone who may have known Marrone in the late 1970s, or who recalls the bearded man and gold car near Camp Hero, to come forward as they try to reconstruct her final days and clarify whether one of New Jersey's most infamous killers also hunted on the far end of Long Island.^[1]

1. Fox News