For nearly half a century, the woman known as “Montauk Mary” remained unidentified. Cold case investigators now say she was Sofia Margherita Marrone, and they are examining whether she may have been killed by Richard Biegenwald, the New Jersey serial killer known as the “Thrill Killer.”
Marrone had survived the Great Depression before disappearing in 1978. Her body was found on March 22 that year by a U.S. airman taking a break in a park near Montauk’s Camp Hero radar tower, in East Hampton, New York.
Suffolk County investigators said Thursday that new DNA techniques helped identify Marrone. She had been shot and killed just hours before her body was discovered, about 250 miles from where she was last seen.
Marrone, who lived in Pleasantville, New Jersey, was last seen leaving a hospital in Somers Point on March 16, 1978. An autopsy found three gunshot wounds to her legs and one to her chest.
Authorities said the ammunition used to kill her was the same unusual .22-caliber short rounds Biegenwald was carrying when New Jersey police arrested him in 1983. He was known to approach people walking in communities along the Jersey Shore.
A witness also reported seeing a bearded man in a gold-colored car with New Jersey plates near the park where Marrone was found, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said. Biegenwald had a beard and owned several vehicles, including one that generally matched the witness’s description.
Investigators have not declared the case solved. Biegenwald died in prison in 2008 while serving life sentences for six killings committed between 1958 and 1982. He had also been suspected in three other murders.
Marrone was one of six people whose identities were announced by authorities Thursday. Three of the six are believed to have been homicide victims, one is thought to have drowned accidentally, and the cause of death in the remaining case is still being investigated.
Retired NYPD cold case sergeant Joseph Giacalone said Suffolk County’s approach could serve as an example for other law enforcement agencies. He pointed to the district attorney’s cold case unit, its partnerships with state and federal agencies, and its continued investment in cases that may be solved.
“Every person deserves to be known by their name, and every victim deserves answers and justice,” Tierney said. He added that although five decades had passed since the first of the six people was found dead, investigators had remained committed to identifying them and pursuing justice.
