Criminology - Anne Marie Fahey

Episode Date: September 21, 2019

Anne Marie Fahey was a 30-year-old woman who disappeared in 1996 after having dinner with an attorney named Thomas Capano. Anne Marie had previously had an affair with the married Capano, but at the time of her disappearance, she was dating a man she called the love of her life. But, Thomas Capano was not happy that their physical relationship had ended. As police began the investigation into Anne Marie's disappearance, they began to look at Thomas Capano as their #1 suspect. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the tragic death of Anne Marie Fahey. The details behind what happened to her are shocking. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. I'd like to welcome everyone to episode 79 of criminology. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, how are you today? I'm doing great. How about you?

Me too. I'm doing well. Episode 79. I can't believe we're almost 80 episodes into criminology. But then I say that, right? And then at the same time, think back that it seems like it was eight years ago when we did Zodiac. That's how long ago it seems. Yeah, it's funny.

We just celebrated, I think, two years just recently. So that time goes by pretty quickly. And it seems a lot longer than two years when we did Zodiac and even Golden State Killer. And we still get a lot of people asking about those older episodes, some of those older seasons. they are available on Stitcher Premium. And Stitcher Premium's great. They even have a 30-day free trial that a lot of people use. But a lot of people get hooked on that thing, Morp.

There are a ton of great podcasts out there on Stitcher Premium, and it's all ad-free. Yeah, I think it's a really good value for that small monthly amount to get that. And you get the 30-day free trial, so there's nothing to lose. Okay, before we jump into the episode, we have some new Patreon supporters. so let's give those shoutouts. We had Alicia Kirkpatrick, Mandy Cook, Lana Hyatt, who's a good friend, does some writing and research for our podcast, True Crime all the time, Kelly Ballou and Southern Ninja. So we appreciate all that support. We always do.

It goes a long way. Thanks so much for all of that support. It goes a long way. It helps us put this show out and continue to bring these cases to you. And if you'd like to help support the show on Patreon, you can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, with that out of the way, let's dive right in. In this episode, we are going to talk about a beautiful, successful young woman that had an affair with a married man.

And as we have seen in the past, those kinds of affairs can lead to big trouble and sometimes deadly consequences. And that's what happened in this case. The affair turned into a deadly obsession. And this is a case that has all the elements of a movie of the week. There's politics, sex, betrayal, obsession, and murder. But this is not the plot from a movie. It's about the real-life murder of a woman named Anne-Marie Fahey. Government secretary Anne-Marie Fahey disappeared without a trace

in June 1996, after having dinner with an attorney named Thomas Capano, who was married, but separated at the time. Anne-Marie had dated Thomas for about two or three years. And while Anne-Marie has never been found, Thomas Capano was convicted in 1999 of her murder. The case made national headlines, almost on a daily basis, and it remains one of Delaware's most high-profile cases to date. Anne-Marie Fahey was born in Wilmington, Delaware on January 27, 1966. She was the youngest child of Robert and Kathleen Fahey.

Anne's mother Kathleen was a secretary at the DuPont Company, and her father, Robert, was a salesman. The couple were introduced to each other by former Wilmington Mayor Bill McLaughlin. The two fell in love and eventually married. Over a 12-year period, they had six children. Kevin, Robert, Mark, Brian, Kathleen, and Anne. Marie. They made their home at 315 Delaware Avenue in Wilmington, Delaware. On March 16, 1975, Anne-Marie's mother, Kathleen, died from lung cancer at the age of 45. Anne-Marie was only nine years old at the time, but understood that her mother had been very ill. Anne's father had a hard time

accepting the loss of his wife and was overwhelmed at raising the children on his own, so Kathleen's mother would drive from Pennsylvania weekly to help him with the children in the household duties. The Fahey children relied on a large network of family and friends to help them cope and carry on without their mother. Anne-Marie began spending several days a week with another family, coming home only about one day to see her father and siblings. As Anne-Marie made her way through school, she became active in sports and she immersed herself in her schoolwork. In both junior high and high school, she played basketball and she played field hockey. She babysat children. She hung out with friends, anything to keep her away from home. During her sophomore year of high school,

her father moved across the state to Newark, Delaware. By this time, Anne-Marie's older siblings had moved out of the house and they were on their own. This was very tough on Anne-Marie. Her best friend's cousin had an extra room and offered it to her so that she could stay in Wilmington. During her senior year, Anne-Marie moved in with her older brothers, Robert and Kevin. They had bought a house on 21st Street in Wilmington. In 1984, Anne-Marie graduated from high school, and that summer moved in with her best friend, Beth Barnes, two hours away to the coastal Delaware town of Bethany Beach. The two worked and partied all summer long, enjoying being young and free.

But tragedy would strike the Fahey children once again. On March 24, 1986, their father, Robert, passed away from leukemia at the age of 63. Anne-Marie was only 20 years old and had already lost both her parents, and she was really missing some influential older people in her life. But despite that lack of guidance, she kept moving forward and graduated from Wesley College in Dover in 1989. She planned to find work in the field of international relations. Ed Freel, who at the time was then Delafere. congressman Tom Carper's aide and later became secretary of state of Delaware, had known the Fahey since Anne-Marie was little. Friel heard that she was looking for a job and he helped her

land one as a receptionist with Carper's office in 1991. When Carper became governor of Delaware in 1992, Anne-Marie became his appointment secretary and worked out of Carper's Dover office. Anne-Marie was good at her job and even better at diffusing hostile work situations that often came with the job. She was able to remain calm, often using humor. This was a really great position for Anne-Marie and one that she thoroughly enjoyed. Anne-Marie was well-liked. She had many friends. She was friendly but quiet.

She was energetic and caring. and she was extremely close to her siblings. But like many young women, Anne-Marie dreamed of finding the man of her dreams that she could settle down with and start a family. However, Anne-Marie's search for love and happiness didn't always lead her in the right direction. In late 1993, Anne-Marie started a secret affair with Thomas Capano, a lawyer who frequently visited Dover because of his work with government bond issues. The two had known each other since she began working for Carper. Thomas Capano, who was in his 40s, was considerably older than Anne-Marie, and even more troublesome was that he was married with four children.

He came from a family of real estate developers. His father, Louis J. Capano, earned quite a fortune in real estate holdings, which included apartment complexes, office buildings, and hotels. Louis J. Capano had taken over the company from his father. Thomas was a graduate of Archmere Academy, a private Catholic boys school in Claymont, Delaware. He also graduated from Boston College and the Boston College Law School. And while his three brothers stuck to the family tradition and started careers at their father's company, Thomas chose law and returned to the Wilmington area to begin practicing it.

In 1972, he married Kathleen K. Ryan and the two bought a condo at Cavaliers, a complex near Newark, Delaware that was built by his father. Two years later, he took a job as a public defender and in 1976 became a prosecutor. He left that job and became a partner at the law firm Morris, James, Hitchens, and Williams, where he handled commercial real estate transactions as well as personal injury claims. In 1978, Thomas and Kay bought a home from the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington for $100,000. This is the home where they raised their children. Thomas had a good career. He had even served as an aide to former Wilmington Mayor Daniel Frawley and former governor Michael Castle. By the time he started seeing Anne-Marie, he was a private attorney working at Saul,

Ewing, Remick, and Saul. Thomas Capano had wealth and power, and always used it to his advantage, especially when it came to women. His marriage to Kay began unraveling in the early 1990s, and by 1995, the couple separated. They later divorced in 1998. Thomas moved into a rental home in the 2,300 block of Grand Avenue, and was still seeing Anne-Marie at this point. Kay later said she never knew about Thomas's affair with Anne-Marie. To Anne-Marie, to Anne-Marie, this was a chance for her and Thomas to start a real relationship, an honest one that they could be open about. What Anne-Marie didn't know was that Thomas was also seeing other women besides her. One of those women was Deborah McIntyre, the wife of one of Thomas's law partners.

He and Deborah had been seeing each other for over a decade. And Thomas was also pursuing other women as well. He splurged on all the women that he was involved with. He took them to upscale restaurants. He lavished them with expensive gifts. He once offered to buy Anne-Marie a Lexus sports car, but she turned it down. During Thomas Capana's marriage, Anne-Marie had to keep the affair secret, but made it clear that she did not want Thomas to leave his wife and kids for her.

She did tell a few close friends about the affair and how she loved the way Tomahs. Thomas treated her, saying no man had ever treated her as good as he did. The two often met secretly for lunch or dinner in Philadelphia and had romantic trist at her Wilmington apartment on Washington Street. But now that Thomas Capano was no longer married, Anne-Marie started to reevaluate the relationship, and someone came into Anne-Marie's life that made her doubt the relationship altogether. In 1995, Anne-Marie met Michael Scanlon through a mutual friend, Scanlan seemed to have a lot going for him. He was a handsome, 30-something banker and Georgetown University graduate. Anne-Marie was instantly drawn to this guy, and the two began dating. They felt for one another pretty quickly, and it wasn't long, before Michael was accompanying Anne-Marie to family dinners and events.

Anne-Marie stopped having a sexual relationship with Thomas Capano, but she hoped to be. remain friends. That didn't sit well with Thomas. He started to become abusive to Anne-Marie, called her over and over, and even began stalking her. By the spring of 1996, Anne-Marie thought she and Thomas had reached an understanding about their new relationship. And although she was seeing less and less of Thomas, they still kept in touch. But Thomas Capano never accepted being just friends with Anne-Marie. While it was obvious that he could be with whoever he wanted. He wanted Anne-Marie Fahey all to himself. Anne-Marie wanted to be truthful with Michael Scanlon and her family about the affair with Thomas Capano and that she had

ended it. But the thought of coming clean caused Anne-Marie a lot of stress and anxiety. She was afraid that if Michael found out, he would end their relationship. She had hoped to marry Michael one day and start a family with him. This was the man that she had always dreamt of. By June 1996, stress from dealing with Thomas Capano and hiding the relationship from her loved ones caused Anne-Marie's anorexia to flare up. This was something that she had struggled with since childhood. According to people that knew her, she abused laxatives. She was very thin for her 5-foot 10-inch frame, weighing just around 117 pounds.

Anne-Marie a lot of times wore loose, baggy clothing to cover up. up how thin she really was. On June 12th, Anne-Marie fainted at work. But instead of calling Michael to pick her up, for some unknown reason, she phoned Thomas Capano. Anne-Marie's weight loss worried family and friends, but she would brush them off, saying that she was fine. Anne-Marie had been in therapy for quite some time and was being treated for depression. In 1995, her therapist was killed in a car accident and a devastating. stated Anne-Marie. She then started seeing a psychologist named Michelle Sullivan. By June 1996, Anne-Marie was feeling much better, both physically and mentally. On June 27th,

Anne-Marie left work at 5 p.m. and stopped by her therapist office to pick up anti-anxiety prescriptions. Afterwards, she drove home, changed into a nice floral dress, and then waited for Thomas Capanna to pick her up for a dinner date they had arranged. Thomas and Anne-Marie arrived. Thomas and Anne-Marie arrived at Restauranté Panorama in Philadelphia at around 7 p.m. The couple's waitress, a woman named Jackie Dansac, said the two were quiet and somber when she approached their table. But Anne-Marie managed to force a smile. The waitress found their demeanor odd because most of the guests in the restaurant were laughing, they were enjoying their dinner. But Anne-Marie looked sad.

Anne was sipping a vodka and cranberry juice. Thomas was drinking a glass of chardonnay. When Jackie brought the $154 check to the table, Thomas put his credit card down on the check and pushed it over to Anne Marie so she could calculate the tip. There were other witnesses from that night that said that Thomas dominated the conversation and that Anne Marie seemed very sad. The couple left the restaurant around 9 p.m.

At 9.15 p.m., Michael Scanlon called Anne-Marie and left the message on her answering machine, wanting her to join him and friends at a bar and grill called Kid Chalines. When he called, he was at his friend Ken Bowles' house. Just before 10 p.m., when Michael and his group were getting ready to head to Kid Chalines, he called Anne-Marie again, but she never answered. He wasn't worried because he knew he was going to see her the next day. but Michael never saw Anne-Marie again. On June 28th, Anne-Marie was supposed to meet up with Michael and go to her brother

Robert's house for dinner. Anne-Marie never showed. When her siblings had not heard from her by Saturday night, Anne-Marie's sister Kathleen drove to her apartment. When she got there, she saw Anne-Marie's Volkswagen Jetta parked across the street. Anne-Marie's apartment door was locked, so the landlord let her sister in. all of Anne-Marie's personal belongings were still there. Her purse, her wallet with her driver's license, all of her credit cards, some cash, a gift box, and Anne-Marie's luggage. The lights were off, but the air conditioner was on. There were no signs of a struggle in the apartment. Kathleen called police early on Sunday, June 30th. And one of the biggest police investigations in Delaware's history was about. to begin. Wilmington police led the investigation in Anne-Marie's disappearance. But once Governor

Carper found out his secretary was missing, he ordered the state police to get involved. Investigators began questioning friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors of Anne-Marie. Brian Fahey said when he last saw his sister on June 21st, she seemed happy. A friend, Robert H. Shurles, said Anne-Marie sent him a computer message on Wednesday, June 26th, asking him to buzz her. But he didn't do that. He was going to do that the following Monday. Anne-Marie's sister Kathleen last saw her on June 26th. The two had gone shopping together at Talbets in Wilmington. Kathleen said she scolded Anne-Marie for trying on an expensive suit that she knew Anne-Marie couldn't afford. Kathleen also said Anne-Marie had told her that Michael Scanlan was,

quote, the one. And the two had talked about marriage. This thrilled Kathleen because she really liked Michael Scanlon. During the investigation, police talked to one of Anne-Marie's neighbors. This was a guy by the name of Rudolph Tyler. He told them that he had seen a man in a dark SUV pick up Anne-Marie a few times, but he didn't know who the man was. Police searched Anne-Marie's apartment for evidence. They even used a helicopter to search across the street

at Brandywine Park. And this park was 178 acres. So we're talking about a pretty vast area to cover. This is why they've used helicopters. The police decided not to bring in the canine units. It was just too much area to cover. On June 29th, after two attempts to contact him, police questioned Thomas Capano.

He told police, after he and Anne-Marie left the Panorama restaurant, he took her back to his rental home on Grant Avenue, where he gave her a $400 address and some Spanish tapes. Anne Marie was fluent in Spanish and absolutely loved the language. She had spent a year studying in Spain during her college years. According to Capano, after he and Anne-Marie left his house, he drove her back to her apartment, where he says he fixed a faulty air conditioner. He left her apartment at 10 p.m.

Shortly after Thomas Capano was questioned by police, he retained the, the high-profile law firm, a former Attorney General Charles Oberley III, and his former top aide, Kathleen M. Jennings. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door, and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible.

A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and Water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa.

Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodontets. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. A woman named Connie Blake, who lived downstairs from Anne-Marie, told police that on the night she disappeared,

Connie heard footsteps coming from Anne-Marie's apartment around 10 p.m. But she didn't think much about it, didn't seem like it was really anything out of the ordinary, and she went to bed around 11 p.m. Connie and Anne-Marie had this sort of mother-daughter-type relationship, and Connie knew that Anne-Marie kept a diary. This diary would ultimately cast suspicion on Thomas Capano. A few days after her disappearance, Michael Scanlon went to police to tell them of his whereabouts on June 27th. He wasn't considered a suspect, and Anne-Marie's family didn't believe he was involved. It was around this time that Anne-Marie's family offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts.

Friends and family began hitting the streets of Wilmington, tanned out missing flyers of Anne-Marie all over the city. One week after Anne-Marie vanished, 300 people showed up and joined the search for her. Police divided the group into search parties to canvass the neighborhood and surrounding area. They spent two hours combing through the Brandywine Park alone. One woman found some women's clothing, but it wasn't Anne-Marie's. Another search team uncovered freshly turned dirt, but police found nothing when they dug it up. At this point in the investigation, police had nothing to suggest foul play was involved, and they labeled Anne-Marie as a missing person.

But Anne-Marie was very close to her siblings. We talked about that. She would never voluntarily leave the area without letting them know. When police questioned Michelle Sullivan, Anne-Marie's therapist in July, she told them her client would never have gone to Thomas Capano's home because she had grown frightened of him. The therapist also told police that Anne-Marie may have gone to dinner with Thomas on June 27th to cut ties with him once and for all. As the days past, Anne-Marie's family started to lose hope that she would be found alive. false rumors started circulating about police finding a woman's body, and authorities had to assure the public that the rumors weren't true.

By August 1, 1996, a couple of things happened in the investigation. Then President Bill Clinton offered the FBI's assistance in the Fahey investigation, and local authorities accepted. Investigators, led by U.S. assistant attorney, Colm F. Conley, spent 11 hours searching Thomas Capana's home and property, filling two vans with evidence. During the search of Thomas Capanna's home, they found two spots of blood,

later identified to be Anne-Marie's. Investigators also stopped Thomas Capano's estranged wife, K, and searched for vehicles as well. The FBI then announced they were investigating an interstate kidnapping, and Thomas Capano was a suspect. The other thing that happened was the release of the contents of Anne-Marie's diary

to the local newspaper, the news journal. Kathleen Fahey found Anne-Marie's diary, but it's unclear how the news journal got a hold of it. Whether it's Kathleen or the police who release the contents, the entries would later be read at trial. The diary entries spanned a period of five years. On April 7, 1996, Anne-Marie wrote, happy Easter. Well, another year has passed since my last entry, and man-oh-man has a lot happened. I've been through a lot of emotional battles. I finally brought closure to Tom Capano.

What a controlling, manipulative, insecure, jealous maniac. I don't think it's any stretch, morph to say that these diary entries did not reflect well on Thomas Capano, both in the eyes of investigators, but also in the eyes of the public. In early August, authorities searched two landfills for Anne-Marie's body but found nothing. That same month, a special grand jury session took place where Thomas's brother, Louis Capano Jr., was questioned about the disappearance of Anne-Marie. Also questioned was Lewis's son, Louis Capano III, two other men, and one female. No indictments were returned, and Thomas Capano did not appear. In the fall of 1996, the court ruled that the

case files, including search warrants and affidavits in the Fahey investigation, be sealed to the public. This didn't sit well with the local press, and they filed motions to have them unsealed. However, U.S. magistrate, Mary Pat Trossel denied the motions, but eventually unsealed the warrants at the end of October, 1996. The search warrants revealed that when authorities were searching the Capano home, they were looking for weapons and any evidence pointing to the disposal of a body, such as chemicals, tools, and rugs or carpets. They also made Thomas Capano give them hair and blood samples. In January 1997, a probable cause affidavit was unsealed

that showed authorities suspected Thomas killed Anne-Marie in his home. Capano's legal team tried to keep the case file sealed but failed. Several months later, on October 8, 1997, feds raided the home of Gerard Jerry Capano, Thomas's younger brother, they were searching for cocaine and guns. It was just after 5 p.m. that a U.S. magistrate issued the warrant and the search began soon after. It went on until about 11 p.m. Investigators seized some marijuana, two grams of cocaine, and 21 weapons, including 14 guns. But no charges were filed. Prosecutors believed. that Jerry helped Thomas dispose of Anne-Marie's body, and they wanted him to talk.

So they put a lot of pressure on him, and they threatened to charge him with possession of weapons by a drug user. If he didn't cooperate with their investigation, this was a pretty serious charge. It carried a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. And the tactic worked because Jerry Capano spilled his guts on November 8th, 1997. And more of if you think about it, this is a smart tactic that is used a lot of times by investigators, by law enforcement, when someone is facing pretty serious jail time. They are more willing to give up their friends, their family, talk about their involvement in a crime in exchange for leniency or. or in some cases having those charges dropped altogether.

It's a great ploy to use. The problem that I have with it sometimes is I think you get people that say things that may not be 100% true because they're so desperate to get out of these charges. It can be a double-edged sword, in my opinion. They say that blood is thicker than water and you like to think that you'll be loyal to a family member but if you're looking down the barrel of a hefty sentence in prison, I think some of those allegiances go out the window and some of those loyalties sort of go to the side so you can get a lesser prison sentence like you're saying.

I don't think there's any doubt about it. You know, sitting at home on your couch any day of the week, you're watching TV, very few cares in the world. When you're sitting at home on your couch, weighing the fact, that you could possibly do 10 years in prison. I think many people would do almost anything they had to do, including giving up their family to get out of doing that time. One month after Anne-Marie disappeared,

Jerry Capano sold his 25-foot hydrosports fishing boat to a Pike Creek man. He told the FBI that he used his boat to help dispose of Anne-Marie's body on June 28, 1996. although he claimed he didn't know the body was Anne-Marie's at the time. Jerry said that Thomas had told him he had killed someone who was trying to extort money from him. Thomas had purchased a five-foot ice chest prior to Anne-Marie's disappearance. On June 28th, Thomas put her body in the chest, and he and Jerry took Jerry's boat out, 60 to 75 miles east of the New Jersey coast, where the depth of the water was around 200 feet.

They dumped the chest into the ocean, but instead of sinking, it just floated. Thomas used a gun and fired a shot into the chest. Jerry said blood spilled out, but the chest remained above water, bobbing around. Jerry then maneuvered the boat closer to the chest and Thomas picked it up and put it back on the boat. Thomas took the body out of the chest and laid it on the deck of the boat. He then tied anchors to it and he dumped the body overboard. Jerry said that he could see part of a foot and calf as it sank in the water. Afterwards, Thomas tossed a cooler back into the seat.

Four days after Jerry spoke with the FBI, agents pulled Thomas Capano over on I-95 as he was driving to the Philadelphia International Airport and arrested him. That same night, he was arraigned on a state murder charge. One month later in December, 1997, a grand jury indicted Thomas Capano. and in January of 1998, Thomas Capano pleaded not guilty and asked for bail. The bail was later denied. Prosecutors announced they were seeking the death penalty. A trial date was set for October 6, 1998.

In June of that year, almost two years after she disappeared, a judge declared Anne-Marie dead. On August 31, 1998, a grand jury indicted Thomas Capano on three counts of solicitation for alleged plots to kill Deborah McIntyre and Jerry Capano, who were witnesses for the prosecution. Thomas asked a fellow inmate named Wilfredo Rosa twice to kill Deborah and Jerry once in December of 1997 and again in March of 1998. He also asked another inmate, Nick Perillo, to burglarize Deborah's home. Trial began as scheduled on October 6, 1998, and lasted 12 weeks. There were several highlights of the trial.

On October 26th, defense attorney Joseph O'Terry admitted to the court that Thomas Capano dumped Anne-Marie's body at sea, but said her death was a horrible accident that Thomas Capano covered up. Deborah testified on November 26 that Thomas asked her to buy a gun for him in May of 1996. Debra said she bought a 22 caliber of Roretta and gave it to Thomas Capano. He then asked her to say she had gotten rid of it. When Thomas took the stand on December 16th, he told a different story of events. Over a two-week period, he testified about his multiple affairs, including the one with Anne-Marie Fahey. He also used that opportunity to throw Deborah McIntyre under the bus by telling the jury she actually

accidentally shot Anne-Marie in a jealous rage. According to his testimony, Deborah McIntyre showed up at his house on June 27th when he and Anne-Marie were there after leaving the Panorama restaurant. Deborah denied being there altogether. He claimed he was trying to keep a suicidal Deborah from shooting herself. Thomas said Deborah became enraged when she found out that his wife, was pregnant. Thomas reached for Deborah and she accidentally fired the gun, hitting Anne-Marie in the head, killing her instantly. He then described how he got rid of the body by placing

Anne-Marie in the chest and jumping it in the ocean. Prosecutors asked if he heard any bones breaking. He replied that he pushed her knees into a fetal position but insisted no bones were broken in the process. And you have to, you know, imagine this line of questioning. This is gruesome, horrific stuff. The prosecutors are asking him to tell the jury whether he heard bones breaking. And of course, he's going to say no, whether it happened or not. But I just, you know, I often think about it in these cases more putting myself in that jury seat, right, as one of the jurors. having to listen to what you know is a lot of gruesome testimony. And then on top of that, trying to weed through all the BS, trying to sort out what's fact,

what is a witness trying to get you to believe what they want you to believe. It's a very tough job, right, to be a juror on one of these capital cases. I think in cases like this, it really paints a picture with these details of the scene. You know, I imagine like a movie that we've probably seen at some point, somebody takes a boat out into the middle of the bay or the ocean and looks around and makes sure no one's there and just drops off bodies with anchors tied to them. And that's a movie when we watch this, but this is real life. And the fact that somebody was cold and callous enough to do this

and that came out at trial, those details are really hard to go through sometimes. So it does remind me of the show Dexter. I don't know if that was a show that you watched Morph. That was one of my favorite shows. Dexter's M.O. After he murdered someone was to take them out on his boat. Now, he was down in Miami, but he would take him out on the boat and dump them in the ocean. I know I've watched Dexter.

And you're right, he used to do that a lot. There was also the Sopranos, and I think in a few episodes of that, people were dumped off the side of a boat as well. Oh, and just imagine how many times it has happened throughout the years. How many bodies have been dumped in the oceans? The amount is probably staggering if we really knew the true number. Kind of makes you want to not play around at the beach. When Thomas Coppana's brother, Joseph, testified on December 10th, he told the court that Thomas purchased the large ice chest in April

1996 as a thank you and birthday gift for their younger brother, Jerry. It wasn't purchased for the sole purpose of disposing of Anne-Marie's body. Joseph said that he was the one who suggested the chest to Thomas. However, Jerry's birthday was in May, and Joseph couldn't explain why Thomas still hadn't given it to him. Not only that, but Jerry already owned a four-foot ice chest. Defense lawyers fired back that it wasn't fishing season in May, so Thomas was going to give Jerry the chest over the 4th of July weekend that year. Jerry Capano testified as a key witness for the prosecution. He told the court that he helped Thomas transport the body to Stone Harbor, where they got on his boat, took the body and dumped it and the ice chest into the ocean. defense attorney spent a lot of time attacking Jerry's credibility. They claimed that his years of drug and alcohol abuse had distorted his memory.

Prosecutors presented the ice chest to the court. A fisherman had found it floating in the Atlantic Ocean. During deliberations, one of the jurors who was shorter than Anne-Marie but about the same weight tried laying in the cooler and she couldn't fit. Anne-Marie was two inches taller. So the jury was not convinced that everything went down the way Thomas Capano had said it did. Thomas had to either break Anne-Marie's bones or dismember her body to get it into that chest. I think, Morph, this was one of the big factors with this jury in determining the verdict. And I've just got to say. I've just got to say. stop here and ask one question. If you're that juror, how do you get into that cooler where you know

a body's been and that's been floating around the ocean? I don't know how they would make somebody get in there willingly. Well, that's something I didn't think about. You know, I guess when we were talking about it, I was thinking that maybe they had brought in a similar cooler for the jurors to have in the deliberation room. But if we're talking about it, I was thinking about it, I was thinking that maybe they had brought in a similar cooler, if we're talking about the very cooler that Anne-Marie's body was allegedly in, that's something different entirely to willingly put yourself in that position as a juror to say, you know what, I will get in, knowing that there's a strong possibility there was a dead body in this cooler. As a juror, I think at that point, you're really going all out.

I think it really paints a picture to the jury when this person decided to climb in there and they knew that there was no way that Anne-Marie Faye could have fit in there. I think that really demonstrated to them that Thomas Capano was lying. And if he was lying about the way her body was in there, what else was he lying about? It's sort of reminiscent of the OJ trial, how powerful that moment was when he put that glove on and it didn't fit. It just really stood out. and it's set in motion possibly one of the big reasons why he was found not guilty. Yeah, and I think you can look at any big trial and probably point to one piece of evidence,

one thing that happened, right? There's these jury members that are sitting in the deliberation room. What is it? what is the one thing or two or three things that really are the deciding factors on how they come up with their decision? I think that part's fascinating. I mean, wouldn't you like morph to be a fly on the wall in a jury deliberation room? To hear what they go over, to hear about, you know, what evidence they place weight on, what evidence they discount, what testimony, all of that stuff. To me is very fascinating. On January 17, 1999, the jury convicted Thomas Capano of murder, and two months later, a judge

sentenced him to death. Over the next few years, Capano's attorneys appealed his death sentence. It was commuted to life in prison in 2006. That same year, true crime author Anne Rule wrote the book and never let her go about the Fahey case. It was made into a TV movie in 2001 and starred Catherine Morris as Anne-Marie and Mark Harmon as Thomas Capano. Morph, is there a case that Anne Rule did not write a book about? I swear, it seems like she was so prolific. She wrote a true crime novel about almost every case that happened.

She was very prolific. Yeah, she definitely is, one of those people that you think of when you hear about some of these cases. And to that point, is there anybody that plays a part of a high profile criminal on TV movies like Mark Harmon? You know, I was thinking that same thing. You take the Mark Harmon from like NCIS. That's one character. You can also go back and look at the Mark Harmon from a movie like Summer School, which, you know, was an 80s movie that, that you and I probably watched in our youth. But then there's this whole other side of his acting ability that to me, like you said,

really comes out when he's playing kind of a bad guy, a villain. And who can forget what he did as Ted Bundy and Stranger Beside Me? That's the one that I think of every time I think of Mark Harmon playing a bad guy. Which happens to be another and rule book. So it all comes full circle. Thomas Capano served only 12 years in prison. On September 19th, 2011, he passed away in prison at the age of 61. It was said that Thomas had gained an incredible amount of weight and died from a heart attack, the same way that his father had died in 1980. And Anne Marie's family suffered even more tragedy.

Anne-Marie's brother Mark died in July of 2004, and her brother Kevin died in December of 2017. Anne-Marie's other siblings, Brian and Kathleen Fahey-Hosey still reside in Delaware, and her brother Robert lives in Pennsylvania. So more of I think in kind of wrapping up this case, that's a lot of tragedy, right, for the Fahey family. And first of all, to lose Anne-Marie at a young age, this is a big family. But then to have two other siblings pass away, I mean, it's just a lot of tragedy for one family to go through. This is a case that I think stays with people.

More of I think you would know especially, you know, living pretty close to where this case took place. Yeah, this was big news back in the 90s when it happened. I remember seeing it. There was something about it. Every night, it seemed like on local news. I live in the Delaware Valley. So this definitely was big news here. And there was always something going on with the trial or you would see Thomas Capano's picture as the lead story going in to the news. So it definitely had people's attention. And then eventually it hit a wider audience with Anne Rule's book and the TV movie. This was really a case where an affair, like, to a dangerous attraction and to eventually to murder. So this is really unfortunate. And we hear about cases like this every once in a while. But here's the thing that I guess sticks out to me about this case.

You look at a guy like Thomas Capano who seemingly had it all, right? He had this great career. He was making a considerable amount of money. It seemed like he was able to date just. about any woman that he wanted to, but he became fixated on Anne-Marie Fahey. And essentially, through his entire life away in the process of taking her life, that's the part that I can't fully understand. Now, I don't understand murder at all. Don't get me wrong, but for someone to have everything going for them and to risk it all because they can't

get over what, a breakup when he was already dating multiple women on the side. It's just a very strange thing to understand. And I think maybe for people like you and I that have never killed anyone and most of the listeners out there that can't understand this. You say most, most the listeners. Well, listeners out there that have never been in the situation or killed anybody, maybe that's what makes us different to where we can't understand that because we've never come to that line or cross that line. That doesn't make sense to us, but these other people that do it cross that line somehow. And I think you make a very good point because if we could make sense of it, right? Either you or I or the listeners, that would probably put us in the

category of people that have the ability to kill. Because it's something that, you or I, or the listeners, that something that you should not be able to make sense of. But I don't know more, we talk about a lot of cases where people are down and out, they're desperate. They make a horrible decision, whether it's for money or, you know, for whatever reason. This one just seems so strange in the fact that this guy seemingly had it all. Why could he not move on from this failed relationship with Anne-Marie Fahey. Why did he feel like he needed to possess her and ultimately take her life?

It's tragic, it's perplexing, it's all of those things. I think even more than that, it's the lengths he went through to cover it up. It's not that I would condone it, but if somebody got into an argument with somebody else and spur of the moment something happened, they accidentally killed them and realized what they did and called police,

that's one thing, but to go out of your way to either break bones or hack a body up to put it into a cooler and try and take it out and sink it, it just shows no remorse. And it makes me wonder what kind of person Thomas Capano was all along. But the thing is, I don't believe this was an accident, right? You gave the scenario where somebody accidentally killed somebody. They called the police. They said, oh, this is what happened. This was not an accident. I believe that he set out to murder Anne-Marie Fahey.

And I also believe he was a pretty smart guy. So he was going to use all of his knowledge to try to get away with this. It didn't work, but he gave it a try. Thanks to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research assistance in this episode. As always, if you haven't done so, take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating if you love the show. Keep telling your friends. That goes a long way towards helping other people find the podcast. If you're on social media, we'd love to hear from you.

We're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast. You can also join our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast, discussion, and fans. So that's it for the case of Thomas Capano and the murder of Anne-Marie. It's also it for another episode of criminology. But we'll be back next Saturday night with an all new episode. So for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week.

Take care, everyone.