Dark Downeast - The Murder of Matthew Margolies (Connecticut)

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

When 13-year old Matthew Margolies didn’t come home for supper on the night of August 31, 1984, police in Greenwich, Connecticut launched a full scale search scouring the Pemberwick woods and waters of the Byram River for any sign of the young fisherman.Despite numerous suspects and abundant evidence over the last 40 years, police have failed to make an arrest in this senseless crime that tossed the otherwise idyllic New England town into a state of chaos.The 1984 homicide of Matthew Margolies remains open and active. If you have any information relating to this case, please contact the Greenwich Police Tip line at 203-622-3333 or toll free at 800-372-1176. Tips may also be emailed to [e-mail]. View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/matthewmargolies Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case

When 13-year-old Matthew Margolis didn't come home for supper on the night of August 31, 1984, police in Greenwich, Connecticut launched a full-scale search, scouring the Pembroke Woods and waters of the Byram River for any sign of the young fisherman. Despite numerous suspects and abundant evidence over the last 40 years, police have failed to make an arrest in this senseless crime that tossed the otherwise idyllic New England town into a state of chaos. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Matthew Margolis on Dark Down East. Driving through the Pemberwick section of Greenwich, Connecticut on a summer day in the early 80s, you were pretty much guaranteed to catch a glimpse of 13-year-old Matthew Margolis. Whether riding his bike between his house and his grandparents' place, posting up outside the Sparta Deli,

or traversing the banks of the Byram River with a fishing rod in hand, Matthew was an ever-present figure in the valley. Matthew was a skilled angler, even as a young teen, and he learned much of what he knew about fishing from his grandfather, George. By all accounts, grandfather George was Matthew's best friend. They fished on the Byram together not far from their homes, and George taught his grandson everything he could about the outdoors and survival in the wilderness. When Matthew's parents divorced in late 1983 and his father moved away, Matthew became even closer to his grandparents. He lived with his

mother and sister only a few blocks away from his grandparents, but Matthew even closer to his grandparents. He lived with his mother and sister only a few blocks away from his grandparents, but Matthew often preferred to spend the night at their house instead. The more time with George, the better, and it made for an earlier start to the next day's outdoor adventures together. And the outdoor adventures continued, identifying edible berries, scouting the best trout fishing spots, learning how to walk quietly on the fallen sticks and leaves in the woods. It was all part of the special time that George and Matthew shared together, until the summer of 1984, when George was diagnosed with cancer. It was fast moving, and George grew weak and tired as the disease took a toll on his body.

Their days of fishing together were far and few between until George was eventually confined to his home. But Matthew didn't abandon his best friend. He was there at George's side, keeping him company and making sure he took his medication while his grandmother Stella was at work. That was the kind of kid Matthew was. In an interview with the Daily Advocate, Matthew's mother Marianne said that he was a very giving child, not only to his family, but to anyone in need. She said that if Matthew saw another kid struggling to catch a fish,

he'd share his. She described her son as charismatic, gentle, trustworthy, and said he had a natural sense of humor, too. In August of 1984, George tragically lost his cancer battle, and the death of his best friend devastated Matthew. But still, there was Matthew on the Byram River, casting his line into the water and searching for a bite just like his late grandfather had taught him. For a young boy who had been through the ringer in the last year between the divorce of his parents and the decline and death of his grandfather, fishing was his happy place. While other kids were leaving for Labor Day weekend trips with their families,

Matthew planned to spend one of the last late summer afternoons as he did every day. He slept over his grandmother Stella's house on Thursday, August 30th, and early the next morning, he was out the door and on his bike, heading off to his favorite perch on the river with his trusty fishing rod in tow. Around 9.30 a.m. on the morning of Friday, August 31st, 1984, Matthew stopped into the Sparta Deli on Morgan Avenue to fuel up for his day of fishing. He grabbed a pastry and a carton of milk before heading to the nearby bridge on Conley Avenue. Just about 30 minutes later, Matthew already had a string of fish beside him when a passing woman asked Matthew how the catch was that morning, and he told her they were really biting. According to J.A. Johnson Jr.'s extensive coverage of the case file contents for the Greenwich Times newspaper, within the hour, Matthew decided to change his position on the river, and he ventured upstream along the East Bank and onto Pemberwick Road. By 11.30 a.m., though, Matthew went back to his grandmother's house.

When his grandmother Stella got home for lunch around noon, while Matthew wasn't there, she could tell he had obviously been there recently because his dripping wet corduroy pants were hanging off a living room chair and his trout were in the kitchen. She scrawled a note to her grandson before leaving to ransom errands. Get rid of the fish in the sink, she wrote. In 2000, the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission ordered the Greenwich Police Department to release the Matthew Margolis case file.

It's redacted to protect what they considered to be an open and active investigation at the time. But the over 600 pages of reports gives incredible insight into the day 13-year-old Matthew Margulies disappeared. J.A. Johnson Jr. covered the contents of these reports for the Greenwich Times newspaper. So according to his reporting, that afternoon and into the early evening, Matthew was spotted all around Pemberwick, in his grandmother's driveway, walking down Morgan Avenue, and again back at Sparta Deli. Sparta Deli was kind of a hub for neighborhood teens, especially a group of older boys known as the Valley Boys. J.A. Johnson Jr. reports that the Valley Boys had a reputation for drug use and

petty crime around town, including breaking into cars and things like that. Matthew had been reportedly critical of the boys' behavior and even lectured them about the risks of drugs. Even still, friends said that Matthew had started spending time with some of the boys in the few weeks after his grandfather's death. There were roughly a dozen boys hanging out around the deli when Matthew was last seen there, around 5.15 or 5.30 p.m. on August 31st. At 5 p.m., when Matthew's mother, Marianne, pulled into the driveway of her childhood home, where her mother still lived and where Matthew spent so much time, the house was quiet. She knew that Stella had driven Matthew's sister Stacy to an appointment, so she waited at the house thinking maybe Matthew went with them. But when Stella returned,

Matthew wasn't with her. Over the next four hours, as they waited for Matthew to come home, the dread in Marianne's stomach intensified with each passing minute. She couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that something was terribly wrong. At 8.59 p.m., Marianne decided to call the local police to report Matthew missing. Soon, the Byram River was flooded with officers and family members, all on the lookout for the boy they'd all seen fishing the banks of that same river, day after day. Maybe there'd been an accident. Maybe Matthew was somehow swept up into the river or fell into a pond or injured himself.

Or maybe Matthew, weighed down by grief, had taken to the woods for some alone time where he and his grandfather George had shared so many wonderful memories. Never during those first hours of searching did anyone let their mind wander to anything sinister. Confident that Matthew was either near or in the river, the search efforts focused there and continued into the night. But darkness made the search treacherous, especially on the rocky terrain and steep hillsides, so they called it a night until a more organized effort could proceed in the light of day. By 11 a.m. on the next morning, state police tracking dogs were assisting the search for Matthew, working off a scent from the pants he had left on the chair at his grandmother's house. The case file shows that on September 1st, 1984, the dogs traced a scent all the way to the waterfall below a dam on the river, but the trail stopped there. Based on a tip from Matthew's

friends, investigators also searched an abandoned house on an old farm, as well as his grandfather's grave site at St. Mary's Cemetery. They even checked in with Matthew's father in Texas, but the boy wasn't anywhere. The first full day of searching came to an agonizing close for Matthew's mother, and the subsequent searches over the weekend would bring more of the same for the Margolis family. No Matthew, and no clue as to where he might have gone. On his missing poster, Matthew was described as four feet eight inches tall, 100 pounds with brown eyes and short brown hair. He was last seen wearing white cut-off shorts, a white t-shirt,

and distinctive black and white checkered sneakers. As these posters with his photo and that description were distributed through the community, Marianne spoke to her son through the newspaper. She says to the Hartford Courant, quote, I want him to come home and I love him and I want him to know he's not in any kind of trouble, end quote. Matthew's mother also seemed to consider the possibility that something terrible had happened to her son. Despite there being no evidence that he'd been abducted, Marianne asked publicly that whoever had her son to not hurt him and to help him find his way home.

Just four days into the search, the effort began to taper off. Greenwich Police Officer Michael Panza told the Hartford Courant that they'd exhausted every lead and had searched every place by air, land, and sea that Matthew could possibly be. Until they had a piece of clothing, a credible sighting, or a solid lead to follow, the extensive organized search would come to a close.

On the fifth day of the search, a United Press International article in the Hartford Current stated that police didn't have any reason to believe that Matthew Margolis was missing under suspicious circumstances. But the very same day that article ran, the once-dismissed possibility of foul play became an undeniable reality. A number of local volunteer firefighters participated in the initial search, including Frederick Lambert, who was also the facility's manager at the mill, a mixed-use residential and commercial space housed in the old Glenville Mill building. Frederick had been

part of the search since the very first night, and continued to search on his own even after the larger effort was scaled back. On the afternoon of September 5th, Frederick took to the woods across the road from the mill, where several residential streets butted up to a wooded area along Pemberwick Road. Today, it looks like there's a road leading to a new development that wasn't there in 1984, slicing right through that stretch of land. But when Matthew went missing, it was just a steep, tree-covered dumping ground for all kinds of refuse. And judging by the old fire pits and beer cans scattered amongst the brush, It was just a steep, tree-covered dumping ground for all kinds of refuse,

and judging by the old fire pits and beer cans scattered amongst the brush, occasionally the setting for a party. Frederick was only at it for about 30 minutes when he found a pair of black and white checkered sneakers, just like the pair Matthew had been wearing when he disappeared. According to documentation in the case file reviewed by the Greenwich Time, Frederick picked up one of the sneakers and then chucked an old bike tire he found nearby next to the other. He was marking it so he could find his way back to the spot with police. Two officers of Greenwich Police followed Frederick to the spot in the woods.

He gestured to the bike tire and the matching sneaker. It only took a quick survey of the area surrounding the sneakers to make another discovery. About 10 feet away, one of the officers saw something. And the realization of just what that something was hit, as the officer recognized a distinctly human shape. In a makeshift gravesite haphazardly concealed by leaves, sticks, and a large heavy rock, he knew they'd just found the body of Matthew Margolis. Matthew was found wearing only his underwear. His shorts and one of his socks was found nearby, and his t-shirt was tied around his neck, and the other of his socks was in his mouth. Greenwich Police Chief Thomas Keegan said that it

looked like Matthew had been there for some time, and judging by the scene, this wasn't an accident. All signs pointed to a homicide, though the extent of his injuries wouldn't be known until the full autopsy was completed. The scene was sealed off and Matthew's remains stayed in the shallow pit as evidence technicians processed the area immediately around his body. David Reinlander of the Hartford Current reported that police weren't sure if Matthew had been killed at the site or moved there after his death. Because this was a dumping ground with old appliances and car tires and literal garbage strewn everywhere, it was difficult for investigators to try and discern what was relevant and what

was just trash. And to make matters worse, heavy rain alternated with extreme heat over the last several days before they found his remains, and it contaminated the scene. Still, Greenwich police bagged dozens of pieces of potential evidence. Then, when Matthew's remains were finally removed from the scene, police found something that you don't usually see uncovered so early in a homicide investigation. The murder weapon. Concealed beneath Matthew's body was a knife. Specifically, a foster brother's boning knife, which is the type you might use for cleaning a fish or cutting bait.

It had a six-inch carbon steel blade and a four-and-a-half-inch beechwood handle. It's unclear how, but the case file indicates police were able to rule out that the knife belonged to Matthew, and so determining its ownership would be crucial to the developing case. It was sent for fingerprint analysis, but the results of that analysis, if anything significant, were not made public. Noticeably missing from the scene was Matthew's fishing pole. Witnesses that saw Matthew all around town that day he was last seen said his fishing pole as always was by his side, so tracking it down

was high priority. During the early investigation, officers received a tip that one of the Valley Boys had a fishing pole that looked like Matthew's. J.A. Johnson Jr. reported that Matthew's fishing pole was blue with a spinning reel, and it was Matthew's favorite because it had once belonged to his grandfather. Police questioned the boy, and he told investigators that Matthew actually sold it to him for $2. When police showed Matthew's mom and grandmother the fishing pole, though, they couldn't confidently identify it. Marianne was certain, though, that if it was Matthew's, he would never have sold it. It was too special to him. Despite Marianne and Stella's uncertainty, police announced that they'd found Matthew's fishing pole and were now saying that Matthew actually didn't have it with him

when he was attacked. It doesn't appear, to, at least, that any significance was put on the fact that someone else was in possession of a fishing pole that was believed to belong to a murder victim. Meanwhile, when the medical examiner finally performed the autopsy, the results revealed the true horrors that Matthew was subjected to before his death. The ME found a stick in Matthew's throat, and whoever attacked him also put dirt in his mouth that he breathed into his lungs. He had been stabbed several times. The ME could also tell that the young boy fought for his life. He had undisclosed defensive wounds on his body and hands. While scrapings from Matthew's fingernails were collected, as well as hairs and other unspecified

trace elements from his body, I can't tell from the source material if those specimens were immediately analyzed in any way. And though Matthew was partially undressed when he was found, the medical examiner did not identify any signs of sexual assault. His official cause of death was ruled traumatic asphyxiation with multiple stab wounds. One detail that investigators took some time to nail down was the estimated time of Matthew's murder on August 31st. The last reported sightings of him were at the Sparta Deli around 5.15, 5.30-ish that night, but it wasn't until a woman contacted police two weeks later that new information helped establish when the attack actually happened. According to a

police report, a woman who lived in an apartment on River West said that between 6 and 6.30 p.m. on the night of August 31st, she heard screaming coming from the direction of Pemberwick Road. She looked outside but didn't see anything. She only heard what sounded like a young person screaming for about 30 seconds. She didn't think to notify police at the time until she learned that the screams were coming from the same area where Matthew's body was eventually found. With that, police figured Matthew's time of death to be between 6 and 6.30 p.m. Over a month had passed since the day Matthew disappeared when local authorities turned to the FBI for assistance. Special Agent John Douglas of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit developed a psychological profile of Matthew's killer based on the autopsy results and

crime scene evidence. An Associated Press report in the day states that the profile described the killer as someone who knew Matthew, likely a local man who was familiar with Matthew's fishing hobby. The case file further expands on this profile, saying the killer was likely a white male and quote, classic loser with poor self-image, end quote. The killer may also have hung around younger kids as a way to feel superior and was possibly a person with a substance use disorder. The FBI profile, among other investigative tools and findings, did appear to help police develop a suspect list by the end of 1984. However, they were keeping any specifics about the suspects and any potential arrests incredibly close to their vests. In late December,

though, police put out kind of a cryptic and vague warning in the paper. Nancy Tracy spoke to Detective Captain Peter Robbins for the Hartford Courant, and he said they believed an acquaintance of a suspect may be in grave danger. According to Captain Robbins, this acquaintance knew the suspect's whereabouts and activities on the day Matthew was killed and had told others about the suspect's change in behavior after the murder, but was afraid to go to police directly with that information. Captain Robbins said, quote, to know something like that, well, that person should probably be in fear that something will happen, end quote. It was an ominous message, and yet the investigation still didn't seem to be progressing as the new year rolled in.

In January of 1985, police made yet another appeal to the public for information, and with it released new information about the case. Investigators said that witness interviews suggested that Matthew and an older teenage boy may have gotten into a pickup truck driven by an unknown person on the day Matthew disappeared. The truck was believed to be a mid-1970s Ford or Chevrolet, either maroon or red, and possibly with wooden sides. Police believed the driver pulled over as Matthew and the other boy were walking down the Pemberwick Road between 5.30 and 6 p.m. Whether this man or the other teenager were suspects or simply witnesses wasn't clear at the time. A quick close and a swift arrest of whoever was responsible was all the Margolis family and residents of the greater Greenwich area could hope for. But it wasn't looking good as each day dragged on without answers. The state of Connecticut authorized a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case, the state's maximum amount, while a local resident took up donations to raise that number to over $38,000.

In July of 1985, police advertised that reward on a poster all around Greenwich, with a photo of the knife believed to be the murder weapon, but the promise of a payday didn't seem to be shaking out any new leads. The first year of the investigation was, by all accounts, extremely active. Most of the several hundred-page case file is reports and documents from the first 12 months, but with the one-year anniversary of Matthew's disappearance and death approaching, that activity began to taper off as leads fizzled out. Greenwich police continued to monitor activities of certain individuals as part of the investigation, and two detectives were still assigned to the case as of 1986, but without new developments, the Margolis homicide soon went cold. Over a decade passed before the Matthew Margolis murder investigation was reinvigorated,

in a very big way. In 2000, Greenwich police released nearly the entire case file to the Greenwich Times newspaper following a FOIA request. You've heard me reference the four-part series by J.A. Johnson Jr. that covers the contents of the case file, and it is by far the most comprehensive reporting on the Matthew Margolis case. The series stirred up conversation in town again, thanks to the release of never-before-reported information and details about the multiple suspects that police were considering for Matthew's death. Suspects who had been on the case file, so I'll use pseudonyms here.

Among the first people identified as a suspect was a 32-year-old man I'll refer to as Alfred. And he was actually interviewed prior to the discovery of Matthew's body, before his case was considered a homicide. Alfred was known for spending time near the Byram River taking photos and had allegedly assaulted a 16 year old boy a year before Matthew's disappearance. Despite first agreeing to take a polygraph test, Alfred's attorney prevented it, and further investigation into his alibi apparently held up, leading authorities to move on. Another suspect, a man in his late 20s I'll call Foster, had faced accusations of sexual assault by several young boys, yet police failed to arrest him on any charges relating to those complaints in the past. Foster was known to go fishing with young boys,

and he fit the FBI's profile of Matthew's possible killer, but he didn't seem to know any significant information during a surreptitiously recorded interview, so police shifted their focus to a 38-year-old man I'll refer to as Eddie. Eddie reportedly acted highly suspicious near the crime scene on the day Matthew's remains were found, and so police questioned him multiple times before he lawyered up. While not eliminated as a suspect, the lack of evidence linking Eddie to the murder forced the police to redirect their investigation elsewhere. As investigators dove deeper into the murky waters of the case and possible perpetrators, they began to cast their critical gaze on two individuals not much older than Matthew himself. A witness told police that before Matthew's grandpa

George passed away, she saw a heated interaction between George and the Valley Boys just outside his house. George was yelling that he and Matthew had found the boys' pot plants in the woods and that they told police. Now, more than one of the listed suspects in the case file were teenagers at the time of Matthew's murder and identified by police as members of the so-called Valley Boys. One of those boys was a 17-year-old, all called Douglas. According to J.A. Johnson Jr.'s reporting, Douglas had been arrested for growing weed before the murder, but I can't tell if Douglas was among the group of Valley Boys that George had confronted. Either way, this eyewitness account led to a theory that Matthew and his grandpa told on Douglas, Douglas got arrested, and then Douglas allegedly killed Matthew in

retaliation. As police looked more closely at Douglas for the murder, they obtained a search warrant for his residence and in September of 1985, they seized seven items from his house, shed, and vehicle. What those exact items were is redacted from the police reports. There were some other compelling details that made Douglas a viable suspect. He reportedly was familiar with the stretch of woods where Matthew's body was found and had been arrested for rolling logs down the very same hillside and over Pemberwick Road into oncoming traffic. An assistant state medical examiner also reviewed wounds and scars on Douglas's body and noted a few scars that were

interesting. A scar on Douglas's right shoulder looked like it was from a fingernail and could have been anywhere from two months to a year old. At that point, it had been a year since Matthew was killed, so the timing kind of fits. And remember, the ME identified defensive wounds on Matthew. Maybe the scar on Douglas was related to Matthew fighting off his attacker. So it seemed Douglas had a motive for allegedly killing Matthew, but there was a world in which Douglas didn't act alone. Detectives had previously discussed the possibility that two people were involved in the murder, and it may have started as an act of bullying or intimidation that went too far. One factor they considered was that there was a very large rock placed on top of Matthew's body.

Police believed it may have taken two people to move it. Another of the valley boys police looked into was a 16-year-old I'll call Charlie, who was known to fish with Matthew on the Byram River. Charlie was notably unreliable in his recollection of August 31st. At first, he told police he and another boy planned to go fishing with Matthew, but Matthew never showed up. In a later interview, Charlie said that he and the other boy actually decided to, quote, ditch the little bastard, end quote. When detectives brought Charlie in for interrogation during the initial investigation and showed him autopsy and crime scene photographs,

the case file says Charlie quickly turned away from the images and faced a wall. An investigator in the room tried to hand Charlie the knife, believed to be the murder weapon, to see if he could identify it, but Charlie refused to touch it. When the investigator asked why he had such a strong response to the photos and knife, Charlie reportedly said, it brings back bad memories. He then explained that Matthew was a good friend of his, and he didn't want to remember him like that. Authorities also received a search warrant for Charlie's house and collected over a dozen

items. The case file shows eight of those items were sent to the state lab for forensic analysis, but the results of those forensic tests haven't been released. The release of the case file not only brought to light possible suspects, but it also finally cleared up what police were referring to when they made that cryptic statement in the press that someone might be in danger for what they knew about Matthew's murder. As the case file reveals, during the early evening of August 31st, Matthew and an older, unnamed teenage boy went to the home of a third boy and asked if he wanted to go fishing with them. The boy declined because he was going

to the YMCA soon around 6 p.m. So Matthew and the teenager reportedly got a ride to Pemberwick Road by the teenager's uncle. The next day, when Matthew was reported missing and the search had begun in full force, the boy saw the teenager and said to him, you should know where Matthew is. You were fishing with him yesterday. The teenager reportedly said that he stayed by the waterfall while Matthew went upstream alone. Then, the teenager reportedly threatened the boy's life if he told Sol that he was with Matthew on the night he disappeared. Despite the alleged threat, the boy told a friend this story, but was afraid to tell police until they tracked him down six months later. He initially told police the same version of events,

but wavered on the details during a second conversation the next day. He said he wasn't actually sure what the teenager said, and the teenager hadn't actually threatened his life. It's a confusing piece of the puzzle, but it does raise an eyebrow because it's the closest reported activity to the estimated time of Matthew's death. If Matthew and the other older teenager talked to the boy just before he went to the YMCA at 6 p.m., that would have put Matthew close to the location off Pemberwick Road, near the eventual site of his remains, within a half-hour window of his presumed time of death. But before we spiral on this, J.A. Johnson Jr. reports that the older teen and his uncle, who allegedly drove the boys that night, were both ruled out as suspects.

Police did not disclose why these two individuals weren't considered further. These were just a few of the suspects and possible persons of interest and witnesses revealed when the case file was released in 2000. In my experience, it's rare to see a case file opened like this. Investigators often fight to protect the integrity of the investigation and disclose as little as possible to the public. But in this instance, it seemed to be worth it. The release of nearly the entire case file breathed new life into a seemingly dormant case.

The Greenwich Post reported that the Margolis case was officially reopened in 2001 and transferred to the Connecticut Cold Case Squad, who worked the case in tandem with two Greenwich detectives. Investigators went to work reanalyzing all of the files from Greenwich PD, as well as the well-preserved crime scene evidence, and they even harvested DNA samples from that evidence. Police had new tips to work with too because the exposure prompted witnesses who were previously silent to step forward with crucial information. Police Chief Peter Robbins cryptically hinted at the significance of this newfound data, emphasizing its connection to the whereabouts of one or more suspects on the significance of this newfound data, emphasizing its connection to

the whereabouts of one or more suspects on the day of the murder. It goes to show how powerful it is when unsolved cases receive media coverage. Whether it be traditional news outlets or podcasts or any platform willing to share these stories, Matthew's name returned to the public consciousness after more than 15 years of obscurity. Progress seemed imminent, and both the eager public and the Margolis family anxiously awaited the unfolding of these promising leads. As it often is with such a long-standing, unsolved case,

progress was slow. But there were peaks of hope along the way. The Daily Advocate reported in 2002, forensic testing on evidence was ongoing at the Meriden, Connecticut crime lab. The following year, technicians were able to extract mitochondrial DNA, which was a major development. The mitochondrial DNA was something after so many years of nothing, but it wasn't exactly a slam dunk for narrowing in on a suspect. Mitochondrial DNA is found in hair and bone fragments and is useful for general matches versus nuclear DNA, which is found in bodily fluids and can more accurately identify or rule out suspects.

Just when it seemed that Matthew's story might slip back into the shadows of unsolved mysteries as the 20-year anniversary of his murder approached, a surprising turn of events unfolded. In September of 2004, investigators identified a new suspect in the Matthew Margolis case. The shockwave of this new information only intensified as the suspect's identity was revealed. He was a former police officer. In September of 2004, 60-year-old former Port Chester, New York, police officer Roger Kenneth Bates received consecutive 11-year sentences in a Texas court for multiple sexual assault charges in that state. During his trial, a 34-year-old man testified against him, saying that Roger Bates had sexually assaulted him in New York in 1984. At the time of the assault, the witness was the teenage son of another Portchester police officer.

Portchester, New York is only about a 10-minute drive from Greenwich, Connecticut, and the assault on the Portchester boy happened the same year Matthew was killed. So this information was enough for Connecticut authorities to start asking questions on the Portchester boy happened the same year Matthew was killed. So this information was enough for Connecticut authorities to start asking questions about Roger Kenneth Bates. Now, the medical examiner never conclusively said if Matthew was sexually assaulted. However, an independent law enforcement consultant and homicide expert hired by Greenwich PD to review the case in 1986 classified the attack as possibly sexually motivated, and it had long been reported that there was a sexual element to the crime.

But the possible connections between the boy in Portchester and Matthew Margolis get even more compelling. Investigators spoke with the witness as an adult, and he told police that he used to go fishing with Matthew, and Roger had even taken the both of them fishing the summer Matthew was killed. The witness also said that in the days after Matthew's murder, Bates was acting weird and had told him and his father, a fellow police officer, mind you, that they should lawyer up and refuse to cooperate with authorities if they started asking questions about Bates and his quote-unquote friendship with Matthew Margolis. Roger Bates left the Port Chester Police Department for a supposed back injury in 1985. The department never heard from or about him again until he was arrested on

the charges out of Texas in 2002. Greenwich detectives would not comment on whether Roger Kenneth Bates had ever been on the case radar or identified as a suspect prior to his arrest in 2002 and conviction in 2004. I went back through the list of suspects that were identified in Matthew's case file, and none matched the age or town of residence close enough to draw the conclusion that Bates was part of the investigation all along. Regardless, he was part of the investigation now, and Connecticut authorities wasted no time. Within two weeks of his conviction in Texas, the Connecticut Cold Case Squad interviewed Roger Bates about Matthew's murder

and collected DNA samples via cheek swabs. A year later, in 2005, Connecticut investigators still hadn't revealed what they learned, if anything, from those samples. In an interview with Greenwich Times writer Martin Cassidy, Chief State's Attorney Christopher Marano would only say that they were working on it and committing resources and attention to the case. It felt like the most promising lead in over 20 years of this unsolved homicide investigation. And yet, the case against Roger Kenneth Bates screeched to a halt in 2006. Surprising everyone, investigators informed the Margolis family that a request for the indictment of Roger Kenneth Bates in the murder of Matthew Margolis had been

rejected. The family attorney said in the Day newspaper that they were flabbergasted because they hadn't heard there were updates in the case, let alone there was an application for the grand jury. The state's attorney clearly felt confident enough in the case against Roger Bates to bring it to a grand jury, but the grand jury didn't agree that the evidence was sufficient to indict. In the almost two decades since the indictment was rejected, police have not revealed what, if any, progress they've made in strengthening the case against Bates or any other suspect. According to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records, 79-year-old Roger Kenneth Bates remains incarcerated in a Texas facility. His projected release date is August 30, 2026. 79-year-old Roger Kenneth Bates remains incarcerated in a Texas facility. His projected release date is August 30, 2026. As the 40-year anniversary of Matthew's murder approaches,

police still can't prove who attacked and killed the 13-year-old boy in the Pemberwick Woods. In 2007, the newly sworn-in Greenwich Police chief David Rydberg told the Greenwich Times that thinking you know who killed Matthew, and actually proving it, are two different things. Whenever Marianne Margolis is asked about her son and her feelings about the unsolved case, she focuses on the warm memories of Matthew, not the events of August 31st, 1984. She is not bitter or angry. Instead, Marianne made a choice to find the good in life. She told the Daily Advocate in 1992, quote, The 1984 homicide of Matthew Margolis remains open and active. If you have any information relating to this case, please contact the Greenwich Police tip line at 203-622-3333

or toll-free at 800-372-1176. Tips may also be emailed to tips at greenwichct.org. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at darkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and Audiocheck. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?