Montauk victim identified after 48 years

Sofia Margherita Marrone, known to investigators as Montauk Mary, was officially identified on Wednesday by Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney. The victim had remained an unidentified murder case for 48 years after her body was discovered in Montauk in 1978.

Tierney held a press conference at the Suffolk County Police Academy in Brentwood to announce the identification. The D.A.'s Cold Case Unit utilized a grant program that provided DNA sequencing resources to resolve the case. Marrone was born on Jan. 18, 1905, and resided in Pleasantville, New Jersey, before her death.

Authorities initially estimated the victim was between 60 and 69 years old. Marrone was 73 when she died. Records indicate she suffered from gangrene in a toe, a condition that may have prompted her to leave Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point, New Jersey, on March 16, 1978.

On March 22, 1978, an airman parked near the east overlook on Montauk Highway found her body. The victim sustained four gunshot wounds to her legs and torso. Police determined at the time that she had likely died only hours before discovery. The airman reported seeing a bearded man in a gold-colored car with New Jersey plates near the scene.

Tierney stated that Richard Biegenwald, known as the Jersey Shore Thrill Killer, drove a gold-colored car. Biegenwald was convicted of six murders in New Jersey and suspected in three others between 1958 and 1983. Although the D.A. stopped short of declaring him the perpetrator, Tierney identified him as a suspect. Biegenwald had no known ties to the East End, though his mother lived on Staten Island. He was known to select victims while they walked near the Jersey Shore.

The connection to Biegenwald relies on ammunition found at the scene. A search warrant executed in 1983 produced a cache of .22-caliber short rounds. This specific type of ammunition accounts for only 1 to 2 percent of .22-caliber bullets sold. The same type was recovered from Marrone's body. Tierney noted that the physical bullets from the victim have been lost, making a forensic match impossible, but he called the discovery an investigationally significant event.

Biegenwald died of natural causes in prison in 2008. He had received two death sentences, which a New Jersey court overturned. Marrone's living great-nephew attended the press conference but did not address the crowd. Tierney acknowledged that closure is a complex concept for the family, who gathered with relatives of five other unidentified Suffolk County victims identified that day.

The D.A.'s office also identified Andreas Kupke, a German tourist found in the surf on a Montauk beach on Christmas Eve in 1999. Kupke had gone unidentified for 27 years. He was 27 years old when he died and was last seen at Newark International Airport. Officials initially suspected he was a victim of the Egypt Air Flight 990 crash but never established a link. German authorities and Interpol assisted in his identification. Police believe he drowned, though the investigation continues.

Tierney stated that 300 cases in Suffolk County remain unsolved, with 210 victims still unidentified. Detective Sgt. Frank Sokolowski of the East Hampton Town police said the department is still seeking to identify one local victim. Capt. Gregory Martin of the Montauk police noted that neither the Marrone nor the Kupke cases are solved, but naming the victims represents the biggest step in the process.