Mystery of death haunts relatives
January 12, 2005
By Mike Dawson
Times Herald-Record
mdawson@th-record.com
Warwick – JM (name removed at request of family) sat hunched over on her couch yesterday,
crying into a soggy tissue.
"All I want to do is crawl," she said. She cried and convulsed
in silence for a few minutes then continued. "I just want
to crawl into a hole."
It's been six weeks since her husband of 24 years, T, was shot
once in the back while deer hunting. Six weeks of unanswered questions.
Six weeks of having her mourning held hostage by a grim mystery.
New York state police say the case is still under investigation, that
the death is suspicious, that some ballistic evidence is being scrutinized.
But the police and family still don't know why or who shot
48-year-old M.
It could have been an accident. It could have been a murder.
On Nov. 23, M, a school bus driver for Our Lady on the Hill day-care
center in Goshen, went missing while hunting in the hilly woods near
his home on Birdsall Road. He was found the next morning shot to death
a few hundred yards from his ATV.
That's all the M family knows of his death.
But it still hasn't stopped the theories. At local bars and delis,
family members have had to endure strangers spreading rumors about
his death. None of it adds up.
"It's hard to overhear that stuff," said AVK,
one of M's nephews. "I have to speak up and say 'Hey,
that's my uncle you're talking about.'"
Frustrated by the rumors and the lack of progress in the case, the
M family has begun posting signs at shops and launderettes featuring a
photo of M and offering a $5,000 reward for information leading
to an arrest and conviction.
"It seems that's about all we can do right now," said VM, T's mother. "We just have to wait."
Meanwhile, 43-year-old JM has trouble sleeping because she
can't curl up next to her husband. She's afraid that if it was murder,
the killer could come looking for her. A day doesn't pass without an
emotional breakdown.
"I just want to know who did this," M said. "They
have no idea what they've taken from me and what a hole this is
in my life."
Anyone with information about M's death is asked to call state
police at 782 8311
