She lived through the Great Depression, disappeared in 1978 and spent nearly five decades unidentified. Now, cold case investigators say the woman known as a Jane Doe may have been killed by the Jersey Shore’s notorious “Thrill Killer.”
For years, Sofia Margherita Marrone was known only as “Montauk Mary,” a name tied to the place where a U.S. Airman discovered her body during his lunch break at a park near Montauk’s eastern end in East Hampton, New York.
On March 22, 1978, the Airman found Marrone near the Camp Hero radar tower, a location that decades later would help inspire Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”
Suffolk County, New York, investigators have identified Sofia Margherita Marrone as the woman once known as “Montauk Mary.” Marrone was found shot to death in 1978, and authorities now believe she may have been a victim of the Jersey Shore “Thrill Killer.” (Suffolk County District Attorney)
On Thursday, Suffolk County investigators identified Marrone as the victim of a shooting 250 miles from the location where she was last seen. Authorities said she was killed only hours before her body was discovered.
Marrone, who lived in Pleasantville, New Jersey, was last seen leaving a hospital in Somers Point on March 16, 1978. Six days later, she was found dead at East Overlook Park in Montauk. An autopsy determined that she had suffered three gunshot wounds to her legs and another to her chest.
Her name remained a mystery until Suffolk County investigators used newly available DNA techniques to identify her. Officials said the evidence suggests she may have been killed by Richard Biegenwald, the man known as the Jersey Shore “Thrill Killer.”
Biegenwald died in prison in 2008 while serving life sentences for the murders of six people between 1958 and 1982, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Thursday. He was also suspected in three additional killings.
Richard Biegenwald appears for his arraignment on a murder charge at the Monmouth County Courthouse on May 20, 1983. He died in prison in 2008 after being convicted in six murders and was suspected in additional killings. Investigators now consider him a leading potential suspect in the 1978 shooting death of Sofia Marrone, formerly known as “Montauk Mary.” (Dave May-USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Tierney said Marrone was killed with the same uncommon .22-caliber short ammunition Biegenwald was using when New Jersey police arrested him in 1983. Biegenwald was known to approach people he encountered while they were walking in communities along the Jersey Shore.
A witness at the time also told investigators that a bearded man had been sitting in a gold-colored car with New Jersey license plates near the Montauk park where Marrone’s body was found. Tierney said Biegenwald wore a beard and owned several vehicles, including one that generally fit the witness’s description.
Even so, authorities emphasized that the investigation has not been officially closed.
Marrone is one of six victims identified recently by a cold case task force. Retired NYPD cold case sergeant Joseph Giacalone said the effort could serve as a blueprint for agencies nationwide.
“The district attorney has outlined a national model that other jurisdictions should follow,” he told News Media on Friday. “That means creating a cold case unit within the district attorney’s office, working with federal and state partners, investing in cases that can be solved and refusing to give up.”
According to Tierney’s office, three of the six newly identified people are believed to have been homicide victims. Another apparently died in an accidental drowning, while the cause of death for the sixth person remains under investigation.
Police search beneath Richard Biegenwald’s porch for human remains in Staten Island on April 22, 1983. The convicted serial killer died in 2008 and is considered a suspect in the 1978 murder of Sofia Marrone, who was previously known as “Montauk Mary.” (Anthony Pescatore/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Marrone was identified alongside five other cold case victims Thursday. They were:
- Antoinette Rugg, formerly known as the Heckscher Jane Doe — A dog walker found her skeletal remains buried in the sand at Heckscher State Park on April 2, 1978. Prosecutors said a belt had been pulled tightly around her neck. Rugg was 26 and had a 10-year-old son.
- Ramon Perez y Rivera, formerly known as Raymond Doe — Rabbit hunters discovered his remains in Deer Park on Nov. 27, 1976. He had been badly burned and suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was 41.
- Kyong-Ok Kim, formerly known as the Riverhead Jane Doe — A street sweeper found her body near Osborne Avenue in Riverhead on March 12, 1990. Her cause of death is still being investigated. Kim was born in South Korea, later immigrated to the United States and lived in Woodside, Queens. She was 32 and had a 12-year-old son.
- Omelios Steward, John Doe — The U.S. Coast Guard recovered an unidentified body from the water nine miles south of Fire Island on Nov. 4, 1990. Steward, 28, is believed to have drowned.
- Andreas Kupke, John Doe — The 27-year-old German citizen came to the United States for a 10-day vacation in fall 1999 but never boarded his return flight. Police found his partially decomposed remains beside a high-tide marker in Montauk on Christmas Eve that year. His cause of death remains unknown.
“Every person deserves to be known by name, and every victim deserves answers and justice,” Tierney said in a statement. “Nearly five decades have passed since the first of these people was found dead, but our commitment to identifying them and seeking justice has never diminished.”