Gruesome details in Glen Cove murder revealed

BY ANN GIVENS | ann.givens@newsday.com

7:58 PM EDT, May 7, 2007

The homicide detective found Denice Fox in the unfinished portion of Jacqueline Marshall's Glen Cove basement, he testified Monday.

The torso was in one gray plastic garbage can. The lower half of the body was in another, a sock on one foot.

The head was missing, but in a box near the trash cans was a black-haired mannequin head, a bloody kitchen knife and some blood-soaked rags, Nassau Det. Edward Hoctor testified during a pretrial hearing in Nassau County Court.

The following day, Aug. 18, Jacqueline Marshall's son, Evan, 31, returned with Fox's head in his car trunk, police have said. Police arrested him and charged him with killing Fox, 57, a retired special education teacher who lived two houses away.

The hearing before Judge Richard LaPera is to determine whether evidence was gathered correctly and if there was sufficient evidence to arrest Marshall, who is charged with first-degree murder.

Police searched Marshall's basement on the night Fox was reported missing, after Jacqueline Marshall put an officer canvassing her neighborhood on the phone with her lawyer, William Keahon of Islandia. Keahon told the officer that police could search her home, but said they they were not to question Evan Marshall or his mother, police have testified.

Inside, Hoctor said the basement, which was furnished with a desk, dresser, bookshelf and a daybed, contained letters, work IDs and video rental cards belonging to Evan Marshall.

Nearby, in a closet under the stairs, police found other things: Several mannequins and mannequin heads, sadistic and violent pornography and horror videos, various sexual devices and a board with sexually graphic and violent photos attached to it, as well as one sketch of a woman being decapitated, Hoctor said.

At the hearing, prosecutor Mitch Benson projected photos of the basement area where the trash cans were found. Denice Fox's address was written on them in permanent marker. A photo of a second box near the trash cans showed what appeared to be bloody clothing.

Keahon, now Marshall's defense lawyer, asked Hoctor whether it is illegal to have any of the mannequins, videos or sex toys found in the basement. Hoctor said it isn't.

He also suggested while questioning Hoctor that Marshall may not have lived in the basement at the time of the killing.

He asked whether Hoctor had found a toothbrush in the bathroom in the basement, or any men's clothing in the dressers. Hoctor said he found a pile of bloody men's clothing in a pile near the trash cans, but none in any of the drawers.

If Keahon can show that the evidence found at Marshall's mother's home did not point to Marshall clearly enough to warrant Marshall's arrest and the search of his car, Keahon could ask the judge to suppress evidence such as Fox's blood found on Marshall's shoes and the head in Marshall's trunk.