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Classmates shocked

BY ALEJANDRO LAZO | STAFF WRITER; Staff writer Shomial Ahmad contributed to this story.

August 20, 2006

In his freshman yearbook photo, Evan Marshall was cherub-faced and wore a necktie. The glasses came his sophomore year, then were gone again by junior year. By his senior year, he sported a mohawk - a trend common among his fellow football players on the Manhasset High School Indians team that year.

Some details of the man accused in the horrific killing of Denice Fox, 57, in Glen Cove - or at least who he once was - began to emerge yesterday from high-school yearbook entries and interviews with acquaintances.

Marshall played football and baseball. He was voted one of the two "most gullible" students in his class. He served on the class council. And he was quiet, a friend said.

"Am I utterly shocked? Absolutely. He was definitely a little quiet, but he was in my group of friends and it's just crazy to think that he could do something like that," said classmate Diana Resetar, 31, now of Denver.

The freckled, curly-haired youth attended Shelter Rock Elementary School and Manhasset Middle School before moving on to Manhasset High School.

Marshall had many male friends but did not date much, Resetar said.

"I would say he had a good group of guy friends, and we did everything together - all the things high school students do," she said, including attending parties. "He definitely was a little different."

Resetar described him as pensive and shy.

He hung out mostly with the school's athletes and played drums in a band during high school.

While in elementary school, he attended religious classes at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church every Thursday after school.

After graduation, Resetar said, she would see Marshall at local bars.

Recently, some friends attended the wedding of Steven Guidi, one of Marshall's closest friends. Resetar said friends had spoken with Marshall, and he seemed just fine at the time.

A handful of other former classmates and acquaintances, clearly stunned by the arrest, shied away from speaking about Marshall when contacted yesterday.

Staff writer Shomial Ahmad contributed to this story.