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Slain woman 'not just a victim'

BY HANA ALBERTS | Newsday Staff Writer

August 20, 2006

Denice Fox was a vibrant woman who devoted herself to a career in special education in the New York City public school system before her retirement, her niece said yesterday.

The mother of two "was not just a victim," said Ronnie Grill, whose aunt was slain in her Glen Cove home on Thursday. "Deni Fox was an amazing wife, mother, sister, daughter, aunt, friend and human being."

The grief-stricken family is placing its trust in law enforcement and the legal system, she said. Evan Marshall, 31, who lived on the same street as Fox but who police said had no prior contact with her, pleaded not guilty yesterday to second-degree murder in the slaying.

"We have total faith in the court system," Grill said. "And we look forward to the day that justice prevails."

According to property records, Fox, 57, and her husband, Jay, 58, who had been longtime residents of Hewlett Harbor, closed on their Willada Lane home in Glen Cove in May. With them lived daughter Rebecca, 22, who on Thursday alerted police that her mother was missing. Their son, Andrew, 29, is believed to be living in California.

Grill, flanked by her brother, David Grill, and her husband, Bruce Schvinson, stood in front of Nassau County police headquarters in Mineola yesterday morning and urged reporters to think of her aunt as more than a casualty of a gory crime.

"She didn't deserve this," Ronnie Grill said. "But she would never want her life to be defined by this horrific, brutal and senseless crime, but rather by her legacy of love and compassion."

David Grill held out a photograph of Denice Fox that showed her smiling, with a pale complexion set off by shoulder-length dark, curly hair.

"She was just a joy to be around and she lit up any room she walked into," Ronnie Grill said. "She was an absolutely beautiful woman both from the outside and the inside."

Tears filled her eyes.

"And on behalf of her husband, her children, her parents, her friends and the rest of our family, we ask that you respect our privacy and please give us the chance to mourn her," she said, her voice trembling.

A man who identified himself as Andrew when he answered the telephone at the Baldwin home of Jonah Grill yesterday afternoon said the family was not taking reporters' phone calls.