Cops seek links to other killings

Grisly murder in Glen Cove a random act, cops say; now they're checking other states for slayings that may fit 'psychosexual' profile

BY JENNIFER MALONEY AND HANA ALBERTS | STAFF WRITER; Staff writer Shomial Ahmad contributed to this story.S

August 20, 2006

Nassau detectives yesterday called the gruesome killing and dismemberment of a Glen Cove woman a "psychosexual murder" and a "totally random act."

As Evan Marshall, 31, a neighbor of the victim, Denice Fox, pleaded not guilty yesterday to a charge of second-degree murder, police said there was no evidence of any prior contact between Marshall and Fox, 57, a mother of two who was a retired special education teacher for New York City schools.

"Absolutely nothing was taken," Det. Sgt. Dennis Barry of the Nassau Homicide Squad said of Fox's home, where she was killed. "Burglary is not the motive here. This is a psychosexual murder."

Asked to elaborate, Barry said only, "There were sexual overtones to the murder that are being investigated at this present time. ... It's one of these things which is going to come out in due time but that's where the investigation's currently going."

Police found mannequins and sadomasochistic paraphernalia in the basement of the home of Marshall's mother, Jacqueline, where Marshall had lived.

Now, police said, their "primary focus" in the case has shifted to whether similar crimes may have been committed in Florida, California and Arizona, other states where Marshall has lived or had contacts.

"We're asking them to see if there are any crimes which match the pattern here," Barry said.

Police also are investigating Marshall's background in search of a motive for the killing.

Marshall also was the driver who intentionally struck Cindy Kouril, 48, of Glen Cove, walking near her home at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, about 30 minutes before the killing, police said.

Marshall has not yet been charged with that crime, and Barry, speaking at a news conference in Mineola, said it was "totally unrelated." But Barry added, "I think it goes to the rage, and it helps us in our timeline."

The defendant, wearing a white jumpsuit and white paper slippers, scanned the audience and grimaced slightly, pursing his lips, but otherwise showed little emotion.

Nassau District Court Judge Dana Mitchell Jaffe granted the request of prosecutor Kenneth St. Bernard to hold Marshall without bail.

Marshall is being held in protective custody at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow and is on suicide watch based on a psychiatric evaluation.

Details of that exam were not available yesterday, a jail official said.

Islandia attorney William Keahon argued at the arraignment that the felony complaint, which states the charge against Marshall, was "legally defective and factually defective."

"You have to charge a person with a specified crime and indicate what proof there is that he did it," Keahon explained in an interview. "And there was none - merely a statement of the detective accusing my client of murder in the second degree."

A spokesman for the Nassau district attorney's office would not comment on Keahon's claim, but Brian Griffin, vice president of the Criminal Courts Bar Association of Nassau County, said the district attorney's office likely would soon seek a grand jury indictment, which would outline the evidence against Marshall.

Keahon, who declined to discuss details of the case, said he had not requested a psychiatric evaluation of his client. Marshall's family "has been very supportive" of him, Keahon said.

Marshall has not spoken to police based on the advice of his lawyer, police said. Marshall declined to comment.

According to the felony complaint, Marshall killed Fox at about 9 a.m. Thursday "by severing her neck with a knife causing decapitation."

Police said they found most of her remains in garbage pails in the basement of the home of Marshall's mother, who lives two houses away from Fox on Willada Lane in Cove Landing, a private community. Later, police found Fox's head in the trunk of a car Marshall had been driving, they said.

Marshall has lived on Willada Lane "off and on" for about 20 years, police said.

One forensic psychiatrist, Eraka Bath, said certain details of the crime showed that it was a ritualistic killing with psychosexual characteristics.

The use of a carving knife as a weapon, the choice of killing someone of the opposite gender, and the discovery of mannequins in Marshall's basement all led Bath to conclude that this was an orchestrated ritual designed for sexual arousal.

"If you wanted to just kill someone, you didn't have to go through this whole plan," said Bath, who teaches psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine. "It's multilayered. There are all these steps."

Staff writer Shomial Ahmad contributed to this story.