Investigation of shooting of Oheka Castle owner Gary Melius going 11 years after the crime, Suffolk police say

Long Island political power broker Gary Melius was shot in the head more than 11 years ago on a winter afternoon outside Oheka Castle, his glamorous wedding venue in Huntington.

He survived, but his attacker has escaped justice.

With Melius in the headlines this week, telling Newsday he filed for bankruptcy to protect his storied castle from foreclosure, Newsday inquired about the status of the police investigation.

"The investigation is ongoing. We don’t comment on suspects," the police department's press office said in a nine-word statement, which did not indicate whether the FBI is still involved in the probe or whether potential suspects have been ruled out.

The department declined a Newsday request to discuss the case with Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina.

Melius, the Queens-born developer who is now 80, has spoken out in the past to criticize Suffolk police and prosecutors for their handling of the shooting investigation, but did not respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday in what remains one of Long Island's most enduring mysteries. 

The Feb. 24, 2014, shooting was captured on grainy, 49-second surveillance video that police later released.

Melius, in a winter coat, walked across a parking lot outside the castle and got into his black Mercedes-Benz. The shooter approached the driver’s side of the Mercedes and fired, striking Melius in the left temple.

A relative rushed Melius to the hospital. County executives from both Nassau (Edward Mangano, a Republican) and Suffolk (Steve Bellone, a Democrat), as well as Long Island’s senior Rep. Pete King and a slew of other elected officials, visited Melius there as he recovered.

It was a shocking attack in broad daylight. Melius, who bought the castle in 1984, had transformed it into a stunning wedding venue where, among other notables, former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had married.

The castle also served as a playhouse for Long Island’s judges and political class, where elected officials literally brokered deals in cigar smoke-filled back rooms.

"I liken going to Oheka Castle to, in some respects, going into the Oval Office," Jay Jacobs, the head of the state’s Democratic Party, told Newsday in 2018.

Melius was mentioned in trial testimony during Mangano’s first political corruption trial, which ended in a mistrial that same year. Mangano is now serving 12 years in prison.

Restaurateur Harendra Singh, the star witness against Mangano, testified that he and Mangano stopped at Oheka Castle on the same day he laundered a $3,600 cash bribe Mangano received from a contractor.

"We saw Gary Melius and had a drink," Singh testified.

Weeks after the shooting, on March 10, 2014, Melius, wearing a clear plastic patch over his left eye, released a seven-minute video statement in which he said: "I want you to know that I'm healing, getting better, and I'm looking forward to just starting over again."

Melius' friends and family offered a $100,000 reward for information that would lead to an arrest and prosecution in the case.

The list of potential suspects once numbered more than 60 people, and at one point Melius’ adult son was identified as "a person of interest," but was never charged, Newsday has reported. Melius said he cooperated with police, but police officials have told Newsday his tips didn’t go anywhere.

"I think the PD screwed up, Tommy Spota [the then-district attorney] screwed up by not putting out the picture of that car," Melius told Newsday in an earlier interview, referring to the surveillance video that showed a light-colored Jeep Cherokee that police believe was the shooter’s vehicle. Police released the video two years after the shooting.

"These kinds of cases are really difficult if we have a lack of cooperation from the victim, or the crime scene is in a place that’s kind of remote," said Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD detective sergeant who now teaches at Pennsylvania State University-Lehigh Valley. "I think they [investigators] think it’s an isolated, targeted attack by somebody the victim knew."

Giacalone said the shooting has faded from Long Island’s collective memory.

"The only thing I would suggest at this point is doing a media campaign and doing the Crime Stoppers number and try to get some new, fresh tips, because I think a lot of people have forgotten about it."