Kevin McMurray - Fatal Trust

Fatal Trust

Kevin McMurray

Copyright

Fatal Trust

Copyright 2013 by Kevin McMurray

Foreword copyright 2013 by Marilyn Bardsley

Cover design to the electronic edition copyright 2013 by DarkHorse Multimedia, Inc. and title page art to the electronic edition copyright 2013 by Victoria McMurray.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

See full line of true crime eBook originals at www.crimescape.com

Electronic edition published 2013 by RosettaBooks LLC, New York.

ISBN ePub edition: 9780795335808

Contents

When a preteen or teenager disappears, and there is no evidence of an abduction, police are most likely to believe the child ran away from home. Why? Because so many do run away, if only for a short time. Unfortunately, a youngsters unexpected disappearance can also mean danger and imminent death. While parents educate their children to be wary of strangers, kids are not likely to anticipate potential danger from individuals they know.

Until now, no book has been published about the tragic story of Josette Wright: her disappearance; the tentative investigation by the local authorities; the anguish of her family for more than a year; and their grief when they finally realized she had been gang-raped and murdered. The familys misery didnt end with the knowledge of her horrible death. It was compounded by the long journey to justice. Witnesses changed their stories and recanted testimonies. The accused had excellent attorneys who aggressively promoted the innocence of their clienteffectively lengthening the trialwhich deepened the grief of Josettes family.

Kevin F. McMurray, who lives in upstate NY, has excellent credentials for writing this book. He is an experienced investigative journalist and book author who has been writing about true crime and adventure stories for nearly two decades. His articles on notorious crimes, such as the D.B. Cooper air piracy case, the unsolved LaGuardia Airport terrorist bombing, and the murder of thirteen-year-old Matthew Margolies in Greenwich, Connecticut, have appeared in Connecticut Magazine, Chic, Oui, and other publications.

His true crime books include If You Really Loved Me (St. Martins Press, 2005); A Family Cursed, The Kissel Dynasty, a Gilded Fortune and Two Brutal Murders (St. Martins Press, 2007); Desire Turned Deadly, The True Story of a Beautiful Girl, Her Teenage Sweetheart and the Love that Ended in Murder (St. Martins Press, 2009); and One Dark Night, A Story of Deceit, Desire and Murder in a Peaceful Town (St. Martins Press, 2010).

He has also written two history/adventure books, the well-received Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria (Simon & Schuster, 2001), and Dark Descent: Diving and the Deadly Allure of the Empress of Ireland (McGraw-Hill, 2004).

October 23, 2012,
Carmel, New York

Sitting at her kitchen table, with her hands folded in front of her, fifty-nine-year-old Susan Wright could still marvel, with a wistful look, at how warm the autumn was in Carmel, New York, eighteen years ago in 1994. But it was her lined, sad face that spoke more of an indescribable sense of loss and guilt. Still, there was the weather.

Yes, September remained warm weeks after Labor Day in the northeastern United States, but by the beginning of October, once the trees began to shed their brightly colored leaves, the nights usually grew cold and frosted car windshields sparkled in the early-morning light. The wool blankets came out, air conditioners were removed from the window ledges, and backyard gardens were plowed under. Giant orange pumpkins and gourds of all types and sizes began to appear on front stoops. That wasnt the case in 1994. Back then, it was T-shirt-warm weather, with the mercury regularly climbing to the seventy-degree mark. Kids continued to play ball in the parks and hung out at the strip mall on Route 6, brazenly smoking cigarettes and trading gossip in small groups, because there were no blasts of frigid air to drive them indoors.

Carmel, New York

Photo by C.C. Sabathia

But it was not the weather that made October 1994 so memorable to Susan. On the third day of that month, Josette, just twelve years old, the youngest of her three children, disappeared from her life forever.

Josette was a strikingly pretty pre-teen who was very funny and loved to clown around. However, Susan added, with a thoughtful laugh, she was also a bit of a drama queen.

Since she was the youngest of the three girls, she always thought she was getting the short end of the stick, which I guess is normal when you have four females under the same roof. But Josette liked everybody, and unlike her two older sisters, Shelly and Chloe, she never badmouthed anyone, Susan said, as her oldest daughter Shelly, now thirty-five, nodded in agreement.

Most of all, Susan said, Josette loved little kids. She spoke of the summer when she would take her youngest daughter to a local lake. Josette would immediately take charge of all the small children, like a mothers helper, and watch over them while they played in the water. And she was just ten at that time.

Josette Wright, age 12

Courtesy of family

She really was a great kid, Shelly echoed. A lot of it had to do with our age difference. I was five years older than her, seventeen when she disappeared. Chloe was four years older, so we werent as competitive as Chloe and I were. We never fought over boys, or clothes, or anything like that. It was easy to love Josette.

It was hard to say anything bad about her, Susan said. She had no enemies, just friends.

Putnam County Assistant District Attorney Christopher York liked to tell another story about Josette.

Josette and a friend were strolling through the Danbury Fair Mall in nearby Danbury, Connecticut, in the summer of 94 when they came upon a homeless panhandler. Passing the destitute man, Josette paused and told her friend that he needed help. She went back and gave the ragged man a few hard-earned babysitting dollars.

How many self-absorbed twelve-year-olds would do that? York said. And she was loved by so many. I cant begin to tell you how many kids I spoke to who said she was their best friend. She was bubbly, full of energy and life, and she lit up the room when she entered. Josette was just a good kid.

Chloe, Shelly and Josette Wright

Courtesy of family

Single mother Susan and her three daughters lived high above the charming and historic hamlet of Carmel, which nestled up to the picturesque Lake Glenida. During the fall and winter, they had a lovely view of the lake. In the summer, it was veiled in greenery. They all lived together at 3 Old Town Road in a small ranch on the corner. Susan had grown up in the house and it was still owned by her parents. She was only responsible for the upkeep and the taxes. That helped a lot, but it was always a struggle to make ends meet; she received no alimony from the childrens father. Theirs was a middle-class neighborhood where the homes were mostly pleasant, but not ostentatious. They all had large yards and there were plenty of kids around. All three of Susans girls made many friends from the neighborhood over the years. They were also close to town, just up the hill from the town center and a few blocks from the Putnam Shopping Mall, a medium-sized strip mall less than a half mile from their house.