Marianne DeMartin, 52 MSG Since 09/25/05 [DECEASED/ARREST MADE] Evesham, NJ

[Grande]

News conference scheduled in missing-person case
By DAVID LEVINSKY
Burlington County Times

MOUNT HOLLY — The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office has scheduled a news conference today to announce a new development in a missing-person case.

Prosecutors declined to specify which case, but a source familiar with the investigation indicated it involves Marianne DeMartin, an Evesham woman who went missing in September 2005.

DeMartin, 52, the regional manager for White House/Black Market stores, vanished several days before she and her mother were scheduled to fly to Paris for a vacation. Her family reported her missing on Sept. 25, 2005, after she failed to show up for a number of appointments the previous day.

Her 2001 Ford Mustang convertible was found abandoned behind a shopping center in Voorhees about a mile from her Sagemore Drive home. Her purse, identification, credit and debit cards were found inside her home.

In September 2006, prosecutors announced that blood was found in the trunk of DeMartin’s car and that DNA not belonging to DeMartin was found at several spots inside the vehicle. Based on that evidence, prosecutors said they believed her disappearance was the result of a homicide.

Surveillance video showed an unidentified man driving DeMartin’s vehicle into the parking lot of the Avian Plaza shopping center on Evesham Road on the Voorhees-Cherry Hill border about 1:20 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2005.

The man backed the vehicle into a parking space next to a trash container and then walked out of the parking lot with a package or bag.

The car was found locked, and keys were not recovered, prosecutors said.

E-mail: dlevinsky@phillyBurbs.com

MISSING-PERSONS CASES

Here’s a list of missing-persons cases involving people from Burlington County:

Stacey Grater, 36, of Pemberton Township, reported missing in February 2006.

Marianne DeMartin, 52, of Evesham, reported missing in September 2005.

Danielle Imbo, 34, of Mount Laurel, reported missing in February 2005.

Tamela “Tammy” Jordan, 16, of Burlington Township, reported missing in November 2001.

Celina Janette Mays, 12, of Willingboro, reported missing in December 1996.

Bonita Krummel, 44, of Medford, reported missing in January 1991.

Lorraine “Lori” Herbster, 17, of Westampton, reported missing in March 1979.

Karen Zendrosky, of Bordentown Township, reported missing in 1979

Margaret Ellen Fox, 14, of Burlington City, reported missing in June 1974.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-04222008-1522986.html

[Nut44x4]

Police in New Jersey have arrested a man linked to a woman's disappearance. Authorities arrested Alex James Crow, 32, of Medford this morning. He was arrested where he works in Lumberton. Police say there were no incidents during his apprehension.
Crow faces murder charges.
DeMartin was a clothing store executive who left her wallet and her purse in her Marlton home when she disappeared back on September 23, 2005.
She was supposed to leave for a vacation two days later with her mother.
There were no signs of forced entry at her home.
Two days later, her Ford Mustang was found behind a Wawa in the Avian Shopping Plaza in Voorhees. DeMartin's blood was found in the car.
Police eventually released surveillance video, showing a man getting out of DeMartin's car in a shopping mall parking lot.
Police also recovered d-n-a profile, of a man believed to be her killer.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6096570

[Grande2]

Man charged with killing woman for car
Published: April 22, 2008 at 11:52 PM

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J., April 22 (UPI) -- A South Jersey landscaper was charged Tuesday with killing a woman who disappeared in 2005 in order to steal her car.

Investigators say Marianne DeMartin, 52, was a chance victim, alleging James Crow was working at the Evesham condominium complex where she lived and tried doors until he found one that had been left unlocked, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi said at a news conference to announce the arrest that DeMartin, manager of a clothing store, was asleep on the couch. When Crow woke her, they struggled and he allegedly strangled her.

Skeletal remains found in Schuylkill County in Pennsylvania in 2006 were identified in February as DeMartin's. Crow allegedly drove her body there in her own car, dumped the body and put Pennsylvania plates from an abandoned car on the stolen one.

Crow was linked to the killing through the car, Bernardi said. When he was arrested in 2006 on an unrelated car theft charge, police found one of the Pennsylvania plates. DeMartin's car had been found in South Jersey.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/22/man_charged_with_killing_woman_for_car/8170/

[Grande2]

Parents React To Arrest In Missing Woman's Killing
UPDATED: 8:07 am EDT April 23, 2008

EVESHAM, N.J. -- A Burlington County man is held on $1 million bail in the case of a slain South Jersey woman.

The arrest puts to rest questions that have been plaguing police and Marianne DeMartin's family for close to three years, NBC 10's Mike Strug reported.

"All this time you think, 'Who did she know that would do something like this to her, and here it was some stranger," said the victim's mother, Maureen DeMartin.

Investigators said 32-year-old Alex Crow is the accused killer.

His victim, 52-year-old Marianne DeMartin, was asleep on her couch when Crow pushed open the unlocked sliding door and walked in to commit a simple burglary, the prosecutor alleges.

"At that point, Miss DeMartin awakened, and there was a struggle, resulting in him choking her to death," Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi said.

Her parents picked up the tragic story.

"He walked into her home and spent the night there after he killed her. That's amazing. That's really amazing. Then, he took her car and drove away," said Dick DeMartin, the victim's father.

With DeMartin's body in the trunk of her Mustang, Crow allegedly drove to the area he was from originally, West Mahonoy City in Schuylkill County, Pa.

There, the prosecutor charges Crow dumped her body and made what turned out to be a critical mistake, taking a license plate from a nearby abandoned car.

That plate eventually was found in his own vehicle during a routine car stop. That, combined with DNA, to tied him to the murder, prosecutors said.

After Crow's arrest Wednesday, police said they found DeMartin's watch and camera in the Medford home where Crow lived with his mother. Neighbors were stunned.

"My sister-in-law is very, very scared and, you know, thinks back to all the times she's been home by herself and she lives right next door to him. It scares us as a family. It scares everybody," neighbor Marisa Groves said.

For Marianne DeMartin's parents, there is some small sense of closure. But the nightmare is really unending.

"We know that she's not coming back. I always kept hoping, but, you know, that hope just disappeared," the mother said.

"We wake up every morning and think about her," said her father.

In court Tuesday, the prosecutor said Crow confessed to the murder.

http://www.nbc10.com/news/15963989/detail.html

[Grande2]

Police: Man killed missing woman
By DAVID LEVINSKY and DANIELLE CAMILLI
Burlington County Times

MOUNT HOLLY — Authorities announced yesterday they have solved the mysterious 2005 disappearance of an Evesham woman with the arrest of a Medford man on charges he choked her to death during a burglary and then dumped her body in rural Pennsylvania.

Alex James Crow, 32, of Oak Ridge was charged with the first-degree murder of Marianne DeMartin, 52, of Sagemore Drive, Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi said during a news conference.

Later in court, First Assistant Prosecutor Raymond Milavsky said Crow confessed, “acknowledging responsibility” for breaking into DeMartin's home and causing her death.

“And that at his own hands, he took her life,” he said.

Crown faces life in prison if convicted, Milavsky said.

DeMartin, a regional manager for White House/Black Market stores, vanished on Sept. 23, 2005, just prior to a planned vacation to France. Since her disappearance, police had doggedly searched for evidence and pursued leads in search of an explanation, Bernardi said.

DeMartin's disappearance had been considered a missing-person case until September 2006, when investigators announced they believed DeMartin had been murdered. Since then, police had made no statements about the case.

Bernardi revealed yesterday that major breaks had developed as early as Jan. 18 this year when investigators learned that Crow's DNA profile, on record from a prior conviction, matched evidence found in DeMartin's car.

Bernardi said the other big break occurred two years ago when the skeletal remains of a human body were discovered next to an abandoned warehouse in West Mahanoy Township in Schuylkill County, Pa. Those remains weren't identified as DeMartin's until Feb. 28, Bernardi said. Investigators then had to follow up with additional leads before arresting Crow Monday at his job site in Lumberton, he said.

“You can see a lot of effort and solid police work went into this investigation,” Bernardi said, adding that the work of the New Jersey State Police lab and the Pennsylvania State Police proved crucial.

He said the motive for the murder appeared to be a simple burglary inside DeMartin's home.

At the time, Crow was employed as a maintenance man and landscaper in the Sagemore housing development, which authorities believe made him familiar with the area.

Bernardi said investigators believe Crow rode a bicycle to her home hoping to steal a car and that he entered DeMartin's house after he found a sliding glass door ajar and saw her sleeping on a couch.

He was searching for DeMartin's car keys when she was awakened. A struggle ensued, and Crow choked her to death, Bernardi said.

Investigators believe Crow then placed her body in the trunk of her car, waited in her home for several hours and then drove to Pennsylvania, where he dumped it in high weeds next to abandoned warehouse, he said.

DeMartin's family contacted police on Sept. 25 after she failed to show for expected appointments. Her vehicle was missing but property such as her purse, wallet, identification and credit cards were found in her home.

Four days later, DeMartin's car was found parked at the Avian Shopping Center in Voorhees, about a mile from DeMartin's residence. Blood was found in the trunk of the car and DNA of an unidentified male was also located in the vehicle.

Later authorities also retrieved surveillance videotape that showed an unidentified man parking the vehicle in the early morning hours on Sept. 26 and then wiping down the driver's side.

The DNA wasn't matched to Crow until April. Bernardi said, after learning of the match, police set up surveillance of Crow and began investigating him as a prime suspect.

Bernardi said another key break occurred earlier this year when police learned that Crow had been arrested on Nov. 18, 2005, in Medford for driving a stolen car. Inside the vehicle, police discovered stolen Pennsylvania license plates that were eventually traced to an abandoned vehicle left near where DeMartin's body was located.

Bernardi said detectives suspect Crow took the plates in order to try to hide the fact that he was driving DeMartin's stolen vehicle.

He said police also discovered that Crow's girlfriend was a resident of Mahanoy City, Pa. and that Crow had family living in that area.

A digital camera, watch and other jewelry belonging to DeMartin were later found in the home Crow shares with his mother, Bernardi said.

Authorities revealed in court that Crow was convicted in 1998 of endangering the welfare of a minor in Cinnaminson and was a registered sex offender. He was also convicted in 2006 of failure to register as a sex offender under the state's Megan's Law.

Timeline in Marianne DeMartin investigation

Sept. 23, 2005: Marianne DeMartin was last seen alive by neighbors and spoke to her family members during the evening hours.

September 25, 2005: Family members contact Evesham police to report DeMartin and her black 2001 Ford Mustang are missing.

September 29, 2005: Demartin's vehicle is located at the Avian Shopping Center in Voorhees, Camden County, about 1 mile from DeMartin's residence. Blood is found in the truck of the car and DNA of an unidentified male is also located in the vehicle. A surveillance videotape is also retrieved from outside the Avian Shopping Center showing an unidentified man parking DeMartin's vehicle in the early morning on Sept. 26 and wiping down the driver's side.

Nov. 18, 2005: Medford police perform a traffic stop on a vehicle occupied by Medford resident Alex James Crow and his girlfriend, a resident of Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County, Pa. During the traffic stop, a Pennsylvania license plate stolen from an abandoned vehicle in Schuylkill County is located in the vehicle with Crow and his girlfriend.

April 3, 2006: A badly decomposed human body is discovered in West Mahanoy Township, Schuylkill County, Pa. The body is examined but remains unidentified. The cause of death is also not determined due to the extreme decomposition.

April 11, 2006: Pennsylvania State Police enter the discovery of the body into a national police database.

Jan. 18, 2008: The New Jersey State Police Lab informs investigators that the DNA evidence found in DeMartin's vehicle matches the DNA profile of Medford resident Alex James Crow. Police initiate surveillance of Crow and begin investigating him as a prime suspect in DeMartin's disappearance and presumed murder. During the investigation, police learn about the Nov. 18, 2005 traffic stop and the discovery of the stolen license plate. Investigators also learn that the license plate was taken from a vehicle abandoned near where the unidentified remains were discovered.

Feb. 27, 2008: Dental records are used to confirm that the remains found in Pennsylvania are DeMartin's. Further investigation uncovers that Crow's sister lives in Frackville, Pa., a town adjacent to the one where the body was found.

April 21, 2008: Crow is arrested at his job site in Lumberton and charged with first-degree murder and burglary in DeMartin's death. He is lodged in Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly on $1 million bail.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-04232008-1523584.html

[Grande]

Jail ID 73181
Last Name CROW
First Name ALEX
MI J
Facility Burlington County Detention Center
Bail Amount 1000000

[Nut44x4]

The Philadelphia Inquirer

October 7, 2008 Tuesday
Medford man admits strangling Evesham woman

A 33-year-old man accused of strangling Marianne DeMartin in her Evesham home and dumping her body in Pennsylvania pleaded guilty yesterday to murder.

Alex James Crow, of Medford, faces up to 40 years in prison as a result of the plea he entered before Judge Patricia R. LeBon in Burlington County Superior Court. He must serve 34 years before becoming eligible for parole.

Crow, speaking so softly the judge pressed him to raise his voice, answered questions about the crime as members of DeMartin's family sobbed behind him.

Crow slipped through the unlocked door of DeMartin's Sagemore Drive condominium the evening of Sept. 23, 2005, while she was sleeping. His chief motive was to find keys to steal a car.

DeMartin, 52, awoke, and a struggle ensued. He pinned her down. He squeezed her neck.

"Did you notice anything?" asked public defender Donald Ackerman.

"She stopped fighting and stopped breathing," Crow replied.

DeMartin worked in upper management at a division of the women's clothing retailer Chico's. She was twice divorced with no children.

Crow, a convicted sex offender, worked as a landscaper at the complex and had tested a number of doors before settling on DeMartin's, authorities said. Authorities allege he spent the night in DeMartin's apartment before slipping her body into the trunk of her black 2001 Ford Mustang and driving more than 100 miles to West Mahanoy Township, Schuylkill County, to dump it in an isolated area.

For the 2½ years before Crow was arrested and charged with the death in April, DeMartin's relatives struggled with her disappearance, even creating a Web site in an effort to "help find Mar."

Yesterday, they voiced relief that the case would not go to trial.

"That would be too difficult for us," said Debbie Gore, DeMartin's sister.

Seeing Crow walk into the courtroom was "awful," said Mary Ann DeMartin, DeMartin's mother.

"That was so hard," she said, "when he came into that room, to think what he had done."

The judge revoked Crow's $1 million bail, at the request of First Assistant Prosecutor Raymond Milavsky. Crow is scheduled for formal sentencing on Jan. 9.

After Crow abandoned DeMartin's body, he stole a Pennsylvania license plate and spent the night at a motel before driving back to New Jersey with the new plate attached to the car, authorities said.

Several days later, authorities recovered the vehicle, with its original New Jersey license plates, outside a Voorhees shopping center one mile from DeMartin's home. Law enforcement officials developed a DNA profile of an unidentified male from the interior of the car.

Police discovered the Pennsylvania license plate, which the owner had since reported stolen, when they stopped Crow for stealing another car in Mount Laurel, authorities said. The same license plate was in the vehicle.

In April 2006, people walking in West Mahanoy Township found DeMartin's skeletal remains. Authorities identified the body as DeMartin's in February, one month after a New Jersey State Police forensics lab identified Crow as a DNA match for the genetic profile authorities had recovered from the vehicle.

On April 22, police arrested Crow at the Lumberton company, where he worked as an irrigation technician.

Ten days later, DeMartin's family laid her to rest.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:863971854&start=2

[Nut44x4]

Posted on Sat, Dec. 20, 2008

Medford man sentenced to 40 years for 2005 murder

A Medford man was sentenced to 40 years in prison yesterday for fatally choking a woman in her Evesham home during a burglary, then dumping her body in Schuylkill County, Pa., where the skeletal remains were found seven months later.
Marianne DeMartin's friends and family members agonized over her 2005 disappearance for 2½ years before the identification of the remains and the subsequent arrest of Alex James Crow.

In a Burlington County courtroom filled with close to 20 members of DeMartin's family, Debbie Gore described the period of wondering what had happened to her sister as a "nightmare from which we'll never wake up."

Calling the crimes heinous and outrageous, First Assistant Prosecutor Raymond Milavsky said Crow dumped the body of DeMartin, 52, "like it was yesterday's garbage."

Crow, 33, was sentenced in accordance with a guilty plea he entered before Superior Court Judge Patricia R. LeBon in October, after his public defender requested the prison term be reduced to 30 years.

He must serve 34 years before being eligible for parole on the charge of first-degree murder.

"Mr. Crow has always expressed deep remorse for what happened," said Donald Ackerman, the public defender. "He's been very emotional with me."

The defendant's voice was barely audible as he apologized to DeMartin's family.

According to Ackerman, alcohol and drug addiction fueled Crow's actions on the day of the killing, Sept. 23, 2005. In pursuit of keys to steal a car at the Sagemore Drive complex where DeMartin lived alone and where he worked as a landscaper, Crow slipped through DeMartin's unlocked door while she was sleeping.

A struggle ensued when she awoke. He strangled her.

Crow spent the rest of the night in her home, taking a digital camera, clothes and other belongings before placing her body in the trunk of her Ford Mustang and driving to Schuylkill County to see his girlfriend. He left the body in a rural area and removed Pennsylvania license tags from an abandoned vehicle nearby, which he then affixed to DeMartin's car.

Authorities soon recovered the car - with its New Jersey plates again intact - in the parking lot of a Voorhees shopping center. Crow was arrested in November 2005 for stealing another car, where police found the stolen Pennsylvania license plates. A family stumbled across DeMartin's remains in Pennsylvania the following year.

Authorities eventually linked a DNA profile obtained from Crow for the car theft to evidence from DeMartin's car, and used dental records to identify her remains.

"It's difficult," her father, Richard DeMartin, said in court, "to describe the hurt that this act has caused. . . . Forty years is not a sufficient penalty, but we accept that."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20081220_Medford_man_sentenced_to_40_years_for_200 5_murder.html

[Amusedtdth]

http://php.app.com/njsent/results_temp.php?deflast=CROW&deffirst=ALEX&Submit3=Search&coname=%25&judge=%25&shortdescp=%25

This link is I believe, previous charges on this man except for the last one.

[grammybears]

I had wondered what had happened in this case. I totally agree with her father when he said 40 years is not nearly long enough, but for most of us who have lost a loved one any sentence is better then no sentence. Bless her family for what they have had to go through. I hope they have the strength to carry on the best they can with having lost their daughter and sister.

jmoo

[Grande]

Medford man gets 40-year prison sentence for DeMartin murder
Posted in News on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 1:50 pm |

http://i26.tinypic.com/wksq3r.jpg

The disappearance of Marianne DeMartin was finally resolved Friday as the Evesham woman’s killer was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment.

During the hearing, Alex James Crow, 33, of Oak Ridge in Medford expressed remorse and apologized to DeMartin’s assembled family for the 2005 killing.

But Superior Court Judge Patricia LeBon rejected his defense attorney’s arguments for a reduced sentence of 30 years imprisonment. She ordered Crow to serve at least 34 years in prison before he becomes eligible for parole.

“There are severe consequences for engaging in criminal activity of this course,” LeBon said after handing down Crow’s sentence.

Crow pleaded guilty in October to a charge of felony murder for choking the 52-year-old DeMartin to death in her Sagemore Drive condominium after she woke up during a burglary.

After the murder, Crow placed her lifeless body in the trunk of her Ford Mustang and dumped it news to an abandoned warehouse in a weed-filled lot in West Mahonoy, Pa.

DeMartin’s disappearance was initially described as a missing persons case, but authorities later announced that they suspected she had been murdered.

Months passed before her body was discovered, and the remains were not identified until Feb. 28, this year, authorities said.

The biggest break in the case came this January when investigators learned that Crow’s DNA profile, on record from a prior conviction, matched evidence found in DeMartin’s car, which was found several days after she was reported missing in a Voorhees shopping center.

Crow also became a suspect when authorities learned that had been charged on Nov. 18, 2005, in Medford with driving a stolen car. Inside the vehicle, police discovered stolen Pennsylvania license plates that were eventually traced to an abandoned vehicle left near where DeMartin’s body was located.

Police also discovered that Crow had a girlfriend living in Mahonoy City, Pa., and a digital camera, watch, and clothing belonging to DeMartin were later found in Crow’s home.

Burlington County First Assistant Prosecutor Ray Milavsky described Crows actions as “ghoulish, outrageous and heinous” as he argued in favor of a long prison sentence.

During their statements, DeMartin’s family members wept as they described the pain and loss Crow’s murder caused.

“Marianne was a beautiful, loving, accomplished and successful human being,” DeMartin’s father, Richard DeMartin said during the hearing. “Not a day goes by that we don’t feel the hurt of being denied Marianne’s love.”

“For years we didn’t sleep more than a minute,” said DaMartin’s sister, Debbie Gore. “We wondered where she was? If she was ok? If she wasn’t ok? We cried everyday. It was the most horrible crime of all our lives.”

In addition to DeMartin’s murder, authorities said in court that Crow was previously convicted in 1998 of endangering the welfare of a minor in Connaminson and was a registered sex offender. He was also convicted in 2006 of failure to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law.

BCT staff writer David Levinsky can be reached at (609) 871-8154 or at dlevinsky@phillyBurbs.com.

http://blogs.phillyburbs.com/news/bct/medford-man-gets-40-year-prison-sentence-for-demartin-murder/