MICHAEL RUIZ: Cold case DNA unmasks ‘Montauk Mary’ as cops probe link to Jersey Shore ‘Thrill Killer’

Sofia Margherita Marrone, long known as “Montauk Mary”, has been identified nearly 48 years after her body was found in Montauk, New York. Investigators say the new DNA identification may link her killing to Richard Biegenwald, the New Jersey serial killer known as the “Thrill Killer”, though they have not declared the case solved.

Marrone, who was from Pleasantville, New Jersey, was last seen leaving a hospital on 16 March 1978 and was found dead six days later, about 250 miles away. An autopsy recorded four gunshot wounds; authorities say the ammunition matched rare .22-calibre short rounds associated with Biegenwald, and a witness reported seeing a bearded man in a gold-coloured car near the scene. Biegenwald died in prison in 2008 after being convicted of six killings, while Marrone was one of six unidentified victims identified by Suffolk County investigators.