Suffolk County Cold Case Unit Identifies ‘Montauk Mary’ as 1978 Shooting Victim, Eyes Jersey Shore Serial Killer

For nearly 47 years, she was known only as “Montauk Mary,” an unidentified woman found shot to death in a Suffolk County park. On Thursday, investigators announced they finally know who she was — and they believe her killer may have been a notorious New Jersey serial murderer.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said cold case detectives used new DNA technology to identify the woman as Sofia Margherita Marrone, of Pleasantville, New Jersey. Marrone was found dead on March 22, 1978, by a U.S. Airman on his lunch break near the Camp Hero radar tower in East Overlook Park, at the eastern tip of Montauk in the town of East Hampton, New York.

Marrone had last been seen alive leaving a hospital in Somers Point, New Jersey, on March 16, 1978 — six days before her body turned up roughly 250 miles away. An autopsy found she had been shot three times in the legs and once in the chest, and investigators believe she was killed just hours before she was discovered.

A Possible Link to a Serial Killer

Tierney said investigators now suspect Marrone may have been a victim of Richard Biegenwald, known as the Jersey Shore’s “Thrill Killer.” Biegenwald died in prison in 2008 while serving life sentences for killing six people between 1958 and 1982, and he had been suspected in three additional murders.

According to Tierney, Marrone was killed with the same rare .22-caliber short rounds that New Jersey police found Biegenwald using when they arrested him in 1983. Biegenwald was known to approach victims as they walked along the Jersey Shore.

Investigators also pointed to a decades-old witness account: someone near the Montauk park where Marrone was found reported seeing a bearded man sitting in a gold-colored car with New Jersey plates. Tierney noted that Biegenwald had a beard and owned several vehicles, including one that roughly matched that description.

Despite the evidence, authorities stopped short of declaring the case closed.

Part of a Broader Cold Case Effort

Marrone is one of six Jane and John Does recently identified by Suffolk County’s cold case task force. Of those six, three are believed to be homicide victims, one is believed to have drowned accidentally, and the cause of death in the remaining case is still under investigation.

Retired NYPD cold case sergeant Joseph Giacalone told Fox News Digital the Suffolk County effort could serve as a template for other departments nationwide.

“The district attorney has laid out a plan nationally that others should follow,” Giacalone said. “Between establishing the cold case squad within the DA’s office, bringing in the federal and state partners, spending the money on cases that can be solved, and never giving up.”

In a statement, Tierney said the identifications reflect a long-standing commitment to the region’s unsolved cases.

“Every person deserves to be known by their name, and every victim deserves answers and justice,” Tierney said. “Five decades have passed since the first of these individuals was found deceased, but our commitment to identifying them and pursuing justice has never wavered.”