Friday, April 28, 2000
Kidnap victim strangled, burned
Two held in New Jersey
By
The Associated Press and The Cincinnati Enquirer
Gale
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Marcinski
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The British computer consultant snatched from Florence by a bogus FBI agent last week was apparently strangled and set afire before being dumped in a swampy area near the New Jersey home of his suspected kidnapper, the FBI said Thursday.
Authorities made the announcement hours after finding the body of Paul Jeffrey Gale in a shallow grave near Brick, N.J.
His shirtless body showed “ligature markings” on the neck and burn marks from a flammable liquid, said FBI Special Agent Garey S. Chin, the No. 2 agent in the Newark office.
Gregory J. Marcinski, of Brick, N.J., is charged with kidnapping Mr. Gale April 17 from the Florence Holiday Inn. He also is charged with impersonating an FBI agent, and could face the death pen alty for murder, a Kentucky prosecutor said.
On Thursday, authorities arrested Mr. Marcinski's roommate, Preston Foray, and charged him with obstructing justice for allegedly helping dispose of Mr. Gale's body.
Where Mr. Gale was killed had not been determined late Thursday.
“The understanding, at this point, is that it occurred somewhere between Kentucky and New Jersey. The exact point is unknown,” said Linda Tally Smith, an assistant commonwealth attorney for Boone County.
Regardless of the location, Kentucky can charge him with murder because the crime originated there, she said.
Kentucky is awaiting autopsy results and other information before deciding whether to charge Mr. Marcinski with murder, she said.
“It will probably become a capital case, but we're still looking at it,” she said.
The body was discovered only hours before Florence police and Northern Kentucky FBI agents had planned to hold a press conference to ask for help in finding Mr. Gale.
The 28-year-old computer consultant, originally from Great Britain, worked for a New Jersey company, TRW Integrated Supply. He was working in Florence this month to help with the merger of two drug compa nies.
Mr. Marcinski, 23, is the former boyfriend of Mr. Gale's girlfriend, Darla Guidie.
He has maintained that he had nothing to do with Mr. Gale's disappearance. He said he drove from New Jersey to Florence only to talk to Mr. Gale face-to-face about the woman both dated. Ms. Guidie told authorities Mr. Marcinski once showed
her how he made fake FBI credentials on his computer.
Mr. Marcinski, 23, is being held in the Monmouth County, N.J., jail awaiting extradition to Kentucky on state kidnapping charges and a federal charge of impersonating an FBI agent.
Mr. Foray, 21, does not face Kentucky charges, Ms. Smith said. Both men lived with Mr. Marcinski's grandmother.
“We have no evidence he stepped foot in the state,” she said. “We believe he helped conceal the body once the defendant brought it back to New Jersey.”
Mr. Foray told agents on Wednesday that when he saw Mr. Marcinski on April 17, Mr. Marcinski disclosed the kidnapping and showed him the body in the trunk of Mr. Marcinski's grand mother's Buick, according to court papers.
Mr. Marcinski asked him to help dispose of the body, and they buried him in a marshy section of Brick about two miles from Mr. Marcinski's home, Mr. Foray told agents, the FBI papers said. The information sparked a daylong search.
Mr. Foray spoke softly and kept his head bowed during a brief appearance before U.S. Magistrate John Hughes in Trenton on Thursday.
Mr. Hughes set bail at $1 million, but said he would release Mr. Foray on $90,000 in property bonds from his parents on the condition that he live and work with his father in Point Pleasant and wear an electronic monitoring device.
He ordered Mr. Foray to spend the night Thursday in pro tective custody at the Monmouth County Jail.
Defense lawyer Michael E. Wilbert told the judge his client is “despondent,” and said Mr. Foray could face a “catastrophic result” in jail without protective custody. He declined to elaborate.
Mr. Foray faces up to 15 years in federal prison if found guilty of being an accessory after the fact of a kidnapping, Assistant U.S. Attorney Treby Williams said.
Mr. Marcinski, a volunteer emergency medical technician, flashed an EMT badge and computer-generated FBI credentials to gain access to Mr. Gale's room at the Holiday Inn in Florence, according to court documents.
Jane Prendergast contributed to this report.
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