I was watching one of those cop shows, Law and Order or CSI. The cops were grilling the husband of a murdered woman. "Where were you on Tuesday night at 9:00?"
"I was at the hotel bar. You can ask anyone. Everyone saw me. I was the one who spilled my drink on the bouncer."
Aha. An alibi. An easily checked alibi. Sounds good, right? The cops go away frustrated. They can't hang this killing on the husband.
So where were you on Tuesday night at 9:00? Do you know? I don't know where I was.
It's a paranoid's nightmare. I can't account for myself 90% of the time I'm not at work, in between punches of the time clock. I'm obviously guilty, slap the cuffs on me, because I don't know where I was and even if I did I can't prove it. I was in a dark theater watching a movie, I was watching a basketball game on TV, I was watching an idiot TV cop show where a guy could prove he was somewhere on the night in question. And in none of those situations could I prove where I was or what I was doing.
Years ago I worked with a married couple named Warren and Margo. Margo was a head custodian in a junior high, Warren worked for us, but had recently quit to go to work on the loading dock of a truck line. On February 21, 1992 Margo went to work and wasn't seen again for four months until someone found her remains in the desert west of us, a murder victim.
Warren worked nights so he usually went to the school to visit Margo in the morning, or if he couldn't do that he called her. He called that morning of February 21 and no one could find her. He went to the school. No one knew where she was. They conducted a search. Police were called, dogs were used. No Margo. It made the news, and police said it looked suspicious but they had no indication of foul play. Police questioned Warren. When did you last see your wife? When did you last talk to her? Typical cop questions. Cops know when someone goes missing there's a reason. There's been a fight and they have walked off to cool down; they have decided to run off with the mailman; they are injured or dead in a ditch somewhere.
Because of it happening in a school, and Margo's pretty girl looks, her photo was often on local TV newscasts. I remember Margo as a cute, petite woman in her early forties who worked out at the gym. She was also in fitness contests and not a few of my female coworkers were outraged that Warren had let her parade around in a bikini in some of these contests. The speculation was that it was because of that she had disappeared, that Warren was jealous of the attention others gave to her.
Early on it looked like the cops were focusing on Warren. Because of the buzz about the case, for a time it got national attention. Warren appeared on Oprah with some other spouses of missing persons. Based on working with him, my personal opinion of Warren was that he was immature for his age, even though he was in his thirties. He was a few years younger than his 42-year-old wife. I saw him as emotionally stunted at about a 17 or 18-year-old level. He was a braggart, embellishing stories of being in fights, and he was a liar when it suited his purposes. So knowing those things made me--and others of his former coworkers--wonder if in a jealous rage he had done something to his wife. I thought he came off pretty well on Oprah, though. I knew Warren as an unconvincing liar, and on this show he didn't sound like he usually did when I'd heard him lie. At the time I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He didn't sound like a murdering husband.
A father and son were out in the desert hunting in June, 1992, when they saw what looked like an animal bone stuck in the ground. It turned out to be Margo's arm, and her skeletal remains were beneath it in a shallow grave. Something I found out at the time about our west desert: because of the chemical composition of the soil, decomposition is vastly sped up.
Police then really turned their attention to Warren. Warren felt heat and hired a lawyer. He must be guilty! He's hired a lawyer! The lawyer wouldn't let Warren take a police lie detector test, but had Warren take a test with an outside polygraph expert. Over a period of time Warren passed three tests but the cops didn't care. They weren't tests under their control.
Some years later a man came forward and confessed to murdering some teenage girls and Margo. He had gone into the junior high looking for a student to abduct. Petite Margo was there instead, and became his unlucky victim. But years before we learned that I had a conversation with Margo's former boss who outlined "exactly how Warren had killed her and disposed of her." This was from his conversations with the police, who had formulated the theory.
Warren and Margo had fought, the police said, quoted to me by her boss. Warren came to the school early on the morning of February 21 right after Margo had opened the building, before anyone else arrived. They continued their fight, he got violent, overpowered her and strangled her. He put her body in the trunk of his car, then drove home. He coolly called the school to ask to speak to her and when she couldn't be found he drove back to the school, Margo still in the trunk. He pretended to help in the search. That night he drove to his parents' home. They were out of town. He stashed Margo's body. Later he drove Margo to the west desert and buried her, returning home with no one the wiser. I knew Margo's boss did not like Warren. He told me he thought Warren was a pest because of the time he had spent at the school keeping Margo from her duties.
In the time between Margo's disappearance and the confession of the serial murderer Warren had been the main suspect. That's because in most cases it is the spouse who is the killer. Warren had this hanging over his head for years. Many times during those years I had heard others say, "He killed her." I thought back to his displays of childish temper, his lying and denial on the job even when caught in acts of nonfeasance. My imagination got the better of me and at times I fell into the common consensus that it was probably true; despite my initial opinion of his truthfulness to Oprah, he must've killed his wife.
Warren took the rap for his wife's murder even though he was never officially charged. It's a Hitchcock movie: wrong man accused, looks guilty as hell, but turns out to be innocent when the real perpetrator is caught. That's the movies, but this was real life.
Warren lost his wife, but he must've also lost whatever trust a person has in the system in this country. Often we hear of people released from prison after decades because DNA evidence exonerates them. How could they feel while doing time but not the crime? Warren had been in a vortex of accusation, both vocal and silent. He also had some extremely good luck when, like in a Hitchcock plot, the murderer confessed.
So, Mr. Postino, where were you at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 14, 2007?
Well, Detective, I was typing up my blog, and…and you can check it out! It's time-stamped on my computer! Really, I can prove it!
Ciao for now.
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