State police bring case back into public eye in cold case spotlight
By Jason Emerson
Editor
Cazenovia resident Candy Riley has been heartbroken for 35 years — since the day she was informed her brother, Barry Marquart, was found dead behind a Binghamton rest area off Interstate 81. According to police in 1980, there was no motive, no clues and no suspects — and no arrests were ever made.
There is no statute of limitations on murder, and the New York State police recently brought Marquart’s unsolved murder case back into the public eye when it was featured on the department’s Cold Case Tuesday Facebook posting in June.
For Riley, while she hopes the renewed exposure may help solve her brother’s case, her hopes are few. In fact, she remains bitter about how the police handled her brother’s murder in 1980 — a murder she and her family have always seen as a hate crime, and one they feel the police never really put an effort into solving.
That’s because Barry Marquart, 30, was gay, and the I-81 rest stop behind which he was killed was a known rendezvous spot for gay men.
“I’m not very hopeful. I think it’s a case of the state police have their current issues and cases and I understand this is 35 years old, but to us it’s a day old,” Riley said. “Not a day goes by you don’t think about it. You don’t get used to it; you never get used to it.”
According to the cold case information issued by state police Troop C in Binghamton on June 9, On Nov. 9, 1980, at about 3 p.m., State Police in Oneonta were contacted by a man who stated his son Barry, who lived in Binghamton, had been missing from his apartment. The father received a call from Barry’s roommate advising him he had not seen Barry since Nov. 7.
State Police in Binghamton were advised of the missing person report. On Nov. 9, Marquart’s car was found parked at the Exit 5 rest area on Interstate 81, northbound, in the Town of Dickinson, Broome County. There were no signs of foul play.
Troopers checked the parking lot and surrounding area and found Marquart’s body submerged in the shallow water of the Chenango River, about 500 feet behind the rest area. His wallet was located in Otsiningo Park, south of where the rest area was located, but no money was in the wallet. It was further determined the victim’s watch was missing.
At the time of his death, Marquart was wearing a white jacket, a green striped shirt, white denim trousers and leather buckled shoes, according to a Nov. 10, 1980 report in the Oneonta Daily Star newspaper. He lived in Woodhill Apartments in the town Kirkwood, outside Binghamton.
On Nov. 10, 1980, an autopsy was conducted by a Broome County Forensic Pathologist who ruled the cause of death to be drowning and determined the victim received injuries from blows to his head and face. Shortly after the autopsy results were completed, state police termed Marquart’s death “suspicious,” according to news report at the time.
According to news reports published in February 1981, state police arrested a 19-year-old Binghamton man and charged him with robbing Marquart, although state troopers at the time did not say what led to the arrest or to the charge of robbery. One day later, state police issued a statement saying the arrest was not related to the Marquart case, although they did not explain why.
“Many leads were followed up on during that time period and the case has remained open. Several interviews of potential witnesses have been completed throughout the years, however, this homicide has never been solved,” according to the police cold case article.
The location of this homicide, the rest area at Exit 5 on Interstate 81, northbound, no longer exists. The rest area has been closed and the building and paved walking area along the Chenango River was absorbed by Otsiningo Park when the park expanded.
According to State Police Troop C Public Information Officer Nathan Riegal, Marquart’s case was chosen as the cold case feature “in the hopes we can generate new leads.”
As of press time, no new leads have been developed since the cold case article was published on Facebook on June 9, and there is still no official motive assigned to Marquart’s murder, Riegal said.
For Riley and her family, the lack of motive is frustrating — but they do believe it had something to do with Barry’s homosexuality, and that it was therefore a hate crime.
“My brother didn’t have enemies; my brother was a compassionate, sweet, friendly guy,” Riley said. “Barry, who was a licensed mortician but worked as a purchasing agent for an Italian restaurant, had a dream to go to Greenwich Village in New York City and open a funeral home for gay people because he said that they were not allowed to mourn their loved ones as heterosexuals were, and they should be.”
Unfortunately, Marquart’s family also feels they have been “left out of the loop” on the police investigation, both in 1980 and today, and they have to wonder as well if the fact that Barry was gay had anything to do with it.
According to Riley, they found out the results of the autopsy from the newspaper report – not from the police; they did not receive her brother’s wallet back until 1990, 10 years after his death; they did not know Barry was beaten before he died until the June 2016 cold case article was released by Troop C; and they were not informed Barry’s case was the June 2016 cold case spotlight until they heard about it from Binghamton media outlets.
“After the funeral, a BCI [Bureau of Criminal Investigation] officer told us, ‘You won’t hear from us because it’s no longer your business,’ as I recall,” Riley said. “They are looking for new leads and I think it needs to be put out there. They must have something; they must have a clue – but they haven’t told us.”
Riegal said Marquart’s case has been handled the way any murder case is. “Our focus with any crime is to find out who is responsible and hold that person or persons accountable. This case is no different,” he said. “We chose to spotlight this case to hopefully generate leads that will help us solve this crime, and bring closure for the family.”
Riley is not sure closure can ever come to her, she said. “He was not only my brother; I lost a best friend,” she said.
Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call the New York State Police at 607-561-7496 and ask to speak with Investigator Matthew Hicks of the Troop C Major Crimes Unit. All calls will remain confidential.
