Marlo McQuillar died here--why? THE SUSPECT FATAL NIGHT UNFOLDS
Cold case: Who killed Marlo McQuillar?
BY EDIE GROSS
Date published: 9/12/2008
BY EDIE GROSS
The call came in at 11:43 p.m.
Shots fired in the Forest Village apartment complex.
Fredericksburg police officers Gray Hopkins and Joe Young were chatting with locals up the road at the Bragg Hill 7-Eleven.
They raced down Fall Hill Avenue toward Forest Village, pulling into the complex less than 60 seconds later.
"We got there as absolutely fast as we could and didn't pass a soul on the road," said Hopkins, now a detective.
The complex, usually bustling on a Friday evening, was silent on July 27, 2007.
Then Cpl. Bill Hyer spotted a man on the sidewalk in front of the 1200 building. Sprawled on his back, he wasn't moving.
Several miles away, Joann Gordon's phone rang. Half asleep, she picked up the receiver and heard her sister's voice.
"Joann, you need to get up. Marlo's been shot."
STEPPING UP
Nine months beforehand, Marlo David McQuillar had stood in a Stafford County courtroom, his eyes on Circuit Judge J. Martin Bass.
He'd made mistakes in his life, he told the judge. And he was sorry for them. Now that he was a father, he pledged to do better.
McQuillar, four weeks shy of his 24th birthday, was facing 10 years in prison for conspiracy to sell cocaine.
He pleaded guilty but also provided "extremely valuable" testimony against Samuel T. "Capone" Ensley, one of the operation's top men, said Stafford Detective John Hughes.
Ensley was sent to prison for 10 years. McQuillar, along with several other defendants in the case, received a suspended sentence. He promised Bass he'd stay out of trouble.
"I refuse to let my son go down the same path of negativity that I went down," McQuillar said.
Hughes has heard plenty of defendants swear to turn their lives around. McQuillar's pledge struck him as sincere.
"I thought that if anybody had a chance, it would've been him," Hughes said.
Walking away from that life wasn't easy, but by most accounts, McQuillar was trying hard to keep his word.
He worked as a cook at Bob Evans in Massaponax and helped care for his infant son. He talked about going back to school to become a heating and air-conditioning specialist.
"He really was making those steps," said fiancee Nicole Smith. "He started to really grow up and see what he needed to do."
THE WRONG CROWD
| PUZZLING PIECES
A series of seemingly random events took place before Marlo McQuillar died, placing him in the path of a gunman and with acquaintances detectives say may have been involved in his death.
OUT OF JAIL
McQuillar had gotten into a minor shoving match with his sister in January and was charged with assault. He missed a court date in July and was jailed. His mother told a judge that he'd missed the hearing only because she'd forgotten to give him a ride. He was released on Thursday, July 26, 2007, several days early and a day before he was shot.
CALLED TO WORK
McQuillar was called into work at Bob Evans at the last minute on Friday, July 27, 2007. A co-worker gave him a ride to the Massaponax restaurant around 2 p.m. He reached out to an old friend for a ride home.
AN OLD FRIEND
Only a week beforehand, McQuillar's childhood friend, who police call John Doe, had moved back to the area from New York. Once at Bob Evans, McQuillar text-messaged the man to ask for a ride home. Ultimately, he accepted a ride from a co-worker around 10 p.m., but John Doe was invited back to McQuillar's Forest Village apartment. They watched TV before heading for McQuillar's sister's apartment.
A PHONE CALL
Before leaving, McQuillar got a phone call from a woman who, according to John Doe, wanted to smoke marijuana with them. She had parked in the Forest Village visitor lot, so the two men picked her up in John Doe's car on the way to the sister's place. Police refer to her as Jane Doe, and her description of the man who shot McQuillar was used to create an FBI sketch.
CHILDCARE CHANGE
The babysitter who normally watched McQuillar's infant son was on vacation, so his sister had the boy. She lived in the 1200 building of Forest Village, around the corner from McQuillar. He was stopping to check on the baby and pick up a computer hard drive--so John Doe, the recently returned friend, could download music--when he was shot.
THE WHITE CAR
Witnesses say McQuillar was shot by a man with dreadlocks who drove away in a white "retired police car." Police looking for the car spotted one matching that description the next day in Heritage Park just up the street from Forest Village. A second officer spied that same car later in the day in Bragg Hill, only now it had different tags. On Sunday, the car's owner reported it stolen. And Monday, police recovered the car, abandoned on Route 3. On the passenger seat was a copy of the front page of Sunday's Free Lance-Star, featuring the story about McQuillar's killing. Prints and other evidence were lifted from the car.
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This FBI sketch depicts the man witnesses say shot Marlo McQuillar three times in the head in front of the Forest Village apartments on Friday, July 27, 2007.
Police say he's a black male with a medium complexion who stands between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9. He weighs between 150 and 170 pounds, has an athletic build and wears his hair in well-kept dreadlocks. At the time of the shooting, he wore a white T-shirt and jeans.
Anyone with information is asked to call Fredericksburg Detective Tim Garrett at 540/654-5755. Callers can remain anonymous. |
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Date published: 9/12/2008
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