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Who killed Martha Moxley?
On October 30, 1975, 15 year old Martha Moxley was preparing for an evening of fun and pranks with a few of her friends. Where you live it may be called "doorbell night", cabbage night", "hacker night" or "mischief night", but the antics are all the same. Armed with rolls of toilet tissue, shaving cream and eggs, the kids took to the streets for a night of harmless fun. Dorthy Moxley had grilled her daughter a cheese sandwich, which Martha grabbed and hurried out the door with her friends, 15 year old Helen Ix and 11 year old Geoffrey Byrne. Dorthy was on the phone when Martha left and was not able to give her a proper goodbye. It would be the last time that she ever saw her daughter again.
The kids of Belle Haven were no different than kids in any other community on the night before Halloween. They were out and about doing the same things kids all over the country were doing. Well, there was an exception! One of the neighborhood teens out in Belle Haven that night, wasn't spraying shaving cream and stringing toilet paper. Instead, this disturbed young man was beating the life out of the young Moxley girl using a golf club which belonged to the Rushton Skakel family, that lived across the street from the Moxley's.
After leaving the Moxley's the kids teamed up with Jackie Wettenhall and Marie
Coomerswarmy. They went to the Moukaud house but the kids were not allowed to join them.
Somewhere in their travels, they had decided to go to the Skakel home. The Skakel
boys had a bad reputation for being wild and unruly and Mrs Moukaud did not want her kids
going along.
At around 7:00, a group of kids was spotted hanging around the chain at the end of Walsh
Lane, a frequent hang out spot where the neighborhood children would gather. There was
toilet paper strung from trees, evidence that Martha and her friends had been busy.
At 7:30, the group minus Maria Coomoraswarmy, went to the Skakel home where their
gardener, Franz Wittine, informed them that the boys were dining at the Belle Haven Club.
They started back to the Mouakad's home where Mrs Mouakad served the children some ice
cream.
Around 8:30, the group returned to the Skakel home, in hope that the boys had returned.
The girls sent Geoffrey Byrne to the door to ask, and he was once again told by the
gardener, that they had not returned.
At about 8:45, the group dining at the Belle Haven Club arrived home. Those dining that
night included Rush JR, John, Tommy, Michael and Julie, their cousin Jim Terrien and
Julie's friend Andrea Shakespeare, along with the newly hired Skakel tutor, Ken Littleton.
At this time Martha and her friends were walking Jackie home to meet her 9:00 PM curfew.
After dropping her off, the gang again returned to the Skakel's, this time finding them
home.
Michael Skakel led the group outside to the family car. Helen and Geoffrey jumped into the
back seat and Martha hopped up front with Michael. They listened to music and talked. At
about 9:15, Tommy Skakel came out and joined them in the car. He claimed to be retrieving
a cassette from the vehicle but instead of taking it and leaving, he hopped in beside
Martha. Martha found herself sitting between the two Skakel brothers, who were both
interested in her. Although Martha may have known that both of these boys were attracted
to her, she could not possibly have known that these two brothers shared a long history of
violent sibling rivalry.
Michael Skakel told police that Tommy began flirting with Martha while all three of them
were sitting in the front seat. This flirting consisted of Tommy placing his hand on her
leg and Martha asking him to remove it. After her death Dorthy Moxley read Martha's diary
and found out that Martha had written that Tommy had made passes at her in the past and
that she needed to be careful of him. It seems Martha must have realized because Tommy was
older and more experienced in matters such as this, that she would have to stay on top of
things to remain in control of whatever relationship that developed between them, if any
at all.
About 9:30, Julie Skakel exits the home, intending to drive her friend Andrea home. She
forgot her car keys and sent Andrea back to retrieve them. Tommy Skakel who had left
Martha at the door and entered his home, retrieved the keys for Andrea. At about this same
time, the Skakel boys came out to reclaim use of the family car that the kids were sitting
in, they needed to drive Jim Terrien home. Everyone piled out of the car. Michael asked
Martha if she would like to go with him to the Terrien's. She turned him down and said she
had to get home. Michael claims to have gotten back into the car with his brothers and
drove off to his cousins, however, later it is learned that three people that night,
including one that was in the car, do not believe Michael made that drive.
Outside of the car, Tommy and Martha continued their flirting in the form of shoving each
other around and at some point they kissed. Helen and Geoff decided to leave and walked
through the Skakel backyard, enroute to their homes. The last time they saw Martha, she
and Tommy had fallen behind a wall near the family pool. They could not be sure later
exactly what had happened. Their views were partly blocked by the wall. What is known is
that Martha willingly remained behind.
By 11:20, when John Moxley returned home, his mother informed him that Martha had yet to
return. She asked him to take a ride around and look for her. He returned awhile later,
unable to find his sister.
Well after midnight, Dorthy began making phone calls to Martha's friends and neighbors in
an attempt to find her daughter. She learned from Helen, that the last time she saw
Martha, she was alone with Tommy at the Skakel home. Dorthy phoned the Skakel's and Julie
answered. At Dorthy's request, Julie goes upstairs to wake Tommy and ask him about Martha.
He tells her he left her at their back door at 9:30 and had not seen her since. Julie
relays this message back to Mrs Moxley.
During the course of the next few hours, Dorthy would phone the Skakel family several more
times, getting more desperate with each call, as Martha had yet to come home. At one point
she asked to speak to Tommy, hoping to learn the circumstances of the last time he had
seen her child. He related the same thing that he had told his sister earlier, he had last
seen Martha at their door at 9:30.
During one of the calls to the Skakel's, Julie suggests to Dorthy that she call Skakel
cousin, Jim Terrien. She supplied Dorthy with the phone number and Dorthy called reaching
Georgeanne Terrien, the Skakel's aunt. She told Dorthy that she had no knowledge of the
Skakel boys being there that evening and although she looked, was unable to find her son.
At 3:48 that morning, Dorthy phoned the police to report Martha missing. Dorthy sent
her son out again to look for his sister and he remained out searching until about 6:00 AM
that morning. He returned home, unsuccessful. It would be several hours before Martha's
neighbor and friend, Sheila Maguire, would make her gruesome discovery.
The timing of these events are crucial in determining what really happened that night. Julie claims to have seen Martha at the door with Tommy but Helen and Geoff saw the two horseplaying in the backyard. Was this before or after Julie came out to drive her friend home?
The unfocused investigation, coupled with the stonewalling of the Skakel family, created a
standstill in the case. For years, nothing was done on the Moxley homicide other than a
stake out every Halloween Eve. Now, a quarter of a century later, events are beginning to
unfold. Will we finally find out who killed Martha Moxley?
On June 28, Judge Dennis took on the task of deciding whether there is enough evidence to
try Michael Skakel for the 1975 murder of his 15 year old neighbor, Martha Moxley. If
Dennis feels there is sufficient cause to continue with a trial, she will then have to
decide if this will proceed in a juvenile court or move it up to an adult court.
UPDATE On January 31, 2001 Judge Maureen Dennis ruled that there was sufficient cause to bind this case over to adult court. It is predicted that the trial will commence in 5 - 8 months.
