GUILTY CA - Mary Marino-Starkey, 46, Manteca, 15 June 2005

A relative of Mary Morino-Starkey, a Ripon-area woman who has been missing since Wednesday, found her unoccupied car Sunday afternoon, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department reported.
The car was spotted in a winery parking lot on Highway 120 at French Camp Road, about 2½ miles north of Morino-Starkey's home, where her family last saw her, Sgt. Chris Stevens said.

Investigators started examining the car, a tan 1997 Saturn sedan, but had not found evidence that might point to the missing woman's whereabouts as of 7:30 p.m., Stevens said.

Relatives of Morino-Starkey, 46, said they have not seen her since about 2 p.m. Wednesday, when she left her farmhouse on East River Road, two miles northeast of Ripon. They said she had talked there with a man who planned to buy her boat, and she drove behind him as he went to an unknown bank to get money for the purchase.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/10723873p-11504893c.html

:doh:
It looks like you have to register, so try this from Bugmenot:

steelers
football

I'm getting really tired of this scenario- woman disappears, and several hours or days later her car turns up in some parking lot. Next we'll hear that the last person seen near the car wasn't the missing woman but some unidentified man, and then later (hopefully) that person will have a name and face. But it will be too late for her.

They should be checking video at all the area banks....maybe there is something there. Since this was the last person she was seen with it makes sense that he is suspect. It would be easy enough for him to push her into a vehicle while exchanging the money, driving off with her and then God knows what

I pray she is found safe and alive....


ETA...there is a sketch of the man at this site http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/4629112/detail.html


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gardenmom said:

A relative of Mary Morino-Starkey, a Ripon-area woman who has been missing since Wednesday, found her unoccupied car Sunday afternoon, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department reported.
The car was spotted in a winery parking lot on Highway 120 at French Camp Road, about 2½ miles north of Morino-Starkey's home, where her family last saw her, Sgt. Chris Stevens said.

Investigators started examining the car, a tan 1997 Saturn sedan, but had not found evidence that might point to the missing woman's whereabouts as of 7:30 p.m., Stevens said.

Relatives of Morino-Starkey, 46, said they have not seen her since about 2 p.m. Wednesday, when she left her farmhouse on East River Road, two miles northeast of Ripon. They said she had talked there with a man who planned to buy her boat, and she drove behind him as he went to an unknown bank to get money for the purchase.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/10723873p-11504893c.html

Click to expand...

She should of had someone with her, to help sell the boat...

In Illinois, a few years back, people were afraid to sell there cars
on there own. Man replied to a newspaper car 4 sale, made a appointment,
then killed the owner of the car....

Pharlap said:

She should of had someone with her, to help sell the boat...

In Illinois, a few years back, people were afraid to sell there cars
on there own. Man replied to a newspaper car 4 sale, made a appointment,
then killed the owner of the car....

Click to expand...

That is very good advise.

http://modbee.com/local/pmupdates/v-dp_evening/story/10730596p-11511127c.html

They believe she has been killed. They have arrested a sex offender.

There was actually a serial murderer called "The Want-Ad Killer". Seems like Ann Rule wrote a book on it.

Mary Marino-Starkey has been missing since June. A man has been arrested, and charged in her disappearance. This woman was selling a boat to this man, and was following him to the bank, in her vehicle to get the money. Surveillance video showed the man driving her car, later. This really upsets me. I say use a middleman, for for selling your stuff. So, what if it costs a few dollars. It's safer than dealing directly with the unknown public person who is preying on victims through these ads. This even occurred to the COUPLE who sold that yacht to that child star, whose bodies have yet to be recovered. Safety first. JMHO
www.modbee.com/local/story/11094310p-11850634c.html

ShowerSinger said:

Mary Marino-Starkey has been missing since June. A man has been arrested, and charged in her disappearance. This woman was selling a boat to this man, and was following him to the bank, in her vehicle to get the money. Surveillance video showed the man driving her car, later. This really upsets me. I say use a middleman, for for selling your stuff. So, what if it costs a few dollars. It's safer than dealing directly with the unknown public person who is preying on victims through these ads. This even occurred to the COUPLE who sold that yacht to that child star, whose bodies have yet to be recovered. Safety first. JMHO
www.modbee.com/local/story/11094310p-11850634c.html

Click to expand...

Did they ever get to the bank? He must have followed her back home to pick up the boat....probably took the money back...wonder if he took the boat?

Remember the pregnant woman who was selling puppys and had an ad in the paper and that woman who wanted a baby killed her...cut her open and took the baby. You are right. When a person is selling anything they should never be alone with an interested party. I guess the couple who sold the yacht shouldn't have gone out onto the water with all of those people. You can't trust anyone these days and that is really a shame. I hate to be suspcious of everyone around me.

Prosecutor Says Starkey Suspect's Wife Saw Body in Tub

The wife of murder suspect Roy Gerald Smith told police she saw the body of a woman in their bathtub the day Mary Morino Starkey went missing, a prosecutor told News10 this afternoon.

San Joaquin County prosecutor Robert Himelblau said the information would come out during Smith's preliminary hearing, which began this morning.

Smith is charged with murder as well as an enhancement of lying in wait, which could make him eligible for the death penalty if he is tried and convicted in Starkey's disappearance.

The Ripon woman went missing June 15, after a man went to her home to inquire about a boat and trailer she had for sale. She followed the man to a bank so he could get money to pay her, but she never returned.

Her car was found on June 19 in the parking lot of the Franzia Winery at 17000 East Highway 120. Smith, a winery employee, was arrested June 21.

Early in the investigation, Smith's wife told authorities about finding a body in the bathtub of her apartment, according to Himelblau. She said her husband failed to pick her up from work, so she walked home. When she arrived, she discovered her two small children needed to use the bathroom, but her husband wouldn't let them in. When Smith finally let them enter the bathroom, she saw the woman's body in the tub, Himelblau said.

Smith's wife fled to Southern California with her children. Himelblau said she did not call police immediately and won't cooperate with the prosecution of her husband. Himelblau expected the information to come out this afternoon during the testimony of a police officer. He believes it will be admissible during the preliminary hearing, but unless the woman agrees to testify against her husband, he won't be able to use it during a trial, if one is granted.

http://www.kxtv.com/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=14527

Did mom shake hands of her daughter’s killer?


RIPON — Olivia Morino, the 82-year-old mother of the Ripon woman who has been missing since June and presumed murdered will be among those called to testify this morning in Stockton San Joaquin County Superior Court against suspect Roy Gerald Smith of Manteca, a convicted sex offender.

Morino’s nephew, Vito Vavaro of Escalon is also among the expected half-dozen who will be testifying.
Smith pleaded not guilty in September to charges of murder and grand theft auto in connection with the case. Since this is a special circumstance case, no bail has been set for the suspect who is in custody at in San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp.

His appointed attorney, Keith Arthur from the San Joaquin County Public Defender’s Office, declined to say how many, if any, people he will have testifying today on behalf of his client. He said he expects the hearing to last “a day or two.”

It was Vavaro who discovered the missing car of his missing cousin, 46-year-old Mary Morino-Starkey, days after her disappearance in mid-June. He was driving past the Franzia Winery on East Highway 120 on a weekend when he spotted a lone car in the parking lot which he recognized as that of his cousin’s.

A few days later, the suspect, who worked in maintenance at the winery, was arrested at his apartment in Manteca where he lived with his wife and two young children. Surveillance cameras at Franzia Winery have also caught the suspect driving the missing woman’s car in the winery’s parking lot.
Morino met the suspect and even shook hands with him the last time she saw her daughter alive. She had stopped by her daughter’s house when the suspect was there to buy a boat that the missing woman had advertised for sale. Morino shook hands with Smith before he took off followed by her daughter, reportedly to get the money in the bank.

Investigators searched storm and sewer drain systems throughout Manteca following witnesses’ leads saying the body may have been dumped in a commercial dumpster by the suspect. They also conducted a two-day dig at the county landfill on North Austin Road with the aid of a state-of-the-art ground-penetrating radar system device but found nothing.


http://www.mantecabulletin.com/articles/2005/11/29/news/news3.txt

Murder Case To Go To Trial Without Body

Wife tells police she saw body in bathtub

STOCKTON, Calif. -- A murder case in San Joaquin County will go to trial even though the victim's body is still missing.


A judge decided Wednesday that convicted sex offender Roy Smith, 43, will stand trial for the murder of Mary Starkey, 46, and could face the death penalty if he's found guilty of killing the Ripon woman, who has been missing for several months.
Superior Court Judge Bernard Garber found that there was enough evidence to support charges of murder, grand theft auto and a special circumstance of lying in wait.


Smith -- a twice-convicted sex offender -- is accused of luring Starkey away from her Ripon home on the pretense of buying her boat in June of this year. Smith was caught on videotape parking Starkey's car at his workplace.


In spite of an intensive hunt in the countryside, Manteca sewers and a landfill, authorities were unable to find Starkey's body. But the prosecution doesn't believe it's a missing person's case.


"She left her money. She left her credit cards, her personal effects. She didn't have her car, her passport. This was not a person to just disappear," said Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau.


What could possibly hurt the case is that Starkey's mother provided police with a different description of the suspect at first.


"In this case, there's a composite that looks fairly youngish, Hispanic, clean-shaven man, who is described as having a tattoo of an eagle," said defense attorney Keith Arthur.

~more at link~

From the article:

Smith's wife told a detective that she saw a woman's body in the bathtub at their home, but she is now invoking her right not to testify against her husband.


The prosecution may now view the wife as an accessory.


"We now look back at the wife and see whether the conduct of taking the children out of the home, (allowing) the defendant to clean up the dead body, is, in fact, an accessory after the fact (and) makes her an accessory to murder," Himelblau said.

A judge yesterday denied a defense attempt to dismiss the case against Roy Gerald Smith, who will be tried for the murder of a missing Ripon woman.

Smith's attorney argued there wasn't enough evidence presented at Smith's preliminary hearing to proceed to trial, but Judge Cinda S. Fox disagreed.

Smith, 44, is accused of killing Mary Marino-Starkey last June. Witnesses said he went to her house to buy a boat she had for sale. He allegedly asked Marino-Starkey to follow him follow him to a local bank. She was never seen again. Investigators believe she was killed, but her body has not been found. Several days after she disappeared her car was located at the Franzia Winery where Smith was employed.

http://www.news10.net/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=15529

The reward is now $15000

http://www.news10.net/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=15611

Randall Ridac has agreed to testify about the murder of 46-year-old Mary Marino-Starkey, said prosecutor Robert Himelblau of the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office.

http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=24459

The trial starts in September. I'm not sure what weight I'd give this testimony from someone getting a "deal". Will be interesting to see what if any weight the jury gives this testimony when all is said and done.

It appears human remains found Wednesday in Amador County are likely connected to the case of missing San Joaquin County woman Mary Starkey.

On Wednesday, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office announced human remains had been found in Amador County. That announcement came after investigators had traveled to the Fiddletown area while investigating the possible location of a murder victim. A spokesman said it was likely those remains would be identified Thursday.

http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=30225

Timing is everything! Thank goodness they may have found her! His goose is cooked now.