Here is the news article- I have to find my notes at work - and see what I found on him, I can't remember -
AFTER 11 YEARS, SEARCH FOR MOM YIELDS FEW LEADS
Kathy Kelly
Column: THE BEAT GOES ON
October 31, 2000; Page 01C
Marinthia McCoy's final ride 11 years ago still haunts her family, and hope seems dimmer than ever that they will learn the fate of the young woman.
It's hard to believe a decade has passed since I met Marinthia's mother, Sandra Thornton. This mother of three, despite a lack of formal training, has conducted her own investigation into her daughter's disappearance.
She's even used tactics official police investigators have frowned upon, but she still has not found her daughter. She declared: "I will not give up."
The attractive brunette was a fun- loving party girl whose love for alcohol controlled her life. She and James Batten hired a limousine to bring them to Daytona Beach in September 1989. Just before they left Duval County, Marinthia's cousin, Debra Kay McCoy, sat with her briefly in the limo for a quick photo taken by the driver.
In the closeup, the two women were smiling broadly. Peeking out from the bodice of Marinthia's outfit was a tattoo of Mick Jagger's lips, one of several she had.
After arriving in Daytona Beach at the Marriott Hotel (now the Adam's Mark), Batten later told Debra McCoy, Marinthia took an estimated $1,900 from him. Although he called around to several friends in Jacksonville trying to track her down, he never made a complaint to police.
When Marinthia didn't show up for work the next day Sept. 21 her mother feared the worst. She immediately began to try to find her daughter, meticulously recording each bit of information in a diary on lined paper.
Through her own perseverance, Thornton learned Marinthia had caught another limo from the hotel. The driver, known to the valet parking attendant who had summoned the luxury car, was Dennis Stephen Dukovich.
Thornton reached Dukovich by phone and began to grill him about where he had dropped her daughter off. She met Dukovich here and retraced with him the drive to Jacksonville, where he pointed out a high-crime neighborhood where Marinthia had gotten out, a drug deal rendezvous, he suspected.
As the weeks wore on, Dukovich's account of the night's drive didn't quite click in Thornton's eyes. She got the mileage off his limo log and found irregularities. She later learned he had gone to a hospital emergency room after what he claimed was a fall in the bathtub.
Somehow getting into his Madison Avenue apartment, Thornton and an uncle learned the tiny place only had a small shower stall, not a tub. They dogged him, even following him at times. Then, in March of 1990, Dukovich was arrested on bank robbery charges. He pleaded guilty and was later sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
While Dukovich was behind bars in Georgia, Thornton placed a personal advertisement in a newspaper there seeking prison pen pals in an effort to get information about Dukovich.
She got one. "This guy wrote to me," she said recently. "He was a killer; it was sickening."
She sought the inmate's help in finding out more information from Dukovich but got nowhere. Ultimately, the former limo driver was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Victorville, Calif. Ed Gaunder, executive assistant to the warden, confirmed Dukovich is due for parole May 27, 2003, but could give no other details about the inmate.
When I first wrote about Marinthia more than 10 years ago, I sought Dukovich's side of the story. When he learned he was the last person to see Marinthia McCoy alive, he quickly said: "The last known person" to see her, and ended the conversation.
He hasn't answered a letter sent several weeks ago seeking comment from him again.
Marinthia's son turned 21 recently. His grandmother said he has been permanently affected by his mother's disappearance. "I know that Marinthia put up the best fight she could," said Thornton.
Without a body, police investigators have little to go on. Tom Youngman, the detective who worked on the case, has since retired, but is now a civilian employee for the Police Department.
"I've kept all the files just as they were," he said recently. "If the mother has any new information, we'd be glad to pursue it."
The Beat Goes On appears every Tuesday. Kathy Kelly may be reached via e-mail at
kathy.kelly@news-jrnl.com