Cuffed Edward Holley claims innocence whereas being wheeled by troopers towards a automobile (ABC 7/screengrab), Megan McDonald (New York State Police)
Greater than 20 years after a New York Police Division detective’s school scholar daughter was discovered crushed to loss of life in a discipline, cops say they’ve lastly arrested the individual suspected of murdering Megan McDonald. Edward V. Holley, 42, was flanked by state troopers, handcuffed and in a wheelchair Thursday when he proclaimed: “I’m undoubtedly not responsible.”
“I cherished her with all my coronary heart,” Holley stated, as a crowd of individuals together with Megan McDonald’s relations and at the very least two of the suspect’s supporters seemed on. “They’re framing me like some monkey, nevertheless it’s all good.”
“I didn’t do it. I cherished Megan,” the suspect additionally stated to McDonald’s household, NBC New York reported.
Megan McDonald’s relations, together with her sister Karen Whalen and brother-in-law James Whalen, clearly didn’t purchase Holley’s claims of innocence. Each referred to Holley as a “monster.” James Whalen additionally stated Holley is a “coward” and a “vile human being.”
“Don’t let his present look idiot you,” the choked-up in-law stated, referring to the defendant’s wheelchair.
In March 2021, New York State Police posted that they have been nonetheless investigating the homicide of 20-year-old Megan McDonald, a Wallkill resident and SUNY Orange County Neighborhood Faculty scholar.
“McDonald’s physique was discovered on March 15, 2003, in a discipline off Bowser Street within the City of Wallkill in Orange County. McDonald’s 1991 white Mercury Sable was found two days later within the Kensington Method house complicated parking zone, within the City of Wallkill,” cops stated. “The reason for loss of life was decided to be blunt drive trauma.”
An post-mortem stated McDonald sustained a number of cranium fractures and mind accidents.
In response to a felony grievance from April 19 signed by New York State Police investigator Michael Corletta, Megan McDonald and Edward Holley have been “concerned in a romantic relationship, and she or he tried to finish the connection days earlier than the homicide.”
During the last 20 years, cops stated, Holley was interviewed 4 instances and every time he had a distinct story about an “argument” he had with McDonald days earlier than she was killed.
“The interviews and proof on this case present that Edward Holley and the sufferer have been concerned in an intimate accomplice relationship main as much as a number of days previous to the homicide. In Holley’s State Police interviews in addition to managed conversations with Witness#19, he suggested that he had an argument with the sufferer a number of days previous to the murder,” the grievance stated. “Though the reasoning for this argument adjustments in all his State Police interviews, Holley constantly suggested that he and the sufferer have been concerned in an altercation a number of days previous to the murder which Holley claimed was the final time that he noticed the sufferer.”
The defendant additionally “suggested that he was the sufferer’s essential marijuana provider and that they smoked marijuana every single day,” court docket paperwork stated.
Cops stated that on June 30, 2021, evaluation of DNA proof confirmed Holley’s DNA on McDonald’s mobile phone and led investigators to conclude that the suspect “seemingly […] went via the sufferer’s mobile phone” and noticed her outgoing name to an ex-boyfriend, “inflicting Holley to enter a rage.”
“Proof on this case reveals that the sufferer was murdered within the driver’s seat of her automobile,” a 1991 Mercury Sable, cops stated, earlier than her physique was discarded on a dust path.
That mobile phone was recovered from inside McDonald’s automobile, authorities stated.
“Based mostly on my coaching and expertise, the blunt drive trauma that the sufferer sustained was a results of ‘expressive murder”” and “explosive violence,” the investigator stated, noting that 5 days earlier than the slaying McDonald acquired a “disturbing voicemail” from a person that a number of witnesses “positively recognized” as Holley.
“Yo. I simply drove by your crib and seen he was there. Holler again at me while you get this message … straightforward,” the alleged voicemail stated.
“Proof exhibits,” the grievance stated, that Holley was “additionally concerned in lots of different bodily relationships with a number of ladies, however […] was infatuated with the sufferer.”
Cops additional steered a attainable monetary angle to the slaying.
“Edward Holley owed the sufferer a considerable amount of cash that was inflicting hostility between the 2 main as much as the murder,” the grievance stated, citing a witness who stated the cash Holley owed was from McDonald’s “deceased father’s NYPD pension.”
Notably, Orange County District Lawyer David Hoovler claimed to be blindsided by the fees within the main case.
“As soon as a defendant is charged and held in custody, the grand jury should vote an indictment inside now not than six days from the date of the arrest or the defendant have to be launched. For that cause, sophisticated instances are usually at the very least partially introduced to a grand jury earlier than an arrest is made,” the DA reportedly stated. “The popular apply is for police companies to coordinate with prosecutors on critical instances. Grand jury shows on ‘chilly’ murder instances involving sophisticated truth patterns can not often be commenced and accomplished inside six days, with out prior coordination.”
Sometimes, cops and prosecutors will work collectively carefully on a case as complicated and high-profile as this one earlier than a proper accusation is made. As now we have seen in New York, not doing so could also be met with a refusal to prosecute.
State police stated that Holley is charged with second-degree homicide; the defendant stays in custody with out bond following an arraignment, NBC reported.
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