Two double homicides in Union play out nine years

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Two double homicides in Union play out nine years apart

By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer Updated 9:41 PM Saturday, August 8, 2009

UNION — An older, married couple are bludgeoned to death in their home. Their 36-year-old son, a drug addict still living with his parents, is accused of killing them, stealing their belongings and fleeing in a truck.

This scenario has played out twice with eerie exactitude in the generally peaceful town of Union, population about 6,000.

It happened in the deaths of David and Susie Marshall, whose bodies were found Aug. 1 in their home at 53 Greencliff Drive. Their son, Gary Kyle Marshall, has been charged with two counts of aggravated murder and numerous theft and assault charges, and is being held in the Montgomery County Jail.

About nine years earlier, six-tenths of a mile from the Marshall home, Scott Mink beat and stabbed his parents and stole their property to raise money to buy crack cocaine. Mink, who waived appeals of his subsequent conviction and death sentence, was executed by lethal injection in 2004.

The slayings of William and Sheila Mink were the last homicides in Union until the Marshall killings, said Police Chief Mike Blackwell. He said he “absolutely” found it striking that two such similar crimes would happen in the small town north of Englewood.

“They (Scott Mink and Gary Marshall) may have even been friends,” he said. “They both did drugs. Maybe (the Minks’ murders) crossed (Marshall’s) mind, for all I know.”

Blackwell was a lieutenant with the Union police when Scott Mink killed his parents. “He wanted drugs and the parents cut him off” from the ability to buy them. Blackwell said the same thing may have happened in the Marshall case.

Tony Ballard of Union said the whole town has been talking about the homicides. People are saying, “Don’t let your kids move back in with you in Union, Ohio,” he said.

“It’s quite the coincidence,” Ballard said of the two double homicides. “It’s just a fluke — it may not happen (again) for the next 500 years.”
www.daytondailynews.com/news/crime/two-double-homicides-in-union-play-out-nine-years-apart-241204.html

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By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer Updated 9:41 PM Saturday, August 8, 2009

UNION — David Marshall, 65, was a retired General Motors employee and military veteran who regularly fought with his grown son, sometimes physically. His wife, Susie, 61, was a sickly woman who spent most of her time inside the house with her extensive collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia.

That’s the picture that emerges from interviews with neighbors and friends of the Marshalls, whose bludgeoned bodies were found in their home on Aug. 1. Their son, Gary Kyle Marshall, 36, has been charged with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery in the case.

Friends and neighbors also say the Marshalls were heavy drinkers who were giving their unemployed son money to buy heroin.

“(Gary) did have anger issues,” said Megan Bilpuch, 17, the Marshalls’ next-door neighbor. “If he was mad, he’d slam doors and throw things. They supplied his habit. If they weren’t giving him money, he’d storm off.”

“About two years ago, he was clean for about a year, and he got right with God,” she said. “It was hard for him to stay clean, because his parents were alcoholics. He said sometimes he wanted to hurt them so bad. (But) he told me and my mom that he would never hurt them.”

Megan’s mother, Peggy Bilpuch, who lived next door to the Marshalls for 16 years, said Gary Marshall has been addicted to heroin for about four years and had two courses of rehab. When Botkins police arrested him near a motel Aug. 1 — hours before the bodies were found — they said they found syringes and smoking pipes containing heroin residue, as well as items belonging to his parents.

Union police found the Marshalls’ bodies late Aug. 1 after a concerned relative asked police to check on their welfare because they hadn’t been seen for several days and newspapers were stacking up on their porch. Peggy Bilpuch said police told her the bodies were in separate rooms and covered with sheets when police entered the home.

She also said the Marshalls were paying for their son’s drugs. Financially, “he was breaking them,” Peggy Bilpuch said. “This last year or two, they fought on a weekly basis.”

Three times since December, fighting at the house escalated to the point where police were called. On Dec. 11, police reported that David and Gary, who had both been drinking, had gotten into a shoving match. Susie Marshall told police Gary had angrily overturned a kitchen trash can and kicked out the glass from the front of her oven. David called police again two hours later, saying his son was again being “loud and disorderly.” No one was arrested.

On April 19, David Marshall told police his wife had been drinking and physically assaulted him. He signed a document saying he didn’t want to press charges.

Chad Goudy, a lifelong friend of Gary Marshall’s, said Marshall is a “pretty decent guy” whose life became dominated by his drug addiction. He said Marshall’s parents were “enablers” of the addiction.

“Gary wasn’t a monster, but he’s a very unmotivated person,” said Goudy, who was friends with Marshall from childhood until they had a falling out last year. “He never moved out (of his parents’ home) that I know of.”

“There was a lot of emotional trouble with him,” Goudy said. “He was always depressed (and had) a lot of issues with his dad.”

Goudy said Marshall told him early in 2008 that his mother was terminally ill and didn’t have long to live. “He’d break down and cry.”

Sue Sparks, a cashier at the Union Mini Mart, said Marshall was a regular customer and “was one of the nicest people any of us wanted to wait on and take care of. It’s just so sad.”

Sparks and other Union residents noted the uncanny similarities between the Marshall homicides and the Sept. 19, 2000, murders of William Mink, 79, and his 72-year-old wife, Sheila. Their son, Scott Mink, beat and stabbed them to death when they hid his truck keys to keep him from buying drugs.

Deeply remorseful, Mink waived his appeals and was executed in 2004.

Montgomery County prosecutors haven’t decided whether to seek the death penalty against Marshall. In Mink’s case, prosecutors obtained three specifications allowing the death penalty: That he killed two or more people, did it to evade arrest for another crime and did it in conjunction with aggravated robbery.

Union resident Tony Ballard said it’s shocking that two double murders could strike the small town. “It’s a great place to live, very close-knit,” he said.

“It’s pretty tragic that somebody can bludgeon their own flesh and blood to death. It just shows you what drugs can do.”

www.daytondailynews.com/news/crime/neighbors-slain-couples-son-addicted-to-heroin-often-fought-with-them-241228.html

[Sue]

Peggy has hard core drug problems, too, and it makes me wonder what was, or is, going on in that town