SPRINGFIELD — Donald Mars, now 75, admitted in courtroom Thursday that as a 17-year-old Chicopee Complete Excessive College pupil, he murdered a 10-year previous lady on the shore of the Westfield River in West Springfield practically 58 years in the past.
The plea — entered by an enfeebled man who shuffled into courtroom and will barely converse — drew to a detailed a long time of dogged investigating by generations of Chicopee and West Springfield police. And it introduced some closure to Betty Lou Zukowski’s surviving cousins, who joined Hampden District Lawyer Anthony Gulluni at a day information convention.
It was there that Gulluni revealed that Mars was lengthy a suspect and that each Mars’ mom and his spouse had instructed investigators he’d confessed to them.
Gulluni detailed a July 2022 interview at a Veterans’ Administration dwelling in New Bedford, the place Mars was residing, having served briefly within the Navy. Over the course of practically two hours, Mars supplied various descriptions of Betty Lou’s dying, together with denials that he was in charge.
Mars instructed detectives, talking of Betty Lou, “that she harm him greater than he ever harm her.”
Then, close to the top of he interview, Mars, with out prompting, acted out the crime, officers say. He stood, hunched over within the day room of the veterans dwelling, and made a putting movement 4 instances along with his left arm.
He was requested if the rock was “just a little greater than a softball” — and Mars mentioned sure. o
Mars initially entered a plea of not responsible. He modified that to responsible in a courtroom look Thursday morning.
Betty Lou Zukowski had left her dad and mom’ dwelling on Entrance Avenue in Chicopee just a little after 6 p.m. after receiving a cellphone name that she instructed her mom was from one in every of her girlfriends.
She by no means returned.
On Thursday, Gulluni mentioned each Betty Lou and Mars have been with a gaggle of teenagers and kids who frolicked a Chicopee pizza parlor in these days. He believes they went from the pizzeria to the riverbank.
Two boys fishing within the Westfield River close to Robinson State Park found her battered, mud-covered physique in shallow waters Might 30.
Forensics confirmed that she died of her accidents and of drowning. There was no proof of sexual assault and her clothes was intact, in keeping with courtroom papers.
Mars stays within the custody of the Hampden County Sheriff’s Workplace.
However he’s unlikely to serve for much longer, in keeping with courtroom papers. He was sentenced Thursday to 2 and a half years in the home of correction, 18 months of that direct, with the steadiness suspended, and two years of probation.
He has credit score for 548 days of time served, in keeping with courtroom information.
The explanation?
Mars was 17 on the time of the crime and up to date Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Courtroom rulings restrict the sentences imposed on younger grownup offenders. Additionally, a key witness who might have positioned Mars and Betty Lou collectively within the pizza parlor died lately, making it more durable to take the case to trial.
Additionally, Mars matches the state’s standards for sentencing on humanitarian grounds.
Mars had been imprisoned and later civilly dedicated for the rapes and indecent assaults of two kids within the Nineties.
He emerged as suspect in Zukowski’s killing in 1997, when a witness picked Mars’ senior yearbook picture out of a lineup.
Betty Lou’s cousin, Frazer S.M. Pajak, remembered holding her as a child simply dwelling from the hospital.
He was additionally a a pallbearer at her funeral. She was buried on what would have been her eleventh birthday.
“I keep in mind seeing her physique within the casket and seeing the bruises beneath the heavy make-up,” he instructed the courtroom Thursday.
Pajak didn’t converse on the information convention. However in keeping with a written copy of his remarks, he recalled that his cousin’s favourite meal was macaroni and butter. It’s additionally his favourite meal.
Many different family members have already died, together with each of Betty Lou’s dad and mom.
It’s obvious Pajak sees himself as a final hyperlink.
“Your honor,” he mentioned. “In the event you take a look at my eyes, you may see my cousin’s eyes.”
Cousin Pam O’Connor was simply 4 years previous when Betty Lou was murdered.
“Betty Lou by no means received to develop up,” Pam O’Connor mentioned. “She by no means received to go to household picnics, birthday events, weddings and even funerals.”
