A long time after a 10-year-old Massachusetts woman was crushed to loss of life, a person has pleaded responsible to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to underneath three years in jail.
The workplace of Hampden County District Lawyer Anthony Gulluni mentioned Thursday that 75-year-old Donald Mars of Bedford had modified his plea following his 2022 indictment within the 1966 loss of life of Betty Lou Zukowski. He had beforehand pleaded not responsible to first-degree homicide.
The younger woman was reported lacking on Might 26 of that yr. She had left her household’s house in Chicopee after receiving a telephone name she informed her mom was from a buddy.
4 days later, on Memorial Day, younger boys who have been fishing within the Westfield River in West Springfield after they discovered Betty Lou’s physique. She had been crushed and was lined with mud.
Investigators decided she had died from a number of blunt-force accidents to the pinnacle, a cranium fracture and terminal drowning, prosecutors mentioned.
Mars, who was 17 on the time, has been linked to the case since 1997, when a number of sources talked about his title to the West Springfield Police Division.
Witnesses have been interviewed that yr. One was proven about 30 images from a 1967 Chicopee Complete Excessive Faculty yearbook, and Mars was one in all two images he mentioned reminded him of the final individual seen with Betty Lou, authorities mentioned.
Mars’ mom, who was 95 when she spoke with police, informed them her son had admitted years in the past to throwing a rock and killing somewhat woman.
Mars’ ex-wife additionally informed police he had skilled a nervous breakdown and informed her in 1987 that he and an unnamed buddy killed Betty Lou with a rock and “dumped” her in Robinson State Park.
“He repeated the contents of this non-public dialog together with her to his mother and father, in her presence, a pair years after he informed her,” Gulluni’s workplace wrote in a press launch. “She mentioned that his mother and father didn’t appear stunned by the data.”
The identical lady informed police the category ring from Chicopee Complete Excessive Faculty had a blue stone like one described by witnesses in 1966. She owned one, and she or he mentioned Mars informed her he beforehand had one, as properly, however misplaced it.
Nonetheless, Mars was not arrested. The district lawyer’s workplace’s unsolved murder unit picked the case again up in 2021.
Detectives interviewed Mars — a Degree 3 intercourse offender who was convicted in 1995 of kid rape and assault and battery on a toddler underneath 14 — in July of 2022.
In line with prosecutors, Mars grew to become emotional at instances, together with after being requested about Betty Lou.
“I am not crying due to Betty Lou. I am crying about my entire life,” he informed police, in accordance with the district lawyer’s workplace.
Authorities say he informed a number of variations of the killing occurring elsewhere, giving the situation of the woman’s head accidents after which denying doing so.
Mars informed police Betty Lou “harm him greater than he ever harm her,” in accordance with prosecutors. He then acted out the crime, authorities say, making 4 downward strikes along with his left arm and admitting to hitting the woman with a rock.
Mars was arrested in 2022 on a first-degree homicide cost, pleading not responsible.
Whereas prosecutors say Mars acted alone and killed Betty Lou by repeatedly placing her head with a rock, then disposed of her physique within the river, he pleaded responsible to a cost of involuntary manslaughter.
“Sadly, Betty Lou’s mother and father are deceased, and are usually not in a position to see Donald Mars reply for the brutality he inflicted upon their daughter,” Gulluni mentioned in an announcement. “Whereas neither fixing this case nor any punishment of the perpetrator will give Betty Lou an opportunity to stay the life that she deserved, I hope right this moment represents a major step for her household of their mourning and the way they’re able to memorialize her, so a few years later.”
A Hampden Superior Court docket choose accepted his responsible plea, sentencing him to 30 months in jail and two years of probation. He’s additionally required to register as a Degree 3 intercourse offender.
