A month and a half after Kevin Foley was shot to death, police continue to work on finding a suspect and are still releasing few case details. But the lead detective says police have a “positive outlook” that the case will be solved.
Foley was found the morning of June 22 next to his car at the back of Westbrook’s Woodlawn Cemetery on Stroudwater Street. Police quickly classified the death as suspicious, and shortly after declared it a homicide.
Westbrook, Portland and state police began working on the case, which continues to baffle community members. Foley, 58, was a well respected and widely admired Portland resident who grew up in Westbrook. He graduated from Westbrook High School in 1967 with a distinguished athletic career before serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam.
Though the first 24 to 48 hours of a homicide investigation are often considered the most important, Sgt. Rick Fowler of the Maine State Police Criminal Investigations Division in Gray said the Foley case is continuing to be pursued by at least one if not more investigators every day. Portland police have stepped back from the case. While Westbrook police continue to be involved, the state police are in charge.
“We’re still pursuing information,” Fowler said Friday. “We’re doing interviews, and a lot of re-interviews of certain people, and having evidence analyzed at the crime lab.”
Foley was reported missing by his wife, Christine, on the morning of June 22. Foley had left his Portland house at around 7 p.m. the day before, and had not returned.
Fowler said there was no evidence Foley was involved in a struggle before his death, and it is believed he drove to the cemetery uncoerced. No firearm has been recovered, though police have an idea of what kind of firearm was used.
Fowler said the detectives working the case “have a positive outlook that this case will be solved.”
The police have been actively following up on many leads, such as a brother in Tennessee who was convicted of defrauding the insurance company Unum of millions of dollars. Other rumors the police are aware of, but have not followed up on, include the involvement of another brother, this one in Los Angeles, Calif., who may have been involved in a fight recently. Police have also noted several postings from an unidentified commenter on the Portland Press Herald’s Web site, who suggested that the crime could be connected to illegal gambling at a pub in the East Deering neighborhood of Portland.
Fowler said the police pay attention to blogs and other Internet postings, but do not generally follow up unless the information starts coming from more than one source.
Police have said that they don’t believe the public is at risk because of the unsolved case. Fowler said there was nothing to indicate the homicide was a random crime, though they don’t have any suspected motives at this time.
“Nothing has been ruled out,” Fowler said.
While the police understand the public is always looking for more information on high-profile cases such as Foley’s, Fowler said the release of certain details known only to the perpetrator and the investigators can “make or break a case.”
Sgt. Walter Grzyb, also of the state police’s Criminal Investigations Unit, has been an officer for 18 years and has seen a couple hundred homicides. He said experience shows clearly that the release of certain details will only hurt a case.
“Although it’s frustrating at times for the general public to not know these things, ultimately we hope they understand,” Grzyb said. The release of information is under the purview of the state attorney general’s office, he said, and there is a policy in place on what can and can’t be released.
Grzyb also said that while the police may only be offering a “take us at our word” when they say the public is not at risk from the perpetrator of the Foley homicide, to explain further would get into case details that cannot be released.
Grzyb said that in addition to being successfully investigated, cases must be successfully prosecuted, and can sometimes take three or four months to meet the threshold of information that will allow that.
Grzyb, like Fowler, said the detectives working on the case are pleased with how things are going at this time.
“If there’s one thing a detective dislikes more than anything, it’s to have an unsolved homicide,” Grzyb said.
While some cases go unsolved “despite the best effort and the best equipment,” he said, Maine has an extremely high rate of solved murders compared to many communities.
Speaking of his own experience as a detective, Grzyb said many cases are extremely frustrating and a trial of patience. Grzyb’s first case as a detective was four years old and handed to him after the lead investigator retired.
“I read the case file and met with family members. It certainly became one of the cases that meant a lot to me,” Grzyb said.
Then, eight years after he received it, the case was solved. The suspect in the case is expected to be sentenced this week, 12 years after the crime.
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