THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408260571
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BALTIMORE LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
As her husband's polished gray casket was lifted from its vault, Pauline ``Polly'' Mathews observed, ``Today is Stan's day to tell us what happened that night. Today is his chance to bring the answers back from the grave.''
Early Thursday morning, Polly Mathews experienced the anguish of seeing her husband's body exhumed 20 months after his death, and then reburied with a priest's blessing.
By day's end, the 59-year-old Eastern Shore woman was told she would have to wait at least one more day for an answer to the question that has haunted her since her husband died: Was he murdered, as she believes, or did he die accidentally, as a fire investigator has ruled?
Two Baltimore medical examiners spent several hours performing an autopsy before telling her late Thursday that they may be able to give her an answer today.
``I'm scared,'' Polly said as she lay a spray of red carnations and baby's breath on his coffin. ``I don't know what they're going to find. I'm real scared.''
She has been on a crusade to find out what happened the night of Dec. 6, 1992, when her husband lay on the kitchen floor of their Chincoteague home, consumed by fire.
The fire investigator ruled his death an accident because Mathews managed to get to the bathroom shower and douse himself with water. But a private investigator hired by Polly Mathews disagreed with the official finding. He believes Stanley rigged the scene to make it look like a break-in, then doused himself with gasoline and committed suicide.
Polly Mathews believes someone broke in and ambushed her husband. Stanley Mathews, who was still conscious when rescue workers arrived, told them he didn't know what had happened.
Unhappy with the investigation results, Polly badgered officials until they reopened the investigation. There is simply too much conflicting evidence to accept any theory other than murder, she says.
On Thursday afternoon, Mathews, drained by emotion, conceded there is another possibility: that the medical examiners may not be able to tell how her husband died.
``I just have to accept whatever they say,'' she said. ``But I've never regretted my decision to fight the officials. I think my husband would be proud.''
As the casket was being raised from the grave, her daughter, Gwen Beyer, 37, clasped her hands together and uttered through tears, ``I'm sorry, Dad. I hope you know why we're doing this.''
The disinterment brought memories flooding back to the two women. Polly has been having dreams of her husband as the dashing young man she fell in love with, a tall man with coal-black hair and deep blue eyes.
``I feel like Stan's back and he's going to leave me again,'' she said Thursday morning. ``It's bothering me that they're going to put him back.''
By noon, mother and daughter settled in at a relative's house to wait for word that the autopsy was done and they could return to the cemetery for the reburial service.
As the women waited, there was laughter, pride, tears - and anxiety.
``Call the medical examiner's office,'' Gwen said. ``I think they've found something. Why else is it taking so long?''
By 2 o'clock, everyone had the medical examiner's number memorized. Every time the phone rang, the relatives drew in a breath.
Then the word came: The body had been released. The reburial service would be at 3 p.m.
Back at the cemetery, the family talked of the first graveside service 20 months ago . . . the driving chill of a December rain, the grieving well-wishers slogging through mud.
At Stanley's request, he was buried above the couple's son, Mark, who died in a fire three years before his father at age 28.
On Thursday, several spoke of the irony that the two men died the same way - by fire - and were buried together.
``We ask God to bring out the truth and give peace to Pauline and to the family,'' said the Rev. Bill Mannion of St. Agnes Church in Baltimore. ``We ask that they be able to accept whatever they hear and be comforted by your love.''
Pauline, her daughter and Stan's brother John stood beside the casket. Pauline dropped to her knees and patted the top of her husband's casket.
``It must be awful the second time,'' her niece Gloria Ayers said.
``I just want everybody to go away,'' Gwen Beyer said, kneeling next to her mother as the two women cried.
``This can't all have been for nothing,'' Beyer said as she walked to the car.
``Maybe now he can finally rest in peace,'' Pauline said. ``It's all in the hands of God now. I just prayed for the Lord to guide the medical examiner's hands. There was really nothing more I could do.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pauline ``Polly'' Mathews, 59, watches in anguish as the body of her
husband, Stanley, is exhumed Thursday in Baltimore. At his request,
he was buried above the couple's son, Mark, who died in a fire three
years before his father at age 28.
KEYWORDS: FATALITY INVESTIGATION by CNB