THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 17, 1996 TAG: 9602170307
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHINCOTEAGUE LENGTH: Long : 111 lines
Pauline Mathews believes her husband's murderer lives nearby, free to roam this small island community. But state police still aren't investigating Stanley Mathews' death, and his widow is afraid.
``I worries me that I'm making the person that did this nervous, and there's no one to go after but me,'' said Mathews. ``I'm the one who's making all the racket.''
Mathews said she fears going out at night, and worries someone might set her house on fire while she sleeps.
Since Stanley Mathews burned to death in December 1992, his widow has insisted, loudly, that it was no accident. She even had his body exhumed in an unsuccessful effort to prove it. She also hired private investigators and a psychic.
After three years of unrelenting effort to prove her husband was killed, she finally won a big victory.
The chief medical examiner in Maryland, where Stanley died in a hospital, confirmed Mathews' suspicions in December, ruling Stanley's death a homicide.
Dr. John E. Smialek of Baltimore said there was evidence that someone poured more than a quart of gasoline on the 63-year-old plumber as he lay unconscious on his kitchen floor, then set him on fire. In his report, Dr. Smialek listed 14 reasons for changing his initial ruling of accidental death.
Money, firearms, a flashlight and wallet belonging to Mathews were missing from his home, said the medical examiner's report. Renee Armbruster of Virginia Beach, who worked as a private investigator for Pauline Mathews, said Stanley's wallet was returned to Pauline by a friend - the same man who had the only spare key to her house. The wallet was slightly singed, said Armbruster, although the rest of Stanley's clothes burned to ashes.
Pauline Mathews is tired of dealing with the local police, who haven't arrested anyone. They say they just don't have enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone killed Stanley.
Pauline wants the state police to investigate.
``We don't have a case,'' said state police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame. She also said that Gary Agar, the commonwealth's attorney in Accomack County, has not referred the case to them.
For his part, Agar is mystified by Van Dame's statement that he hasn't ``referred'' the case.
Agar knew about Armbruster's report and contacted state police Investigator Phil Foster in October. And last Friday, Foster came to Accomack from his Chesapeake office to go over Armbruster's report with Agar and Chincoteague Police Chief Willis Dize.
``Is it a matter of semantics?'' he asked Thursday, angry that he is being blamed for inaction.
Pauline Mathews is convinced that the law-enforcement agencies are not doing their job.
``He (Foster) hasn't even investigated it,'' said Mathews. ``It's like him and Agar and Willis Dize are three peas in a pod, looking out for one another.''
Foster could not be reached for comment. Agar and Dize think Mathews' claims are unjustified.
Mathews' strident, unrelenting demand for a closer look at her husband's death has earned her a reputation as a nuisance around Accomack County. Officials say Stanley Mathews committed suicide on the anniversay of his son's death in a fire, and that his widow simply can't accept it.
But Pauline Mathews isn't buying into what she sees as attempts to brush off the case.
``I truly believe they know he was murdered,'' said Mathews, a convenience store clerk. ``They just don't want to be bothered with it. They goofed up right from the start, and they're not going to admit it.''
On the day Stanley Mathews burned, Johnny Godwin, the county fire marshal, ruled it an accident. The site was not secured, and evidence wasn't gathered until days later.
Before she even returned to Chincoteague from her husband's deathbed in a Baltimore hospital, Pauline Mathews' friends had cleaned her house. They painted over the burned flesh that Stanley had left on the wall as he crawled, burning, to the shower.
Jim Todd, a firefighter in Virginia Beach and former arson investigator, was one of the experts whom Armbruster interviewed. He looked at pictures of the scene and forensic reports made after Pauline Mathews took what remained of her husband's clothing to be examined.
Todd said the evidence he saw, years after the fire, looked suspicious. But, he said, it would be difficult to prove arson so long after the incident.
``There's nobody who can say right now that the fire was definitely arson,'' said Todd. To rule a fire arson, he said, an expert must first study the scene and eliminate any possibility of accidental causes.
That can't be done three years later.
``There's a lot of feelings that it wasn't done adequately,'' Todd said of the initial investigation. ``With the case three years old, there's not a lot of evidence left.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Pauline Mathews worries that her insistence that police reopen the
file on her husband's death may put her in danger.
Will We Ever Know Who Killed
Stan Mathews?
A Maryland medical examiner says Mathews was killed by fire in
1992.
The Accomack County commonwealth's attorney says he asked the
state police to investigate.
The state police say the case has not been referred to them.
An arson investigator says it would be hard to prove Mathews was
killed so long after his death.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARSON EASTERN SHORE FIRE FATALITY by CNB