THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607210051
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 123 lines
Daniel Greer still wears his wedding ring, though he is no longer married. It reminds him of Judy, the woman he wed in 1991, whose memory he cherishes.
But there are no pictures of Judy Greer in Daniel's home. They remind him of Mark Poe, the man who murdered Judy in 1993, whose memory he despises.
Just seeing a picture of Judy brings gruesome flashbacks. Greer doesn't see the happy, living Judy. He sees the dismembered Judy - her severed head in a swampy area, her severed arms in a ditch, her severed torso in a lake. That memory is unbearable.
It reminds Greer of something else he hates - the Navy, which Greer still blames for failing to protect Judy. His wife was killed inside their home on the Norfolk Naval Base, while Greer was away on deployment.
Three years have passed since the crime, and Daniel Greer is trying to get on with his life.
In some ways, he is succeeding. He is holding a job, which is something he could not do for a long time. Ater Judy's murder, Greer left the Navy on medical disability - post-traumatic stress syndrome - then held and lost six or seven jobs in a row, including one at The Disney Store. He just couldn't deal with people. He couldn't be cheerful full time.
Now Greer, 24, has turned a corner. He is a marketer at Re/Max Central Realty, a job he has held for eight months and hopes to hold much longer. He counts his boss, Thomas Finch, as a good friend and benefactor.
``I'm very lucky,'' Greer says. ``Now I can actually see some kind of future.''
In other ways, Greer is still reliving his awful past.
Last year, Greer sued the government, claiming it failed to protect his wife while he was away on deployment. He demanded $5 million.
Last month, Greer dropped the lawsuit on his lawyer's advice, and he is still angry.
The Navy defended itself by saying it did not know that Poe, the murderer, was living in Navy housing with his active-duty wife, and did not know that Poe had been arrested three months earlier for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in the neighborhood. Had the Navy known that, Poe might have been evicted before the murder.
``It boggles my mind,'' Greer says. ``These men are going out to serve their country, leaving their women and children behind on the base, and they should be looked after and protected . . .
``Regardless of what paperwork they say wasn't done, I still hold them liable for my wife's death. There are so many places they could have put a stop to it.''
For Greer, moving on is a full-time job.
The murder of Judy Greer was one of the grisliest ever in Hampton Roads.
It happened in the Camp Allen housing complex in April 1993. Daniel Greer, then 21, was a quartermaster on the carrier Theodore Roosevelt. He was on a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean.
Judy, 20, was a student at a local court reporting school. She was home alone, writing daily letters to her husband.
``A lot of people in the Navy, it seems their marriages don't last too long,'' Greer says. ``Ours, the honeymoon never ended.''
To this day, nobody knows why Mark Poe, a neighbor, stabbed and dismembered Judy in her home. He cut off her head, arms and legs and scattered them around Hampton Roads. Her head was found in a swampy area near Stumpy Lake, her torso in a Suffolk lake, her arms in a ditch. The legs have never been found.
The crime turned the Greers' home into a bloody horror. Police found Judy's blood in virtually every room, especially in the blood-soaked bedroom. Poe apparently tried to clean up the mess, but failed.
Poe was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Judge Robert G. Doumar called the crime ``almost satanic.''
``I don't think there's any motive other than that he has some mental problems,'' prosecutor Henry F. Sonday said after the 1994 trial. ``He's one sick individual.''
The randomness still haunts Daniel Greer. He does not believe early reports that Judy confronted Poe and told him to stop showing snapshots of nude or seminude children around the neighborhood. She was too shy for that, Greer says.
So why did Poe kill Judy Greer? Daniel still wants to know. He has thought of writing to Poe in prison, but never has. Poe has always maintained his innocence, even after the trial.
``Why did he pick her? What did she do to him?'' Greer says. ``From what they told me, it was just random. Just picked her out of wherever. I don't understand that at all.
``It just never made any sense to me. I've tried and tried and tried to put this behind me, but I can't. I guess it's just one of those questions that'll never be answered.''
The murder haunts Greer in other ways, large and small.
Before, he didn't smoke. Now he puffs Marlboro Lights. Ashtrays sit in virtually every room of his house. He lit the first cigarette the day they broke the news to him in the Roosevelt's smoking lounge.
Before, he could drive anywhere without a thought. Now, little things send his mind reeling. ``When I drive down the road and I see a bag by the side of the road, I think, `I wonder what that is?' '' Greer says.
Even now, Greer has an odd way of talking about his wife's murder. He does it matter-of-factly. There are no tears or hesitations, no quaver in his voice. ``That's a problem my doctors are working on. I've turned off a lot of emotions,'' Greer says.
Greer had hoped Judy's death would force the Navy to increase security at base housing. Instead, Greer says, ``they went and opened up the base to the public.''
``That hurts a lot,'' Greer says. ``It hurts that so many people wanted something good to come of it, but it didn't. It all got swept under the rug. I wanted something to be made of her memory, not just another murder in Norfolk.''
In fact, something good did come from the murder, but it was something small and personal.
In the end, after the trial was over and the Navy had left him, after months of counseling and failed jobs, Greer found a friend in Thomas Finch, the Realtor at Re/Max.
Finch gave Greer a job and training, even though Greer had no experience in real estate. He gave Greer a house near Chimney Hill at reduced rent, plus $2,500 to help furnish it. Mostly, he gave Greer hope that there was life after Judy's death.
``I have a new outlook on life,'' Greer says. ``Life is too short. So many people go through life being angry and not caring about anybody else. Navy guys especially.
``Now I care about my family. I used to be a total brat. I used to not care. Now I treasure my family. And my friends, I'd do anything for them.
``When Judy died, I just couldn't get close to anybody. And it's still a little bit hard. I'm not as easygoing as I used to be. I go through mood swings. I get very upset, then I don't care.
``For the first time now, I can see there's a future.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST SENTENCING
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