THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 8, 1997 TAG: 9702080472
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 87 lines
Sheriff's deputies arrested a Pasquotank County woman and her boyfriend this week after they confessed to killing her husband and burying him under the fish pond in his own back yard, Pasquotank County Sheriff Randy Cartwright said.
Cartwright charged Deborah Guarino, 44, of the 100 block of Hawthorne Drive, and Perry David Woltz, 34, of the 800 block of Oak Stump Road, with murder in the death of Glenn Guarino, 46.
Deborah Guarino said in her confession that she and Woltz killed her husband on Dec. 5, 1995, Cartwright said. Glenn Guarino, a former Marine wounded three times in Vietnam, was shot with a .22-caliber pistol, the sheriff said.
Under glaring lights rigged not far from a child's playhouse, deputies dug for hours before exhuming Guarino's body at 9 p.m. Thursday. The body was 4 feet under a fiberglass fish pond that was buried to ground level with a cement skirting.
Cartwright arrested Deborah Guarino and Woltz on Wednesday. After several hours of interviews, both confessed separately early Thursday, he said. Guarino and Woltz are being in held in Albemarle District Jail with no bond.
Preliminary hearings are to be held on Feb. 28, the sheriff said.
The Guarinos owned Dr. Fish Aquarium on U.S. 17 just north of Elizabeth City. Deputies found the pistol apparently used in the murder at the business Thursday, Cartwright said.
The Guarinos had a 5-year-old daughter who lived at home. She is in the temporary legal custody of Deborah Guarino's daughter from a previous marriage. Woltz had lived with Deborah Guarino at her Hawthorne Drive home until two weeks ago, the sheriff said.
Cartwright said he had received scattered reports that Glenn Guarino was missing. But when asked about her husband, Cartwright said, Deborah Guarino told him he was prone to taking long trips with friends without saying where he was going. His mother, Pamela Guarino of New Jersey, filed a missing person report Oct. 7, 1996. That allowed authorities to begin a formal investigation.
``Our deputies received information from a source that he was not only missing but that foul play was involved,'' Cartwright said.
Guarino retired from the Marines with a medical disability. As a sniper during the thick of the Vietnam War, he was wounded three times, said Sam Monds, a local friend of Guarino. Guarino, he said, still had a bullet in his hip from wartime skirmishes.
Guarino also suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and was treated regularly at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Hampton.
``He saw a lot of his best buddies disintegrate right in front of him,'' Monds said.
Guarino was active in the local chapter of the Vietnam War Veterans, Monds said, and even made a video for high school students about the traumas of war, based on his experiences.
``He helped a lot of vets get disabilities'' benefits, Monds said. ``He'd sometimes talk to guys all night long - guys that were about to fall apart because of their war memories.''
Some friends said they had grown suspicious about Guarino's whereabouts.
``I knew something was wrong. I believe he was missing even by the third week of November (1995),'' said Richard Schley. Deborah Guarino, he said, ``told the story that he was in a mental hospital in New Jersey.''
Schley said he was suspicious of Deborah Guarino's story because her husband's new Nissan Pathfinder remained at the home after he allegedly left for the mental hospital.
``He would not go anywhere without his Pathfinder,'' said Schley. ``There's no way she could make those payments with just that aquarium business.''
Deborah Guarino continued to receive her husband's disability checks, friends said, even after Guarino disappeared.
Schley had known Guarino for about five years. Both were avid enthusiasts of tropical fish. Schley said he ate dinner at Guarino's house once a week for several months.
``They argued real bad,'' Schley said of the couple. ``But I never saw them fight physically.''
There is no court record of abuse charges against either Guarino or his wife.
Monds said that, despite his suspicions, he didn't report his friend missing because he believed it was possible - though unlikely - that Guarino could have been sent to a mental hospital.
Monds said Guarino was very proud of his Pathfinder. Printed on the spare tire cover was ``The Walking Dead,'' a nickname given to Marines whose units regularly patrolled the jungles of Vietnam.
The name alluded to the belief that sooner or later, whoever patrolled the jungles would be killed. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Glenn Guarino,
the victim.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST NORTH CAROLINA