DATE: Thursday, July 31, 1997               TAG: 9707310365

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   53 lines

5 WEEKS AFTER SLAYING, ALLEGED KILLER REMAINS TARGET OF INVESTIGATORS

Five weeks after Mark E. Pickrel was shot to death in a wooded area near his home, one of his alleged killers remains on the run.

Police are looking for Richard Wallace Marron II, 18, who is wanted on charges of capital murder, robbery and use of a firearm in the death of Pickrel, manager of the Cinemark Movies 10 near Chesapeake Square Mall.

Authorities have received information that Marron has gone to another state, but they are not ruling out the possibility that he may be hiding in South Hampton Roads.

Marron, who lived in Portsmouth, has worked as a delivery person in the past, according to detective Dick Black.

His two brothers, also charged in the killing, are being held in Tidewater Detention Home. Tracy Marron, 15, is charged with accessory after the fact to capital murder and receiving stolen property. Travis Marron, 16, is charged with capital murder, robbery and two firearms charges. Both are scheduled to appear in juvenile court Tuesday.

Pickrel, 29, was dragged from his home in the 4400 block of Deborah Court in Western Branch on June 26, taken to a wooded area a few miles away and shot to death, police said.

Chesapeake police found his body near an overgrown dirt path in the 2300 block of Elizabeth Harbor Drive, across from a Virginia Power substation.

Police initially thought that pornography may have played a role in Pickrel's death, but have since ruled it out.

Robbery is considered to be the motive, Black said.

On the day Pickrel was killed, police searched his apartment for evidence of child pornography, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Police obtained the warrant after the suspects' mother gave them a safe that may have belonged to Pickrel and contained pornographic materials.

They found pornographic magazines and a bag of what appeared to be marijuana, according to the affidavit. They also found a photo of one of the suspects which was not pornographic, police said Wednesday.

Misty Marron, a sister of the suspects, said she received telephone calls from from brother, Richard, shortly after the killing, but he never told her where he was. She has not heard from him in weeks, she said Wednesday.

Richard Marron is described as 6 feet, 2 inches tall, 150 pounds, blond, with blue eyes and a light complexion. He goes by the street names ``Whitey'' and ``White Boy.'' He has a tattoo on his right arm. No description of the tattoo was available Wednesday. MEMO: Anyone with information about Richard Marron is asked to call

Chesapeake Crime Line at 487-1234. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Richard Wallace Marron II, 18, is wanted on charges of capital

murder, robbery and use of a firearm.

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