Thomas Capano – Smitten

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Thomas Capano killed Ann Marie Fahey after she ended their relationship

Thomas Capano killed Ann Marie Fahey after she ended their relationship ​wikipedia user w00ting, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In June 1996 a beautiful young woman went missing.  She was last seen dining with Thomas Capano, an influential attorney from Wilmington, Delaware.  Her family had grave concerns when she failed to show up at a family event and notified the police.  She went from a missing person to a murder victim.  Listen to the story of how one man’s inability to let go leads to a fall from grace and the tragic end of a young woman’s life.

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Location

Wilmington is the most populous city in the state of Delaware. It was originally built on the Swedish settlement of Fort Christina in 1638. It was the setting for the 1999 film Fight Club. Officials would not allow the movie to be shot there so exteriors were filmed in Los Angeles.

The End of the Night

Thomas Capano and Ann Marie Fahey dined at the Ristorante Panorama on Front Street in Philadelphia on June 27, 1996, around 7 pm. Thomas Capano was well known in Wilmington Delaware politics as used to work for a former Attorney General. He currently was a partner in the Willmington office of a Philadelphia based law firm. Ann Marie Fahey was working as the appointment secretary for the then-governor of Delaware, Tom Carper.

This was not a happy dinner. The waitress noted that the couple didn’t look to be in a good mood and rarely conversed. Ann Maria told Capano that she wanted to end their on off again, rocky three-year relationship. Capano did not agree. After dinner, the couple returned to Wilmington, stopping first at Capano’s rented home. Capano had been renting the home since he separated from his wife of 24 years. Capano insisted that Ann Marie come inside so that they could talk as he did not want their affair to end.

Gone Girl

On Saturday, June 29th Ann Marie failed to show up at a dinner party that her brother was hosting. Her sister was immediately concerned when she couldn’t reach Ann Marie. So she contacted the Delaware State Police on Sunday, June 30th. She asked them to meet her at Ann Marie’s third-floor apartment at 1718 Washington Street.

She informed the police that no one had heard from Ann Marie who was also the governor’s secretary since Thursday. When police looked around they found some unpacked groceries on her counter that included some perishable items. Her apartment appeared messy which according to her sister was totally out of character for Ann Marie. She was usually neat and tidy.

In her bedroom, police found multiple pairs of shoes on the floor along with her purse. On the bed was a clothing box that still held an expensive pantsuit. Her purse contained her wallet and id, but her keys could not be found.

Her sister told police that she reached out to a man that Ann Marie was seeing since September 1995, Michael Scanlan, a banker in Wilmington. Michael was to pick Ann Marie up for the dinner party. When he called to confirm their evening he never heard back from her.

Not a Good Feeling

Detective Robert Donavan of the Wilmington Police Department was called to the scene. Based on what was reported by Ann Marie’s family and what was left at the scene, investigators didn’t feel that she left her apartment voluntarily. What investigators found next shocked both them and her family.

They found letters written to Ann Marie from Thomas Capano where he confessed his love for her. They also found a diary where one of her last entries stated that she was glad to finally be ending her relationship with Capano. She described Capano as a control freak and an insecure maniac. What shocked her sister and family was that Ann Marie had never talked to them about anyone named Thomas Capano.

Connected

Thomas was the oldest of four brothers and one sister of the prominent multi-millionaire Capano family. Thomas was currently 46-years-old and Ann Marie was 30. The family made their money through real estate development and construction contracting.

  • Gerry – looked up to Thomas as he had gotten him out of a few legal scraps in the past.
  • Joseph – ran the family construction business.
  • Lewis – managed the family’s real estate holdings.
  • Marian – was the oldest child.

Thomas sought his own path by becoming a successful attorney.

  • State Attorney
  • Wilmington city attorney
  • Legal counsel for Governor Mike Cassel
  • Political consultant

Needless to say, Capano had a lot of connections with local and state law enforcement, as well as, powerful political figures. Detectives decided that they didn’t want to wait to talk to Thomas Capano. So they paid him a visit at 3:39 AM at his $2,000 monthly rental home located at 2302 Grant Avenue.

Last Contact

Capano confirmed for investigators that he had been seeing Ann Marie Fahey, but that their relationship had ended some time ago. They had parted as friends and had even met up Thursday night for dinner. He also told them that they had come back to his house as he had a gift for her and some groceries that she needed.

Thomas Capano claimed that he took her home that night and hadn’t talked to her since. He said that Ann Marie told him that she had Friday off and that she may have gone out of town. He also told police that Ann Marie was known to be moody and suicidal. Capano told investigators that most likely Ann Marie will probably show up at work on Monday so not to worry. Investigators asked if they could search his house. Capano declined claiming that he had his daughters with him that weekend and he didn’t want to worry or disturb them.

Worry

On Monday, Ann Marie failed to show up for work. Investigators went back to Ann Marie’s apartment building to speak with her neighbors. Especially the one that lived on the floor below. The neighbor in question had been away for the weekend but was home on Thursday night. She remembered around 9:45 pm hearing a single set of footsteps from Ann Marie’s apartment. What stood out for her was that it was usually a high heel sound on the floor. The footsteps were not what she normally heard and heavier.

Investigators also checked Ann Marie’s banking and credit card activity since Thursday night. There had been no movement on any of her accounts. They also talked with some of Ann Marie’s closest friends who told them that Ann Marie had met Capano in 1993 at the governor’s office and by 1994 they had begun dating.

Thomas Capano Is Smitten

Capano was instantly smitten with the young secretary and started sending her gifts and taking her to out-of-the-way dinners. Ann Maire also seemed equally enamored at least initially, but fearing her family’s reaction to her being in a relationship with an older married man she decided not to tell them. As their relationship progress, Ann Marie had shared with friends that Capano was an angry and manipulative man whose idea of love was about control and that she couldn’t trust him.

By the spring of 1996, their relationship appears to have run its course, but Capano told Ann Marie that he had left his wife for her so they didn’t have to hide anymore and he was not going to agree to end it. Ann Marie still wanted out and that is when she started to see Michael Scanlan. Capano didn’t give up and continued to pursue Ann Marie. She told friends that Capano refused to accept they were over and had started stalking her.

Reward

As Ann Marie’s family still did not know what happened to her offered a $10,000 reward for any information regarding her disappearance. On July 4, 1996, a massive group of volunteers gathered, including the governor, at a local park to help search for Ann Marie. This park was one Ann Marie frequented when she went jogging. After an extensive search, there was no trace of Ann Marie.

It was at this point that the FBI became involved in the investigation. Ann Marie was a resident of Delaware but had last been seen in Pennsylvania. The FBI obtained telephone and credit card records for both Ann Marie and Capano.

They discovered that Capano made a $308 purchase at Wallpaper Warehouse two days after Ann Marie was last seen. This stuck out as Capano was living in a rental house and most likely was not wallpapering anything. When they called the number they were connected to Air Based Carpets. The $308 purchase was for an area rug. This leads them to theorize that Capano may have rolled Ann Marie’s body up in the carpet and needed a new one to replace it.

Thomas Capano Is The Top Suspect

Although Capano was their top suspect they didn’t have enough probable cause to obtain a search warrant for his house. Agents decided to talk with Capano’s housekeeper hoping she could offer some assistance. Capano’s housekeeper told agents that she had cleaned his home four days prior to Ann Marie’s disappearance. She told them that Capano told her not to come the following week. It wasn’t necessary as his daughters did not stay over since she last was there. When she returned three weeks later she noticed that the love seat and carpet normally in the living room were gone and replaced with two chairs and a new carpet.

Investigators also found out that Capano had visited a store on June 30th asking about a blood remover.

Changing Stories

Agents immediately noticed that Capano’s story had changed from the night authorities had contacted him and asked to search his home. Due to the inconsistency, they now had enough for a search warrant.

On July 31, 1996, authorities served a 31-page warrant on Capano. They began to search the entire residence focusing on the living room where the new furniture sat. When they searched the floor beneath the carpet it was spotless. On a nearby baseboard, they found two brown spots that looked like dried blood.

Evidence was collected and sent off to the FBI Lab in Washington D.C. The problem was that the samples were not very big, but testing did confirm the spots were blood. So now they needed to confirm it was Ann Marie’s blood. At the time to confirm this they needed a sample of Ann Marie or her parent’s blood. Unfortunately, both Ann Marie’s parents were deceased.

Investigators discovered that Ann Marie had given blood a month before her disappearance. Her blood had already been broken down to plasma and the red blood cells that held DNA may not be able to be found.

Stall

Investigators felt that Capano was responsible for Ann Marie’s disappearance and potential murder and that he may have had help disposing of any evidence. The problem was no one was talking including his brothers. That changed however on August 6th when investigators received a call from a man who worked for Lewis Capano as a project manager. He told investigators that the day after Ann Marie went missing, Lewis Capano ordered four dumpsters at their construction site to be emptied on July 1st.

This was odd as the dumpsters were not even full and it would cost them more money to empty them early. Lewis Capano denied having ordered the dumpsters to be emptied. Investigators obtained the dumpster records and located which landfill the dumpster contents were taken to.

In August, FBI agents along with an evidence recovery team to a Delaware landfill specifically looking for the love seat and carpet. They searched for four long hot days but came away with nothing. Investigators feared that Capano might get away with murder as they had no body and no murder weapon. At this point and no one was talking.

Blood Match & Another Mistress

On September 6th investigators received a call that Ann Marie’s blood plasma had been recovered. There were enough red blood cells left to get a DNA sample. The blood samples found in Capano’s home were a match to Ann Marie.

Investigators meanwhile were looking into Capano’s phone records and discovered that he had called Deborah MacIntyre, who lived in Stone Harbor New Jersey the day after Ann Marie disappeared. They discovered that Capano and MacIntyre had been in a relationship for the past 12 years.

They also found that his brother Gerry had a boat named Summer Wind, moored in Stone Harbor. Gerry had sold the boat to a local buyer and they obtained permission to search the boat from the new owner. No evidence turned up. However, the new owner told investigators that when Gerry sold him the boat he did so without any anchors.

Operation Brother

In November 1996, FBI agents focused on surveilling Gerry Capano. The surveillance would last for 11 months. Agents were hoping to find enough evidence to bring federal charges against Gerry to get him to turn on his brother. They followed Gerry to area nightclubs where they witnessed him using illicit drugs. They also discovered that he collected firearms which was a federal crime for individuals convicted of drug crimes.

On October 9, 1997, the FBI assisted by the ATF raided Gerry Capano’s home. They found a small arsenal of guns in the closet of his 3-year-old son along with some cocaine and marijuana. The FBI looked to file felony firearm and child endangerment charges but offered Gerry a plea deal instead.

Extortionist

The FBI didn’t believe that Gerry was involved in the murder, only the cover-up. Their theory turned out to be correct. Gerry, although close to Thomas, had a lot to lose – wife, kids, and a cushy lifestyle so he decided to cooperate. On November 8, 1997, Gerry Capano met with the FBI and other investigators and told them what he knew.

In February 1996 (five months before Ann Marie disappeared) Thomas contacted him telling him that he was being extorted and someone was threatening to harm his kids. He asked Gerry for $8,000 in cash and a gun. He also might need to use his boat to dispose of the extortionist’s body if it came to that. At the time, Gerry didn’t know all of this was a lie. Gerry then told authorities that Thomas had returned the gun about a month later saying he only needed the money.

On Friday, June 28th Thomas called him asking him to meet him outside at 6 am as he needed to use his boat. Gerry told Thomas he didn’t want to be involved with disposing of a body, thinking this was the extortionist Thomas had told him about. Thomas played the brother’s card and mentioned everything he had done for him to get Gerry to agree.

Ocean Voyage

Gerry helped Thomas move a heavy 162-quart marine Igloo cooler, the kind fisherman use to carry large amounts of bait, into his truck. The Summer Wind headed 60 to 75 miles offshore into the Atlantic. Capano and Gerry lifted the cooler overboard with the expectation that it would sink. However, it just floated in the water. Thomas ordered Gerry to shot holes into the cooler to get it to sink. Gerry did, but the cooler still floated.

Thomas then retrieved the cooler and decided to sink the body by wrapping it in anchors. Gerry not wanting to witness this moved to the front of the boat, but he did see a human foot as it sunk below the water.

The pair started back to shore and along the way Thomas tried to disassemble the cooler, scattering its parts out to sea. When the pair got back to Capano’s rental home, Gerry helped him get rid of the couch. Which he said had a basketball-size bloodstain on it. They took the love seat to one of the dumpsters at their brother’s construction site. Lewis Capano, having found out about Gerry’s cooperation came to the FBI with his lawyer and recanted his earlier statement about not ordering the dumpsters to be emptied as his employee had told the FBI.

Brotherly Love

Fearing that Thomas may retaliate against his two brothers he was put under 24-hour surveillance. In November 1997, agents witnessed Thomas and his brother, Joseph loading suitcases into his truck. The pair were heading to the airport. Fearing that Thomas was fleeing agents pulled them over and arrested both of them. Thomas was arrested on the grounds that he had obstructed justice because he had coerced his other two brothers into giving false statements.

Preparing for Trial

Investigators continued to search for Ann Marie’s body at sea, but they were unable to locate her. Meanwhile, they had been contacted by a man who had read about Capano’s arrest. This Bay City, New Jersey resident said that he had found a cooler floating in the Indian River Inlet. This was over 100 miles from where it had been dumped in the ocean over the 4th of July holiday. It was missing its lid and had a bullet hole in the side along with some bloodstains.

He told investigators that he kept the cooler, patching the holes and putting a new lid on the cooler and had been using it. The barcode on the cooler matched the purchase Capano had made two months before Ann Marie disappeared. The discovery of the cooler corroborated Gerry Capano’s story.

Investigators also discovered that on May 13, 1996, Deborah MacIntyre had purchased a .22 caliber Beretta. This was six weeks before Ann Marie disappeared. When questioned she claimed that she and Capano had a casual relationship and denied knowing if Capano owned a gun. But when she was asked about herself owning a gun she claimed she bought one but threw it away in the garbage. After additional questioning, she admitted that Capano asked her to purchase it for him.

She became a cooperating witness and turned over all the letters she and Capano had exchanged since his arrest. MacIntyre also began recording her conversations with Capano while he was in jail. She told authorities that Capano had driven her to Miller’s Gun Center and waited in the car while she went inside to purchase the gun and ammunition. When Capano found out he tried to get another prisoner to arrange a home break-in to intimidate MacIntyre.

October 26, 1998 – Thomas Capano’s Trial

On October 6, 1998, Thomas Capano’s trial began. His trial would last 32 days spanning over 10 weeks. At the start of the trial, Capano admitted to the court that he had disposed of Ann Marie’s body and had asked for his brother’s assistance, but he denied killing her. Instead, he put the murder on Deborah MacIntyre, painting her as a jealous lover who had barged into his home that night and shot Ann Marie.

He claimed that after the couple had dropped off some groceries at Ann Marie’s apartment they returned to his home around 10:00 pm to watch some tv. At one point he talked to MacIntyre on the phone and told her not to come over. Around 11:05 pm MacIntyre arrived upset asking “who is this?” She then took out a gun threatening to shoot herself. Capano stood up and faced MacIntyre while Ann Marie was putting her pantyhose back on (he claims she took them off due to being hot), and gathering her shoes. They planned on leaving.

MacIntyre then fired her gun hitting Ann Marie behind her right ear. Capano claimed that both he and MacIntyre gave Ann Marie CPR, but she was dead. He sent McIntrye home around 11:30 p.m. Thomas Capano admitted that he should have called the police, but he was trying to protect MacIntyre and had used the cooler that was to be a birthday gift for Gerry to help dispose of her body. He denied breaking any bones to get Ann Marie’s 5 ft. 10-inch body into the cooler.

Cross-Examination

Under cross-examination, the state’s attorney pointed out the Capano had tried a similar case in 1976 when he served in the attorney general’s office where someone had dumped a body in a creek. At that trial, Capano told the jury that had he dumped the body at sea he might have gotten away with his crime. In the state’s version of events, they claimed that Capano had forced Ann Marie to return to his home the evening after their dinner.

The State’s Timeline

The state’s timeline of events showed that Ann Marie had left work at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 27, 1996, for an appointment with her psychotherapist whom she was seeing for an eating disorder. Capano picked Ann Marie up at her apartment and drove her to the restaurant in Philadelphia. Their server that evening testified that Ann Marie appeared haggard and gaunt.

Leaving the restaurant Capano drove them to his home and somehow had gotten Ann Marie to come inside. Ann Marie most likely was sitting on the great room love seat when Capano shot her in cold blood and then stuffed her into the cooler. He then went to her apartment around 9:45 p.m with the groceries and the new pantsuit trying to cover his tracks. This was a premeditated crime.

On Friday, June 28th morning around 5:30-5:45 am Thomas Capano drove over to his brother Gerry’s home and asked to use his boat. Gerry testified that he asked Thomas “did he do it” thinking it was the extortionist he had told him about and Thomas replied “yes.” Gerry arrived at Thomas’s house around 8:30 am and had seen the marine cooler wrapped in chains and a lock. The pair then drove to Stone Harbor, New Jersey to Gerry’s boat and both loaded the cooler onto Gerry’s boat.

Upon returning to Thomas’s rental home the pair moved the bloodstained love seat and rug into the garage where Thomas tried to cut up the loveseat. Unable to do so they loaded up the furniture and rug and threw them away in a dumpster at their brother, Louise’s construction site. On Saturday, June 29th, Capano bought a new rug for his great room.

Make Sure You Empty The Dumpsters

On Sunday, June 30th, Thomas talked to his brother Louise and told him that Ann Marie had cut her wrist on Thursday night and had gotten blood all over the love seat, but that she was alright. He asked Louise to make sure to empty the dumpsters at his construction site on Monday because he had disposed of the love seat and some of Ann Marie’s personal belongings in them.

Thomas Capano Verdict

On January 17, 1999, the jury composed of six women and six men came back with a guilty verdict for first-degree murder. The penalty phase was next and lasted five days. 

They found found both aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Superior Court Judge sentenced Capano to death on March 16, 1999. It is a pretty incredible case given that there was no body, no witness to the murder itself, and no murder weapon ever recovered.

In 2006 Capano’s death sentence was overturned and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. On September 19, 2011, Thomas Capano died in prison at the age of 61 of a heart attack. It was most likely due to him being obese.

The judge who sentenced him is quoted as saying that “he ate himself to death, no doubt about it.”

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