A 42-year-old New York man has been arrested in the 2003 murder of Megan McDonald, whose baffling case featured on “Dateline” ahead of the solemn 20-year anniversary of her death. NBC New York’s Chris Jose reports.
What to Know
- It was March 15, 2003. The body of a young woman was discovered in a field in the town of Wallkill in the Orange County city of Middletown. She had been murdered. Her name was Megan McDonald
- Her father was a retired NYPD detective who died in 2002, a year before McDonald was killed; the 20-year-old's baffling case was featured on Dateline last year ahead of the 20-year anniversary
- NYSP announced Thursday that 42-year-old Edward Holley had been arrested on a charge of second-degree murder; a press conference was expected later in the day
A 42-year-old New York man has been arrested in the 2003 murder of Megan McDonald, whose baffling case featured on "Dateline" ahead of the solemn 20-year anniversary of her death.
New York State Police announced Thursday that Edward Holley, of Wawayanda in Orange County, had been charged with second-degree murder in McDonald's death. He would have been in his 20s at the time, and said he had dated her.
"I'm definitely not guilty," an orange jumpsuit-clad Holley said as troopers pushed his wheelchair from the barracks toward a waiting car. "I loved her with all my heart...They’re framing me like some monkey, but it’s all good."
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Two women in the crowd showed their support for Holley. When asked by NBC New York what he wanted to say to McDonald's family, Holley said "I didn't do it. I loved Megan." He was arraigned in the afternoon and remains behind bars without bail.
Authorities identified Holley as McDonald's former boyfriend and said he had a "strong motive" for killing her, though they didn't elaborate on that at an afternoon press conference. They say he was already in county jail -- for violating probation stemming from an October 2021 narcotics arrest -- when he was charged in the McDonald case.
Details on the information contained in that warrant, and what exactly led investigators to Holley after two decades, weren't immediately clear. But state police say there was no sudden shift, only saying that "Mr. Holley had a strong motive to commit this crime" and that DNA evidence linked him to the murder.
"It wasn't one specific piece of evidence or information that brought us to this day," NYSP Bureau of Crime Investigation Capt. Joseph Kolek said. "It was the culmination of all the pieces over the course of the last 20 years that led us to this day."
Kolek did go on to say that police believe that "this crime was intimate partner violence. Holley owed Megan a substantial amount of money." State police said that the pair had recently broken up at the time of her death.
McDonald's family, some of whom were in tears, didn't mince words after police announced the break in the case — something they've been waiting on for the past 20 years.
"He forever will be billed a monster and a coward," said James Whalen, McDonald's brother-in-law. "Do not let his current appearance fool you. This is a vile human being."
Strangely, especially given the scope of the investigation, Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said that the arrest was made without his office having consulted with police, which is generally the standard operating procedure in criminal cases for the county.
"Once a defendant is charged and held in custody, the grand jury must vote an indictment within no longer than six days from the date of the arrest or the defendant must be released. For that reason, complicated cases are normally at least partially presented to a grand jury before an arrest is made," Hoovler said. "The preferred practice is for police agencies to coordinate with prosecutors on serious cases. Grand jury presentations on “cold” homicide cases involving complicated fact patterns can rarely be commenced and completed within six days, without prior coordination."
Hoovler appeared to criticize the state police's decision to make the arrest without telling his office, saying that "The family of the victim, and the entire community deserve to have homicide cases handled in the best way possible to provide the greatest opportunity for offenders to be held accountable." He added that his office will prioritize the investigation and the prosecution.
McDonald's body was discovered on March 15, 2003, in a field in Wallkill, just outside the city of Middletown. Her car, a white Mercury Sable, was found two days later in a parking lot in the Kensington Manor Complex, also in Wallkill.
McDonald, who lived in Orange County, was a 20-year-old SUNY Orange County Community College student at the time of her death and had worked at the Galleria Mall in Middletown. She died of blunt force trauma.
Her father was a retired NYPD detective who died in 2002, a year before McDonald was killed -- and the NYC Detectives' Endowment Association had offered a $10,000 reward, as did the FBI, for information leading to her killer.
A Decades-Old Mystery
McDonald's story was the subject of a "Dateline" last year in which detectives discussed the latest developments in the case. McDonald had a conversation with two people she knew who were throwing a birthday party in Wallkill, near Greenway Terrace. They supposedly tried to get her to join and she refused.
Detectives told Dateline that people who attended the party later reported those two people had come back -- and told the rest of the group McDonald left to spend time with other friends in Middletown.
She ended up at her friend's home there and stayed until about midnight, according to the Dateline report. She told her friend she had to go home because she had to get up early for work in the morning, detectives told Dateline.
The friend didn't see her again, and detectives told Dateline McDonald apparently went back to that party instead of going home. She left pretty quickly, telling two other friends she was going to hang out with "somebody," detectives told Dateline. According to the report, they watched her drive away. That was likely the last time she was seen alive.
In a later interview, an initial witness had a new detail, New York State Police Det. Brad Natalizio told Dateline -- a vehicle with a loud sound system that had been seen behind McDonald's car. The witness only noticed it because the volume was so loud, according to the Dateline report. It was likely a dark car that looked like a Honda Civic hatchback.
More Unsolved Mysteries
McDonald's family had just started to worry when they hadn't heard from her, and she didn't show up for work on March 14, 2003. The next day, Natalizio told Dateline the people who own property on Bowser Road called police to report a body. Investigators identified McDonald by her driver's license and say they believe she was killed in the field.
She had been murdered in her own driver's seat, Natalizio told Dateline.
Her father spent 20 years with the NYPD and did some homicide detective work there but died of a heart attack in 2002, McDonald's sister, Karen, told Dateline. He was 47 -- and she told the show that watching him work over the years made her confident the investigators working on her sister's case wouldn't give up until it's solved.
"Seeing what my dad would put into cases and how it affected him personally and the care that he brought to cases," Karen McDonald told Dateline last year. "I feel for the police officers that have carried this for years for my sister. And I know that it's -- it's more, you know, it's -- it's personal to them at this point."
There apparently had been a second suspect. That individual died.
Investigators have amassed nearly 1,000 pieces of evidence over the course of the 20-year probe, and Natalizio told Dateline the hope was that forensic advances in DNA technology would eventually lead to new leads.
It's not clear if that car was linked to Holley's arrest, but Kolek say his DNA was linked to a crime scene. Information on a possible attorney for him wasn't immediately available.
