Reyna Marroquin murder solved after 30 years

Even though Elkins likely murdered Reyna Marroquin in 1969 at his factory in Manhattan, it felt appropriate to set the date and location of this episode's events in relationship to when and where her body was discovered. The location was Jericho, New York which lies just over 30 minutes east on Long Island. And of course the date was September 2, 1999.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

But it was Boca Raton, Florida that Howard Elkins purchased the 12-gauge shotgun at a nearby Walmart on the day homicide investigators from New York showed up to question him. I live near Boca Raton, and I'm not sure my neighborhood Walmart sells shotguns these days. They made (what I'm sure they believed were) pretty drastic updates to their policies regarding the sale of firearms in 2019. First, they raised the minimum age to purchase any firearm to 21, and they once and for all stopped selling handguns. And importantly (and finally), Walmart stopped selling ammunition used in high-capacity magazines. They tout that they'd previously discontinued the sale of the AR-15, which they called a "modern sporting rifles". I'm not sure how much sport there is when you acknowledge "AR" stands for "automatic rifle".

But I digress. Rather than take his life in his own car/garage, Howard Elkins decided it preferrable to make his neighbor's home a crime scene. This may have been out of desire for his wife to avoid dealing with their house being sullied by the bloody aftermath of his cowardly exit strategy, but it's more evidence of Elkins' selfishness. He wasn't going to "man-up" and face the evidence and charges of his crime from 30 years prior, so it's understandable he'd again avoid accountability when it came to his suicide.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

By season five Forensic Files' historic run, I'd believed that the more explicit photos and evidence shared during episodes from the late 1990s were behind us. The photos of Sandra Cwik in the California desert from Insect Clues (s01e10) and of Steve Christensen after the bombing attack in Postal Mortem (s02e11) come to mind. But the photographic evidence of the investigators emptying the contents of the 55-gallon barrel was gruesome. For a nearly two-minute sequence in the episode's first segment, shot after shot showed graphic details of the mummified remains of Reyna Marroquin after her body was extracted from the drum. There were indications of the "brownish-green liquid" that she'd been (at least partially) submerged in, and the plethora of tiny plastic pellets were disquieting. They looked like insects or the eggs thereof. I've never envied the duties of the medical examiners who interact with the outcomes of heartless creatures like Elkins. It's already bad enough when they have to examine the remains of an exhumed body.

Additional descriptors for the liquid in the barrel were "brownish-yellow slime" and a "jelly-like substance". One could only imagine the source of this sludge before it was revealed that it was (probably in majority) a "green halogen dye". But between this ooze, the plastic pellets, and the certain odors, I'll reiterate: I do not envy the examiners who process this kind of evidence.

Reyna Marroquin and Howard Elkins: Less answers than questions

The biggest "how come" question that I'm sure arose in all viewers' minds was, "How come no one had tried to remove the barrel from the crawlspace?" The owners who occupied the house before the Cohen family claimed they left the 55-gallon drum alone because it had chemical stickers on it. The Cohens lived with the barrel for nine years before they sold the home. So even though they'd assumed ownership of the mysterious drum in 1990, they only decided to discard it as a result of selling the house. Apparently, the buyer insisted it be removed, and the Cohens reluctantly agreed.

Howard Elkins was unable to move the barrel any further than the crawlspace under the stairs. Mr. Cohen had managed to maneuver the 350-pound drum out to the curb for the garbage collectors. Did he have help? A dolly? 350 pounds is an enormous load to move by one's self.

When Elkins loaded Reyna Marroquin's body into the drum (hopefully she was deceased), he thought to weight it down. Investigators believed he'd intended to take it out on his boat and sink it in the ocean. The reenactment and the evidence showed the plastic pellets were loose inside the barrel, being poured from bags. But if merely to add weight to the barrel, why not stuff the entire bag of pellets into the drum? And why the inclusion of the green flower stem? Was this just lying around, or did Howard Elkins place this token in the barrel somehow ceremoniously? This may've strengthened Elkins' connection to the drum (and its contents), but it wasn't really a key piece of the evidence.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

In addition to the deceased, a number of other items found in the barrel were key to identifying the victim and her killer. But a locket that Reyna had apparently worn was a mystery. Its inscription read, "To Patrice, Love Uncle Phil". Once described, the episode doesn't revisit this item or its message. Even after Oscar Corral located Reyna's 95-year-old mother in El Salvador, the roles of Patrice and Phil remain unknown.

The police were the benefactors of the anonymous caller's information about Howard Elkins in the 1960s. The media's coverage of the unknown victim found inside the chemical barrel in Jericho sparked the memory of someone who must be considered an "insider" at the time. This man knew where the drum came from and that it was used for mixing dyes for plastic trees. He also had intimate knowledge of Elkins' affair with a "Hispanic woman" who worked for him at the Melrose Plastics company at the time. Was this simply a workman back in the late 60s, or could this person have been closer to Howard Elkins.

Reyna's unusual dental work and forensic tools

The episode stretches out the revelation that police discovered and pursued the Jericho home's owner during the 1960s. In reality, this would've been almost the first potential lead followed, once the age of the barrel became known. Of course questioning the Cohens and the home's previous owners made sense, and until the barrel's origin and contents could be related to Howard Elkins, these persons could not be rules out.

The medical examiner Gerard Catanese described the victim having "unusual" dental work – this led him to believe she might have been originally from a country in South America. An ad-heavy and gratuitous article from the New York Daily News in 2020 revealed that Reyna Marroquin's front teeth were "rimmed with gold". The idea that this is a South American practice was not readily located on the internet, but it seems to be something known among pathologists.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Analyzing the body and the other contents from within the barrel led to this episode featuring a few standards among forensic tools and techniques. It mentioned a "forensic" drying cabinet used to dehydrate the pocketbook and its contents – most importantly, the address book containing Kathy Andrade's information. Other tools of the trade included x-ray equipment and a video spectral comparator. The operation of the latter was described in elaborate detail, but its initial outcomes were underwhelming.

Peter Thomas is consistent in his delivery, so it's hard to miss when he's encouraged to mispronounce anything. For a non-American speaker, this is common enough, such as Fred Dinenage's narration on World's Most Evil Killers. A different pronunciation of the occasional American state or city name is expected and understandable. His phonetical mention of the state "Mary Land" is charming. But to hear Thomas pronounce the blood-testing company "LabCorp" as "Lab Corpe" struck me as odd. Another item in common for Thomas and Dinenage: Both consummate professionals are/were still plying their trade into their 80s.

Our episode expressed surprise that Kathy Andrade still had the same phone number and still lived in the same apartment 30 years after the murder of Reyna Marroquin. I found neither of these too shocking, especially in the days before cell phones. The home in which I grew up in Fort Lauderdale is still occupied by my step mother, and she still has the same land line phone number we had since I was six. This has been over 40 years.

Ongoing trouble for Reyna Angelica Marroquin

Reyna Marroquin was probably 27 years old when she was killed by Howard Elkins. I can see someone younger, more immature making a few of the choices Reyna made, but for someone who'd been in the other person's shoes back in El Salvador, Reyna's decision to call the Elkins home and speak to his wife was brash. By no means am I victim-blaming Reyna Marroquin – she did what she felt was right at the time, whether it was out of anger or a desire to reveal truths. Howard Elkins is the ONLY person to blame in Reyna's death, hardly a fitting outcome for simply revealing his adultery.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

She told her friend and English instructor Kathy Andrade that she had "made a stupid mistake." Reyna also told Kathy that this man had threatened to kill her, though Reyna never revealed Elkins' identity to Kathy. This is the type of threat not to be taken lightly. But shortly after, Reyna allowed herself to be alone with Howard Elkins. What had he said to regain her trust in order to isolate her? How had he convinced her to meet him and set up her murder? But more troubling than any of these, how does a man blatantly murder his mistress and his nearly full-term, unborn son to keep a secret?

It's ironic that Reyna found herself in the same situation as she'd previously faced back in El Salvador. One would hope she'd garnered valuable life experience and not become a different actor in the same circumstances. Reyna's last words written with her belongings in the barrel might have been "Don't be mad, I told the truth." This speaks to a degree of righteousness on Reyna's part. It's unfortunate that she was a participant in Howard Elkins' lies and infidelity.

Howard Elkins and his life of deception

Disregarding the small part Reyna Marroquin played in the events that led to her murder, Howard Elkins was a stone-cold sociopath. He cared about nothing else than his own selfish wants. He readily cheated on his wife with Reyna Marroquin (plus who knows whom else). When Reyna's revelations threatened to shatter his façade of faithfulness, he selfishly murdered her and his own unborn child. Finally three decades later in Boca Raton, Howard Elkins revealed no explanation before shooting himself to avoid confrontation from his wife or investigators.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

How did he live with any peace for 30 years knowing he'd simply abandoned the 55-gallon drum with his victims in his old home on Long Island? On any given day, by either subsequent owner, the barrel's contents could've been discovered. Its source and original ownership was easily traced back to Elkins. But it was only the circumstance of the Cohen's being asked to remove it with their home's sale in 1999 and it being too heavy to be taken by standard garbage collection that its secret was finally revealed.

Had Elkins simply not supposed that once weighted to sink in the ocean, the barrel might be too heavy to get onto his boat? An empty drum is heavy, as is a human body of any particular size. Add these with the weight of the green halogen dye still in the barrel and the plastic pellets Elkins added, and its mass far exceeded the strength of the 40-year-old business man.

If Howard Elkins had made the plan to kill Marroquin, why not plan better? Why not first get the barrel onto his boat, and then place the body within? Or even if he wasn't thinking that far ahead, once the barrel was determined to be too heavy, why not unburden it and start over? What was the thought process here? "Well now it's too heavy, and I'm not sure what to do next. I guess I'll just slide it here under the stairs and hope for the best..."

Where is Howard Elkins now in 2024?

On September 10, 1999, in Boca Raton, investigators told Elkins they were getting a court order to obtain his DNA to prove his paternity of the unborn, murdered child from 1969. Howard Elkins bought a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition from the nearby Walmart, climbed in the backseat of his neighbor's car, and killed himself with a single, self-inflicted gunshot to the head.