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FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team


FBI Underwater Search Recovery TeamSearching the WACKAACK CREEK, a coastal tributary whose tide flows are influenced by New Jersey’s RARITAN BAY, in 1982, the ad hoc FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team [officially known as the FBI’s Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team (USERT)] made an important discovery, buried in the brown mud, divers found two [2] spent .22cal shell casings. The FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team had hoped to recover a silencer and a .22cal pistol used just days earlier to execute a woman and three [3] CBS employees, but finding the shell casings … agents thought they might be close to identifying a suspect. Witnesses said the CBS technicians were killed when they stumbled on the crime scene, not realizing a woman had just been assaulted.[1]

Walking to their parked cars, police said the men encountered a shadowy figure placing a woman’s limp body into a van. “What did you see,” he shouted, witnesses said. But then not waiting for an answer, the gunman shot the nearest CBS employee dead, and then pursued the other two [2], shooting each in the back of the head as he caught up to them. Then, having put the woman’s body into the van, he zipped past witnesses and parking lot attendants—speeding down a winding narrow ramp—escaping into rush hour traffic. Responding to 911-calls about shots being fired, police discovered a grisly murder scene, finding three [3] CBS workers dead, scattered spent shell casings, sunglasses and shoes discarded on the payment, and a number of blood stains suggesting the woman was wounded.[2]

Searching the steel and concrete structure that juts out into the Hudson River located at West 54th Street and 12th Avenue, police found three [3] spent .22cal shell casings located near the three [3] dead CBS workers.[3] The woman’s body was found in lower Manhattan, dumped in an alley, shot in the head with a .22cal bullet.[4] She was identified as MARGARET BARBERA, a former Controller at the CANDOR DIAMOND COMPANY [CDC],[5] who only 18-days earlier[6] had agreed to testify against the company’s CEO, IRWIN M. MARGOLIES, suspected of defrauding almost $6 million from the company’s creditors, including the JOHN P. MCGUIRE & COMPANY.[7]

Discovering BARBERA’s body, authorities reopened the investigation concerning JENNY SOO CHIN, another former CANDOR employee and bookkeeper,[8] who only months earlier disappeared following a meeting with BARBERA. Her blood stained vehicle was found in Manhattan’s Lower Westside and inside the car, police found a like spent .22cal shell casing, which lab experts said was fired from the same gun that killed the CBS employees.[9] Unlike BARBERA, police never found CHIN’s body.

Within days of the murders, agents and police started looking at DONALD J. NASH, age-46, residence 81 Creek Road, Keansburg, NJ as a possible suspect.[10] Using the alias DONALD J. BOWERS, agents discovered he rented the parking space next to BARBERA. On the evening the murders occurred, authorities said NASH waited for her in the parking garage—sitting quietly in his van.[11] Wanting BARBERA to enter the vehicle from the passenger’s side, making it easier to snatch her, police said NASH jammed the lock on the driver’s side with thin wooden slivers.[12]

Seeking evidence, agents targeted NASH using a multi-state Bureau surveillance team when he was arrested by the Kentucky State Police [KSP] driving the suspect van. Searching the van, agents recovered another similar .22cal shell casing which experts said also matched the .22cal shell casings found in the parking garage, CHIN’s abandoned vehicle and the WACKAACK CREEK located behind NASH’s home in Keansburg, NJ.[13] And executing a search warrant in the home of NASH’s nephew, THOMAS DUANE, police said they recovered another .22cal shell casing that likewise matched all the other shell casings, which experts said was fired from the same gun used in the four garage slayings and CHIN’s presumed homicide.[14]

Following a lengthy trial, NASH was found guilty of executing BARBERA and murdering the three [3] CBS employees using a .22cal pistol. He was also convicted of conspiring to kill JENNY SOO CHIN, the former bookkeeper at CONDOR, whose body was never found, and was sentenced to a minimum of 100-years in state prison.[15] Evidence included MARGOLIES paying NASH $16,000 for executing BARBERA and CHIN and an additional $5,000 for killing the three [3] CBS employees.[16]

Pleading guilty to defrauding MCGUIRE, MARGOLIES was sentenced to a 28-year federal prison sentence, with his wife MADELEIN pleading guilty to several lesser charges serving a three [3] year sentence. MADELEIN was not charged with either contract killing and/or the CBS murders.[17]

Locally, MARGOLIES was prosecuted for killing both MARGARET BARBERA and JENNY SOO CHIN and conspiring to have them murdered. The Indictment identified NASH as being the contract killer who murdered BARBERA, but he was not listed as being CHIN’s killer. MARGOLIES was also charged with conspiring to kill DAVID BLEJWAS, an attorney for the MCGUIRE COMPANY, who vigorously pursued litigation as a result of the CANDOR bankruptcy. Prosecutors said MARGOLIES made a $2,000 down payment to an unnamed individual to kill BLEJWAS noting the contract killing totaled $15,000, and federal authorities identified the individual as an inmate serving time with MARGOLIES in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center.[18]

Not previously disclosed, trial testimony reflected in an effort to derail the federal investigation concerning allegations he defrauded creditors, prosecutors said it was MARGOLIES’ attorney, HENRY OESTERICHER, who made the arrangements with NASH to kill BARBERA and CHIN because MARGOLIES thought the women had agreed to cooperate with federal authorities. Despite destroying records, he thought BARBERA still had records indicating he orchestrated the fraud scheme. Given immunity, OESTERICHER testified at MARGOLIES behest he hired NASH to commit the murders.[19]

Following his conviction, on June 21, 1984, MARGOLIES was sentenced two [2] consecutive terms of 25-years to life [or 50-years] for murdering the two women, and a single concurrent term of 8-years to 25-years for conspiring to murder them, with the sentences to run after he served the 28-year sentence imposed by federal authorities for engineering the fraud scheme. Unlike NASH, he was not prosecuted for the CBS murders and he was “acquitted” on charges, he conspired to murder BLEJWAS, the attorney for the MCGUIRE COMPANY, who vigorously pursued allegations he defrauded creditors in the CANDOR bankruptcy.

Finding the aforementioned .22cal shell casings was a pivotal moment for agents wanting to establish a full-time FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team, since it was first time the Bureau officially used its ad hoc FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team to conduct a criminal investigation.[20] Discovered in the WACKAACK CREEK, the .22cal shell casings bolstered evidence suggesting NASH was the trigger-man in the slayings—making the case the agents needed an FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team to collect evidence and conduct investigations.  But it wasn’t until BOBBY CHACON took the reins in New York did the FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team get protocols used today by agents both in the United States and throughout the world.

Before the MARGOLIES case [and the CBS murders], the ad hoc FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team was only used to assist agents conducting security and organized crime investigations—needing assistance conducting technical surveillance which generally was not discussed and/or disclosed in court. But with five [5] innocent people being executed, including two federal witnesses and three bystanders, Bureau executives quickly recognized agents had a need for an FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team, particularly when they realized—recovering evidence—agents needed appropriate protocols, so they could work safely and effectively in a dangerous environment, whether it be in the deep ocean, a tidal swamp like the WACKAACK CREEK, or the dark murky waters of a deep river or lake.

Directory members can be extremely helpful to anyone seeking information and/or requiring a professional opinion concerning investigations involving the FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team. Accordingly, looking for an expert concerning investigations involving the FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team—please draw upon the website’s search feature, entering the appropriate skill, issue, or need as well as the geographical area of preference to make contact with an FBI specialist.

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Retired FBI Agents and Analysts, with a background in the FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team and interested in securing a Directory listing and/or a personal email address, should submit an online application requesting membership.

[1] See New York Times article captioned, “Bits of Evidence Are Focus in the CBS Killings,” written by SELWYN RAAB, dated April 24, 1982, pages 1 thru 3.

[2] See New York Times article captioned, “3 CBS Workers for CBS Are Shot to Death,” written by ROBERT D. MCFADDEN, dated April 13, 1982, pages 1 thru 3.

[3] See New York Times article captioned, “Bits of Evidence Are Focus in the CBS Killings,” written by SELWYN RAAB, dated April 24, 1982, pages 1 thru 3.

[4] See New York Times article captioned, “New Jersey Man in the CBS Case Agrees to Return,” written by SELWYN RAAB, dated April 21, 1982, page 2.

[5] Declared Bankruptcy in 1981.

[6] See New York Times article captioned, “Jailed Jewelry Executive Indicted in 2 Murders Linked To CBS Case,” written by E. R. SHIPP, dated July 19, 1983.

[7] See New York Times article captioned, “Trial in CBS Murder Case to Begin Today,” written by SELWYN RAAB, dated March 21, 1983.

[8] See New York Times article captioned, “Jailed Jewelry Executive Indicted in 2 Murders Linked To CBS Case,” written by E. R. SHIPP, dated July 19, 1983, page one [1].

[9] See New York Times article captioned, “Trial in CBS Murder Case to Begin Today,” written by SELWYN RAAB, dated March 21, 1983, page two [2].

[10] See New York Times article captioned, “New Jersey Man in the CBS Case Agrees to Return,” written by SELWYN RAAB, dated April 21, 1982, pages 1 thru 2.

[11] See IBID.

[12] See New York Times article captioned, “Trial in CBS Murder Case to Begin Today,” written by SELWYN RAAB, dated March 21, 1983, page two [2].

[13] See IBID.

[14] See New York Times article captioned, “Newly Found Shell in Jersey Tied to CBS Murders,” written by SELWYN RAAB, dated May 6, 1983, pages 1 thru 2.

[15] See New York Times article captioned, “Jailed Jewelry Executive Indicted in 2 Murders Linked To CBS Case,” written by E. R. SHIPP, dated July 19, 1983, page one [1].

[16] See HHS PUBLIC ACCESS: Author Manuscript titled, “From White-Collar-Crime to Red-Collar-Crime,” written by RICHARD G. BRODY and KENT A. KIEHL, subchapter headed, “The Irwin M. Margolis Case.”

[17] See IBID.

[18] See New York Times article captioned, “Jailed Jewelry Executive Indicted in 2 Murders Linked To CBS Case,” written by E. R. SHIPP, dated July 19, 1983, pages 1 thru 3.

[19] See HHS PUBLIC ACCESS: Author Manuscript titled, “From White-Collar-Crime to Red-Collar-Crime,” written by RICHARD G. BRODY and KENT A. KIEHL, subchapter headed, “The Irwin M. Margolis Case.”

[20] Information obtained from the FBI’s website at Https://FBI.gov in document captioned, “FBI Dive Teams: Underwater Evidence Collection,” dated August 5, 2005.

Agent with FBI Underwater Search Recovery Team skillset