A cold murder case warms up

At 27, Anthony Marko was paralyzed by a bullet to the neck during a 1990 robbery attempt in North Philadelphia.

Last month Marko, an avid sports fan, quietly passed away at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, never knowing who shot him.

Now, police are looking for the gunman again after the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office ruled that Marko's death at age 45 was a homicide caused by complications from the gunshot wound.

"It's going to be a tough case to break," said Deputy Chief William Blackburn, who oversees major investigations. "When you start investigating a case more than 72 hours after the homicide, the likelihood of solving it decreases."

Blackburn said investigators need the public's help.

"We're still going to pursue it," he said. "Although it happened 20 years ago, we're going to do our best."

Homicide Capt. James Clark called it a "challenging case," but not impossible.

"We have to go into the deep, deep archives in the Detective Bureau," Clark said.

Police ask anyone with information about the shooting to call homicide detectives at 215-686-3334.

If detectives find a suspect, it would not be the first time that authorities charged someone with murder years after the crime occurred. A year ago, authorities charged a career criminal with the murder of rookie Police Officer Walter T. Barclay, who died more than 20 years after he had been shot.

William J. Barnes served 20 years for shooting Barclay, who had been left paralyzed. After Barclay's death last year, Barnes returned to prison on the murder charge. The case is scheduled for trial.

In Marko's case, police have no suspects.

He was injured Sept. 4, 1990, after his car broke down in the 2700 block of Hancock Street, near Somerset Street, in the Fairhill section of North Philadelphia.

Marko's widow, Jane, said yesterday that she hadn't married Marko, who had driven a dump truck for a construction company, until a year after the shooting, but that she had known him for years. On the night he was shot, she said, he was seeking help.

Two people approached and spoke to him in Spanish, but Marko didn't understand what was happening until one went behind him and he was shot in the neck, she said.

Although Marko could not understand what the gunmen said, he told his wife he thought it was a robbery. He remembered that the attackers were young, but he could not recall much more.

After his death on Sept. 21, Jane Marko said, she was surprised officials wanted to perform an autopsy. The bullet, she said, had been left in his neck to prevent further injury.

Authorities say it's too early to know which direction the investigation might go.

Marko and his wife had remained in North Philadelphia after they married in 1991. Marko, known to help others despite being confined to a wheelchair, struggled with paralysis and needed a ventilator to breathe. He also experienced infections from being on a catheter, Marko said.

"He had good days and bad days," his widow said. "He could use his hands. He was still a really strong guy and could use his upper body."

At one point, she said, she had a ramp built to their house so he could go outside. Other times, with his weight exceeding 300 pounds, he was confined to a bed.

He made friends easily, especially with those who helped care for him and learned he loved sports, his wife said.

A nurse at Jefferson brought him a Yankees cap.

"I hate the Yankees," he told her. "I'm a Phillies fan."

She put the hat on him nonetheless, and that's when the Yankees started to lose.