After 7 years, murder charges
Seven years of police work paid off Friday when two Washington County heroin dealers were charged with the December 1997 slaying of Baldwin Borough medical student Anthony Proviano in Ohio.
With the August discovery of a headband at the scene of Proviano's slaying, Baldwin police finally had enough evidence for the indictment of Douglas Main, 43, and Marlene "Slim" Smith, 49, on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
"Chief Kelly told us seven years ago that they were going to solve this crime. And it took seven years, and he did it," Carmen Proviano, Anthony's father, said before breaking down in tears.
Baldwin police Chief Christopher Kelly fought for the family from the start -- launching a search when Proviano, 29, failed to show up for a family Christmas Eve party in 1997, finding the body, challenging the initial coroner's finding that Proviano had committed suicide and working "every day" to learn who killed the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine honors student.
Kelly, who failed to get an indictment in 2002 from a grand jury in Belmont County, Ohio, said he presented enough evidence yesterday to get one in minutes from a secret grand jury there.
Baldwin police and Pennsylvania state police arrested Main while he visited his parole officer in Washington, and Smith was taken into custody at Mayview State Hospital in South Fayette, where she had been in a rehabilitation program for the past six months for heroin addiction, Baldwin police Officer Kim Reising said.
Main was in the Washington County Jail last night, and Smith in the Allegheny County Jail. Both are being held without bail and are to be extradited to Ohio on Monday.
Main and Smith, described as a couple by police, were on parole for their 1998 convictions as part of a Greene County heroin trafficking ring. Police declined to offer a motive for Proviano's slaying.
Proviano's parents, Carmen, 68, and Maryann, 61, attended a news conference with Kelly to express their appreciation to the Baldwin police for not quitting on the case.
Still, the Provianos continue to look for answers.
"All we want to know is why -- why they took our son down in the woods and killed him," said Carmen Proviano.
On Dec. 23, 1997, Anthony Proviano was on his way home from medical school when he stopped at a Days Inn in St. Clairsville, Ohio, about a dozen miles from Wheeling, W.Va. His family was expecting him home for a Christmas Eve party in Baldwin and reported him missing the following day when he did not appear.
Using a helicopter borrowed from KDKA-Channel 2, Baldwin police found Proviano's body on Dec. 28 in woods behind the motel. The 1986 graduate of Baldwin High School had a single gunshot wound to the chest.
A .25-caliber handgun owned by Proviano was found about 100 feet from his body, according to then-Belmont County Coroner Manuel Villaverde. Proviano's car was found in the motel parking lot, its trunk full of Christmas presents.
Kelly said Villaverde took Proviano's body to a nearby funeral home, pried the bullet out with a knife and declared that Proviano had shot himself in a drunken stupor.
Kelly said he couldn't believe his ears.
"That scene screamed homicide. He was out of one shoe, his jacket was rolled up in a ball and there were bruises on him," Kelly said. Kelly said Villaverde never ordered toxicology tests to confirm his statement that Proviano was drunk when he died.
Villaverde could not be reached for comment.
It wasn't until 2001 that Kelly and the Provianos could get new Belmont County Coroner Gene Kennedy to declare the death a homicide.
The most recent break in the case came Aug. 23, when -- acting on a tip from informants -- Baldwin police found a headband in the woods near where Proviano's body was found.
At the request of Belmont County prosecutors, Kelly wouldn't say how the headband might connect Smith or Main to Proviano's slaying. Nor could he reveal the circumstances surrounding the receipt from a witness in March 2003 of another vital piece of evidence: a Days Inn key for Room 125, which Proviano rented the night he was killed.
Kelly said he didn't know why Proviano stopped at the motel.
Carmen Proviano said Anthony had spoken to his mother about a week before his disappearance and hadn't told his parents precisely when he would be coming home.
Kelly disclosed another piece of evidence yesterday: a surveillance tape taken from the security camera in a Washington pawn shop in December 2001. On the tape, Smith is leaning on the counter, talking to a clerk and smoking a cigarette. Kelly said Smith had gone into the store to pressure the clerk to give her money to buy drugs.
In response to a question from the clerk, Smith mumbles the name "Anthony Proviano." And then, "Doug Main said he did it. Said he disposed of the body and what's-his-name got rid of the car."
Kelly said key help in the effort to find Proviano's killers came from retired Allegheny County homicide detective Bill Fera, 56, of Sewickley, who worked for H.J. Heinz Co. as head of security and then human resources director.
"It was at Christmas, and I felt poorly for them. We've become close friends," said Fera, whose own son was studying medicine, but at a different school, when Proviano was killed. "I was able to find a couple of witnesses over the last couple of years that were essential to the case."
Carmen Proviano said Fera did the work for free.
Maryann Proviano said she never believed her son committed suicide.
"He was a good person. He was a person that loved life. He was interested in so many aspects of life," she said.
Kelly said that in the past seven years, there wasn't a day he didn't work on the Proviano case. From the day of Villaverde's initial ruling, Kelly knew he had to stay on it.
"I said, 'I can't let this go, I just can't do it.'"
