In the late summer of 1965, Mary Agnes Klinsky was an 18-year-old woman looking forward to her future. A high school senior at Raritan Township High School in Hazlet, New Jersey, Mary was one of nine siblings and known for her kind and caring nature. With auburn hair and blue eyes, she was a friendly young woman with many friends. She was in love with a 20-year-old sailor in the U.S.
Navy and planned to get engaged to him when he returned from his deployment in the Mediterranean.
On the evening of September 15, 1965, Mary told her family she was going to mail a letter to her fiancé. She was last seen by her sisters at about 9 p.m., sitting by herself on a bench near the Keansburg boardwalk. When she didn't return home, she was reported missing. The next afternoon, a Garden State Parkway maintenance worker made a grim discovery. Mary’s nude body was found under a guardrail in a grassy area near Telegraph Hill Park in Holmdel, off the southbound entrance that is now Exit 116. She had been brutally raped and beaten to death. An autopsy determined the cause of death was a fractured skull and intracranial bleeding from severe blunt force trauma. The only thing that helped police initially identify her was her high school class ring, inscribed with the initials "MAK."
The brutal killing launched a major investigation, but for decades, the case went cold. Investigators questioned numerous suspects over the years, but all were eventually cleared. The scientific technology of the time was not advanced enough to develop a DNA profile from the biological evidence collected from the crime scene and during the autopsy. Mary’s family was left to wonder for more than half a century who was responsible for her death.
The answer would finally come long after the killer himself was dead. The perpetrator was Robert Zarinsky, a serial killer from Linden, New Jersey, who was responsible for at least three murders of teenage girls between 1965 and 1969. Zarinsky had a long criminal history and had spent time in psychiatric institutions. In 1975, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1969 murder of 17-year-old Rosemary Calandriello, whose body was never found. While serving that sentence, he was indicted in March 2008 for the 1968 murder of 13-year-old Jane Durrua. Zarinsky died in South Woods State Prison from pulmonary fibrosis in November 2008 before he could be tried for Jane’s murder.
Years after Zarinsky's death, advancements in DNA technology allowed investigators to re-examine the evidence from Mary Klinsky's case. In February 2016, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey State Police announced a breakthrough. A DNA profile of the suspect was developed from the preserved evidence and it was a match to Robert Zarinsky. Investigators also used corroborative evidence to establish Zarinsky's motive and confirm he was in the area at the time of Mary's disappearance.
The solution to the 50-year-old case finally brought a measure of closure to Mary’s surviving family members. "We're glad it's solved," her sister-in-law, Margaret Klinsky, said. "But it doesn't bring her back." Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni praised the investigators for their persistence. "The dogged determination of our investigators and those at the New Jersey State Police has provided closure for the Klinsky family," he stated. "After more than half a century, they know who killed their sister." Had Zarinsky still been alive, prosecutors said he would have been charged with the murder and sexual assault of Mary Agnes Klinsky.
