On the night of September 7, 1984, 42-year-old Maria Marshall, a mother of three, was shot and killed in her car at a picnic area off the Garden State Parkway in Lacey Township, New Jersey. Her husband, Robert O. Marshall, an insurance salesman, told police that he had pulled over to check on a flat tire when he was knocked unconscious and that when he awoke, he discovered his wife had been shot twice in the back. The investigation into Maria's death soon uncovered a sinister plot.
Authorities determined that the flat tire had been intentionally damaged, and their investigation led them to believe that Robert Marshall had orchestrated his wife's murder. The motive appeared to be a $1.5 million life insurance policy he had taken out on his wife, which would help him pay off significant debts and leave his marriage for another woman.
Three months after the murder, Robert Marshall was arrested and charged with hiring assassins to kill his wife.
The investigation identified three other men from Louisiana as being involved in the murder-for-hire scheme: Billy Wayne McKinnon, Robert A. Cumber, and Larry N. Thompson. In 1986, Robert Marshall was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison. McKinnon pleaded guilty to conspiracy and testified against his co-conspirators, receiving a five-year sentence. Cumber was convicted as an accomplice and sentenced to life in prison.
For years, the identity of the actual shooter remained a point of contention. Larry N. Thompson was acquitted of the murder in 1986 after his family provided an alibi. However, in a stunning turn of events nearly 30 years later, in 2014, Thompson confessed to being the triggerman who shot and killed Maria Marshall. Due to double jeopardy laws, he could not be retried for her murder. The case gained widespread attention and was the subject of the best-selling book 'Blind Faith' and a television miniseries of the same name.
