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By LAUREN ROTH lroth@leader.net
Tuesday, March 18, 2003 Page: 3A
TUNKHANNOCK – A Tunkhannock man was arrested Monday and charged with felony
murder, kidnapping and assault in connection with the death of a transient in
Portland, Ore., in September 2001, police and U.S. Marshals said.
William Charles Margarido, 24, of 5 Oakwood Lake Trailer Court, was living
in the “McLoughlin Caves” transient campsites in Portland for several months
around the time of the murder, said Portland police officer Dan Costello.
Margarido, who graduated from Tunkhannock Area High School in June 1998,
has been a Tunkhannock resident for at least six years, said a manager at the
mobile home park where his family lives.
Costello said the body of the transient man, between 25 and 28 years old,
was found with significant blunt trauma injuries in one of the campsites on
Sept. 19, 2001. Arrests there are extremely rare, Costello said. The victim
was not named.
The mobile home park manager said she believed Margarido had enlisted in
the Army for a time and had not attended college. He was arrested at home
about 10:30 a.m. by members of the Scranton U.S. Marshals Office, Luzerne
County sheriffs and Pennsylvania State Police, Tunkhannock. The arrest was
“peaceful,” said Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Don Heemer, and Margarido did not
resist.
Margarido also faces charges of being a fugitive from justice and was
arraigned Monday before District Justice Patricia Robinson. He is being held
at the Wyoming County Jail pending extradition proceedings.
The local Marshal’s Office was contacted last week by U.S. Marshals in
Portland who said Portland police had developed information that their
suspect, Margarido, was living in Tunkhannock.
Portland police said Margarido had two minor run-ins with officers in 2001,
once in June, three months before the murder, and one in October, when he was
banned from city parks.
The cavelike opening underneath McLoughlin Road, a state highway along the
banks of the Willamette River, has been a site of transient activity for at
least 40 years, Costello said.
“I graduated in 1971 and remember seeing smoke from the campfires,” he
said. “Cops were afraid to go down there because of Vietnam vets down there
with mental disorders.”
Lauren Roth, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7218.