Jan. 16—BUFFALO — The hunt for Marquita Mull started in Buffalo, became a homicide investigation after a discovery in the Chautauqua County Town of Portland, and came to an end with the arrest of a suspected killer on Portage Road in Niagara Falls.
In what law enforcement officials have called “teamwork at its best,” Richard J. Fox, 61, a convicted sex offender, has been charged with Mull’s murder following her disappearance in June 2021. Investigators have also hinted that Fox may be a suspect in other crimes.
Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane said Monday that a grand jury has begun investigating Fox. As a result, a felony hearing on the Mull murder charge and other counts, set to be held in Buffalo City Court, has been adjourned until Feb. 28.
Fox has pleaded not guilty to one count of second-degree murder and single counts of sex offender failure to report change in address, sex offender failure to verify address every 90 days, sex offender failure to provide photo and sex offender failure to mail verification form. All of the charges against Fox are felonies.
If convicted on the current charges, Fox could face between 25 years to life in prison. He is currently being held without bail.
Keane declined all further comment on the case, pending “a complete investigation by the grand jury.”
Fox was arrested on Jan. 7 as he walked in the 1000 block of Portage Road in the Falls. He was taken into custody by a Falls Police Narcotics & Intelligence Division (NID) detective and a Falls detective assigned to the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force.
Falls police said investigators with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office and the Buffalo Police Department had contacted them for assistance in locating Fox, who is from Buffalo but had reportedly been living in the Falls recently. Police said they were told Fox had a warrant for his arrest for failure to register as a sex offender.
The Falls detectives said analysts with the Niagara Intelligence and Crime Analysis Center (NICAC) were able to provide them with information on “possible locations” where Fox might have been staying.
At about 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, the Falls detectives said they spotted Fox walking in a supermarket parking lot and took him into custody “without incident.” Fox was then turned over to Buffalo police and was charged with Mull’s murder the next day.
“It was very good police work,” Falls Police Superintendent Nicholas Ligammari said. “Co-operation between the multiple (police) agencies was instrumental in bringing this dangerous suspect into custody.”
Prosecutors have charged that Mull, 50, who was last seen in June 2021, was killed shortly after her disappearance. Investigators believe she was killed in Buffalo, but her body was found near a hiking trail in the Chautauqua County Town of Portland three months later in September 2021.
Chautauqua County Sheriff’s investigators found Mull’s remains as they were searching the trail following the discovery, by a hiker, of a human skull a short distance away. That skull has not been linked to the Mull case at this time.