Boyfriend gives background on victim in du Pont murder

Kim Smith

Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999 | 11:59 a.m.

In the minutes before her death Patti Margello knew something bad was going to happen to her. She just didn't know what it was or who was behind it.

In fact Margello even thought her boyfriend, Dean MacGuigan, might have been conspiring against her with his stepfather.

At least that was MacGuigan's story Wednesday as he testified on the third day in the trial of Ricardo Murillo, one of four people accused in the Aug. 2, 1998, strangulation death of Margello.

Authorities believe MacGuigan's stepfather, Christopher Moseley, hired Murillo, Diana Hironaga and Joseph Balignasa to kill Margello because he and MacGuigan's mother disapproved of her relationship with MacGuigan.

MacGuigan's mother, Lisa Dean Moseley, is a direct descendant of the founder of the du Pont chemical corporation.

Margello's body was found Aug. 6, 1998, stuffed inside an air conditioning vent in Room 6 of the Del Mar Resort Motel on Las Vegas Boulevard South. She had been strangled, wrapped up in bed linens and trash bags and bound with coaxial cable and jumper cables.

Hironaga and Moseley have pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the case and are awaiting sentencing. Balignasa is expected to go to trial in February.

On Wednesday MacGuigan gave jurors some background on the case, including how he met Margello and later, Hironaga and Murillo.

MacGuigan, 42, said he was once a successful stockbroker and real estate agent who made $250,000 a year. However, when his wife, Linda, left him he said he "sort of lapsed into some self-destructive behavior" and began using crack cocaine more frequently.

In the fall of 1996 he moved to Philadelphia and met Margello, a fellow drug user whom he described as a "free spirit." Soon afterward he moved in with her.

Since neither one of them worked and because his trust fund was tied up with the pending divorce, Margello sometimes worked as a prostitute, MacGuigan said.

MacGuigan said his mother and stepfather didn't like Margello, but they didn't like his wife, either. In fact, last summer, Moseley, a 25-year military veteran, developed "Operation Dean" to help get him divorced, MacGuigan said.

"Chris fancied himself as a mission expert and he had his operatives," MacGuigan said.

The plan was for MacGuigan to move to Las Vegas long enough to establish residency so he could file for divorce, he said. Moseley hired his former sister-in-law and later Hironaga to watch over MacGuigan, much to MacGuigan's displeasure.

The women were supposed to provide him with money and make sure he got to his attorney's office, MacGuigan said.

Shortly after he arrived in Las Vegas, MacGuigan said, he had Margello join him.

"She was just the woman I was in love with and it seemed the most appropriate and the most enjoyable thing to have her here," MacGuigan said.

Moseley at first acted indifferent to Margello's arrival, but later fought bitterly with her when she refused to accept the bribe he offered her in exchange for leaving Las Vegas, MacGuigan said.

A few days later, MacGuigan said, Moseley introduced him to Ricardo "Rico" Murillo -- an event that lasted just a few minutes.

Three days later MacGuigan said Hironaga convinced Margello to go out with her and two friends who were willing to pay for female companionship without sex.

A few hours later, MacGuigan testified, he received a disturbing call from Margello. Margello said she was with Hironaga and Rico and that she had a "really bad feeling." She did not say where they were.

MacGuigan said Margello asked him what was going on and if he and Moseley were planning something.

"She expressed her fear that something was wrong," MacGuigan said. "Patti tended to be a conspiracist and had the theories of a remarkable imagination."

MacGuigan said he reassured her and asked her to get a cab back to the hotel where they were staying, since he had no money. She agreed, but she never made it back.

The next day MacGuigan said he tried repeatedly to reach Hironaga. When he finally did, she said she had dropped Margello off at the motel. He also called Moseley in Delaware, but Moseley denied knowing Margello's whereabouts.

MacGuigan said he called several hospitals, too. Phone records of those calls were admitted into evidence. He said he was reluctant to call the police at first because of his fear that Moseley was involved in her disappearance.

Finally, on the following Wednesday, MacGuigan said he wrote out his own version of a missing person report to give to the police. At the same time, a friend saw a news report about an unidentified woman being found dead at the Del Mar. Together they went to the police.

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Arthur Allen, MacGuigan denied ever striking Margello, although he admitted to a "tumultuous" relationship that often resulted in the police being called.

MacGuigan also told Allen he was "absolutely incorrect" when Allen suggested he was fired from his job as a stockbroker for bringing drugs home with him from a Hong Kong business trip.

Although MacGuigan admitted Moseley wired him $12,000 in July 1998, he insisted there were times when he did not have any money and that one of those times was the night Margello died.

Allen also asked MacGuigan if it was true that he failed to return a phone call in which he asked MacGuigan to submit a DNA sample. MacGuigan said that was true.

According to earlier testimony, authorities were unable to find physical evidence linking Hironaga, Murillo and Balignasa to the crime scene. Several experts also testified they were not given blood, hair or fingerprint samples of MacGuigan's to compare.

The trial is expected to continue Friday before U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush. Moseley is expected to take the stand sometime Friday.