Dorthy Moxley, Who Pursued Justice in Her Daughter’s Murder, Dies at 92

U.S.|Dorthy Moxley, Who Pursued Justice in Her Daughter’s Murder, Dies at 92

Dorthy Moxley, who crusaded half her life for justice in the murder of her teenage daughter, Martha, in Greenwich, Conn., in 1975, but was never fully vindicated in her belief that a young neighbor related to the Kennedy family had killed her with a golf club, died on Tuesday at her home in Summit, N.J. She was 92.

Her son, John, said the cause was complications of the flu.

For more than four decades after the gruesome death of her daughter, Mrs. Moxley remained a compelling figure in the sprawling story of a classic mystery that captured world attention with its wealth and celebrity, its idyllic setting, its endless wrong turns and dead-end investigations, its inconclusive courtroom dramas, and an outpouring of books, films, documentaries and publicity.

Throughout those years, Mrs. Moxley had no standing except as a witness and on the moral high ground of a mother devastated by the loss of her child. But she was a tenacious presence in the case, talking to journalists and anyone who might help further the investigations, pushing detectives for new leads, and eventually championing the prosecution of a prime suspect, Michael C. Skakel.

In an emotional roller coaster, Mrs. Moxley seemed to triumph in 2002 when a jury found Mr. Skakel guilty of the murder. He served 11 years in prison. But in a series of court reversals, he won his freedom in 2013, was ordered back to prison and won another appeal in 2018.

In 2019, the Supreme Court rejected prosecutors’ attempts to revive a case in which witnesses had died, evidence had been lost and the chances for a new trial seemed remote.

“You can still go on,” Mrs. Moxley, her cause seemingly lost, told The New York Times. “You don’t have to bury your head in the sand. You get up and greet the day. You still have your loved one in your heart, and you don’t ever stop crying.”