Veronica Mazzaca
Appearances
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Megan's family and the New York State Police say that one person really stood in the way.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Thanks for having me.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Who was she? Yeah, absolutely. She, you know, was a student at SUNY Orange Community College. I've spoken with her sister, Karen, and her brother-in-law, James, and they both describe her as warm, loving, compassionate. You know, she was the life of the party, big, bright smile.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Yeah. So Megan was actually a waitress. She was working a shift and then she spent the evening hanging out with friends. And then the following day she was scheduled to work again at that cafe at about noon. And then so her family and friends really knew something was wrong when she didn't show up for work.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Yeah, so it was a birthday party for someone's 21st, and she had driven by the party before she went to go hang out with her friend and watch the TV show Friends. And she had said to two people that she didn't want to go inside. because there was someone there named Edward Hawley who she did not want to see.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Megan had dated Hawley, and according to conversations and information that's come out from the investigation, he owed her money, and she had also tried to cut off the relationship in the days before she died.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Yes. So, according to investigators, Megan had told some friends that she was going to be looking for marijuana, and she had planned to actually ask Holly for some on her way back home.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Some witnesses say that they saw someone driving... her car through the parking lot the night that investigators say she was killed, and that it was being followed closely by a dark-colored Honda Civic that had a noticeably loud sound system, which Holly's mother had a purple Honda Civic hatchback registered to her, and Holly was known to drive that during the time frame of the murder.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Holly, kind of the statements that he had been making to police through the years, they realized that there were inconsistencies.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
So they believe that he was in the backseat of her car and that there was someone else also in the car who they refer to as suspect number two. Suspect number two is someone that actually died many years ago, but he had come forward to a defense attorney and said he had details about the night of Megan's murder and he wanted to take a plea deal. Why didn't that go anywhere?
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
You know, I'm not sure why that didn't go anywhere at the time.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
So Megan's family and, you know, the New York State Police say that one person really stood in the way of getting these answers sooner. And they say that person was the Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler. Did he feel like there was not enough to go after Holly? That is something that he has said previously. He felt there wasn't enough to bring the case before a grand jury.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
But Hoovler is the person who was the defense attorney that suspect number two had come to. back in 2008 before Hoovler was the district attorney. When Hoovler became the DA, he did have an opportunity to recuse himself from the case at the time, but he did not. So the New York State Police, there was an internal report that found that as DA, he deliberately tampered with the investigation and
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
He has made statements to NBC News about this. He did say, quote, any suggestion that I or anyone in my office did anything to tamper with or in some fashion compromise the investigation into Ms. McDonald's death is inaccurate, unfair, and offensive. He remains the DA, but he has recused himself from this case.
Dateline NBC
Survivors' haunting texts in Idaho. Questions for a New York prosecutor. And a spring break mystery.
Yeah, so Megan's family has been holding steady over the last 20-plus years. You know, they obviously are still reeling from the pain of losing Megan, but they did say that they trust the legal system to hold the person responsible for Megan's murder accountable.