Martha Moxley and the Halloween discovery
She was last seen on Mischief Night in a neighbor's driveway. The weapon was traced to that household, but who used it has never been legally settled.
- When
- Night of October 30, 1975; found October 31
- Where
- Belle Haven, Greenwich, Connecticut
- Status
- Unsolved
Content note murder of a teenager, violence. No graphic images.
In brief
On the night of October 30, 1975, the night before Halloween known locally as Mischief Night, Martha Moxley, 15, went out with friends in the gated Belle Haven section of Greenwich, Connecticut. Around 9:30 p.m. they last saw her in the driveway of the Skakel family across the street. Later her mother heard voices and dogs barking. The family searched through the night and called police at 3:48 a.m. On Halloween afternoon Martha was found beneath a pine tree behind her home. She had been beaten with a golf club from a set belonging to the Skakel children's late mother; the handle section was never found. The case stayed open for 25 years. In 2002 a jury convicted Michael Skakel, also 15 in 1975, of her murder. In 2018 the Connecticut Supreme Court vacated the conviction because his lawyer failed to call an alibi witness, and in 2020 the state said it would not retry him. He maintains his innocence. No one stands convicted of killing Martha.
Turning pointIn 2018 the Connecticut Supreme Court found that Michael Skakel's trial lawyer never called a witness who placed him at a cousin's house miles away. It called the case against him far from overwhelming and ordered a new trial.
- Victim
- Martha Moxley, 15, a sophomore at Greenwich High School
- Last seen
- About 9:30 p.m., October 30, 1975, in the Skakel family's driveway
- Found
- Early afternoon, October 31, 1975, beneath a pine tree behind her home
- Weapon
- A golf club from a set owned by the Skakel children's late mother; the handle section was never found
- 2002 conviction
- Michael Skakel; vacated by the Connecticut Supreme Court in 2018
- Today
- No retrial; no one stands convicted
Timeline
October 30, 1975About 6:30 p.m.
Martha goes out with friends on Mischief Night in Belle Haven, the gated neighborhood where her family moved the year before.
October 30, 1975About 9:30 p.m.
After the group visits the Skakel house across the street, friends last see Martha in its driveway with Thomas Skakel, 17.
October 30, 1975About 9:30–10 p.m.
Neighborhood dogs bark violently, and Martha's mother, Dorthy, hears voices in the yard. She looks out and sees nothing.
October 31, 19753:48 a.m.
After searching through the night, the family calls police.
October 31, 1975Early afternoon
Martha is found beneath a pine tree behind her home. Pieces of a golf club are recovered nearby and traced to a set that belonged to the Skakel children's late mother. The handle section is never found.
1976
Police seek an arrest warrant for Thomas Skakel; a prosecutor refuses for lack of probable cause. A live-in tutor is also investigated and cleared. The case goes cold.
January 19, 2000
After a grand jury investigation, Michael Skakel, Thomas's younger brother and also 15 in 1975, surrenders on a murder charge.
June 7, 2002
A jury convicts Michael Skakel of murder. In August he is sentenced to 20 years to life.
May 4, 2018
After a habeas ruling in 2013 and a reversal in 2016, the Connecticut Supreme Court vacates the conviction, 4–3, finding his trial lawyer ineffective for not calling alibi witness Denis Ossorio.
January 7, 2019
The U.S. Supreme Court declines Connecticut's appeal.
October 30, 2020
Chief State's Attorney Richard J. Colangelo Jr. announces the state will not retry Skakel, saying it cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
December 24, 2024
Martha's mother, Dorthy Moxley, who campaigned for answers for nearly fifty years, dies at 92.
The full story
Mischief Night
In the summer of 1974 the Moxleys moved from California to Belle Haven, a gated neighborhood on the water in Greenwich, Connecticut. Their daughter, Martha, started at Greenwich High School and kept a diary.
On October 30, 1975, the night before Halloween, she went out with friends for Mischief Night. Around 9 they stopped at the Skakel family’s house across the street. About half an hour later, her friends last saw her in the Skakel driveway with Thomas Skakel, 17.
The night and the morning
Between about 9:30 and 10, the neighborhood dogs went wild, and Martha’s mother, Dorthy, heard voices outside. She looked and saw nothing. When Martha didn’t come home, the family searched through the night, and at 3:48 a.m. they called the police.
On Halloween afternoon, Martha was found beneath a pine tree behind her own house. She had been beaten to death with a golf club. Pieces of it were recovered and traced to a set belonging to the Skakel children’s late mother. The section with the handle was never found.
Twenty-five years
In 1976 police sought a warrant for Thomas Skakel; a prosecutor said there was no probable cause. A live-in tutor was also investigated and cleared. The case went cold. In the 1990s, new attention, including a private investigation commissioned by the Skakels themselves, showed that both Thomas and his younger brother Michael had changed their accounts of that night. A grand jury was convened, and in January 2000 Michael Skakel, who had also been 15 in 1975, surrendered on a murder charge.
In 2002 a jury convicted him, largely on testimony from former classmates who said he had confessed. He was sentenced to 20 years to life.
Overturned
The conviction did not hold. In 2018, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4–3 that his trial lawyer had failed to call a witness who placed Michael at a cousin’s house miles away when Martha was killed. It called the case against him far from overwhelming and ordered a new trial. In 2020, Connecticut’s chief state’s attorney announced that the state could no longer prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and would not try him again.
Michael Skakel maintains his innocence. Dorthy Moxley died in December 2024, at 92. Investigators traced the golf club to a single household, but no one stands convicted of killing her daughter.
What the video couldn't include
Far from overwhelming
The 2018 majority described the state's case as far from overwhelming and devoid of forensic evidence or eyewitness testimony linking Skakel to the crime. Much of it rested on two former classmates from a Maine school for troubled teenagers who said he had confessed.
Changing stories
In the early 1990s, a private investigation firm hired by the Skakel family recorded both Thomas and Michael Skakel giving accounts of that night that differed from what they told police in 1975.
Seventeen witnesses gone
Explaining the decision not to retry, Colangelo said the case had essentially been reinvestigated and that 17 of the 51 witnesses from the 2002 trial had since died.
Her family's view
Martha's brother, John Moxley, said after the 2020 decision that he still believed Michael Skakel was responsible, but accepted the outcome. That is his opinion; Skakel maintains his innocence.
The lawsuit
Skakel has sued the Town of Greenwich and the case's lead investigator, alleging malicious prosecution. The claims are unproven; a trial set for November 2026 was delayed at the town's request.
In his own words
In November 2025, NBC News Studios' podcast Dead Certain aired Skakel's first public interviews about the case.
The video and the record
The episode tells this case in about 1 minutes with illustrated recreations. Here is how its key moments line up with what is documented.
They found her on Halloween
Documented
Found October 31, 1975. She was last seen the night before.
They last saw her in the Skakel family's driveway, across the street
Documented
Around 9:30 p.m., with Thomas Skakel, who was never charged.
They traced it to the Skakel home. The section with the handle was never found
Documented
The club came from a set that belonged to the Skakel children's late mother.
His lawyer had failed to present a crucial alibi witness
Documented
The basis of the 2018 Connecticut Supreme Court decision.
No one stands convicted of killing Martha Moxley
Documented
Michael Skakel maintains his innocence.
The pine tree, the driveway, the courtroom
Reconstruction
AI-generated illustrations. No photographs of Martha or the scene are reproduced.
What the four marks mean
- Documented
- Shown as it is recorded in court filings, police statements, or consistent reporting.
- Reconstruction
- A reasonable visual recreation of a documented event. The event happened; the image is illustrative.
- Compressed
- Real events shortened, merged, or reordered to fit the runtime.
- Dramatized
- A storytelling choice (framing, wording, emphasis) that the record does not establish.
Sources
- [1]Connecticut Supreme CourtSkakel v. Commissioner of Correction, 329 Conn. 1 (2018)
- [2]Supreme Court of the United StatesConnecticut v. Michael Skakel, docket no. 18-185
- [3]Associated Press, via Fox News“Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel will not be retried in Martha Moxley murder”
- [4]Associated Press, via Portland Press Herald“Timeline of case against Michael Skakel in 1975 killing”
- [5]NPR“Connecticut Won't Retry Kennedy Cousin In Martha Moxley Murder Case”
- [6]CNN“Skakel gets 20 years to life”
- [7]WikipediaMurder of Martha Moxley
- [8]NBC NewsDorthy Moxley, whose daughter Martha Moxley was killed in 1975, dies
- [9]NBC NewsKennedy cousin Michael Skakel suing Connecticut town and detective
- [10]Law360“Skakel Civil Rights Trial Delayed At Conn. Town's Request”
- [11]NBC News StudiosDead Certain: The Martha Moxley Murder
- [12]Greenwich TimeMartha Moxley 50th-anniversary retrospective
VerifiedKey facts in this file were checked against multiple consistent reports and first-person or official accounts. Last reviewed October 6, 2026. How we check cases
