(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring Peggy Park, class of 1977, in observance of the 20th anniversary of her tragic murder, appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on December 13, 2004.) 12/17/04

2 decades after murder, family still in pain
Killer’s long stay on Florida’s Death Row hasn’t eased burden

By Nick Juliano
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Margaret Park was working overtime as a Florida wildlife officer a few weeks before Christmas so she could earn time off to come home to Bexley for the holidays.

Patrolling a remote wooded area 30 miles north of St. Petersburg in Pinellas County, Fla., the 26-year-old Park came upon two men target-shooting.

One of the men was violating his parole by having a gun. Unwilling to return to prison, Martin Grossman beat Park with her flashlight, hitting her 20 to 30 times as she begged for her life. He then shot her in the back of the head with her own .357-caliber Magnum.

That was 20 years ago today — Dec. 13, 1984 — and it continues to haunt the family.

This time of the year is very hard for me,’’ said Park’s mother, also named Margaret.

Meanwhile, Grossman, sentenced to death in 1985, sits in a Florida cell, determined to exhaust every possible avenue of appeal despite the mountain of evidence against him, his attorney said.

Grossman was 19 when he killed Park as his friend Thane Taylor, then 17, held her down. They later confessed to the murder to several friends, who testified at their joint trial.
Taylor was convicted of third-degree murder and served two years of a seven-year sentence.

The men did not deny killing Park, but the appeals continue on procedural complaints.

Park’s mother is writing to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, hoping to expedite the case, but the familyexpects the appeals to continue for three to five more years in federal court.

If that’s the case, Grossman will have sat on Florida’s Death Row twice as long as the average inmate in that state.

Park, known as Peggy, graduated from Ohio State University in 1981 with a degree in natural resources and wildlife management.

Not wanting a typical desk job, she applied to be a wildlife officer with the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.

"Peggy was the wild one, into the outdoors,’’ her mother said.
In 1982, Peggy was hired as an enforcement officer with the commission, but her goal was to become a naturalist. She was three months from being transferred when she was killed, said her brother, Stephen Park, of Hilliard.

The second of three children, Peggy was the familypeacemaker.
"Every family'sgot one person that’s the emotional core . . . and that was Peggy,’’ Stephen said.

After her daughter’s death, Mrs. Park, 73, devoted herself even more to her job as a fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Goshen Lane Elementary School in Gahanna.

Stephen Park, 47, threw himself into various volunteer efforts. He worked with inmates through the Kairos Prison Ministry, served as a Boy Scout leader and volunteered with the Red Cross.

Living "in memory of what was lost,’’ he did everything he could to turn his grieving into a positive force, he said.

Peggy’s younger sister, Elizabeth Park, 41, is an engineer with NASA in Washington, D.C.
Peggy’s father, James, died of esophageal cancer in 2000.

"He just never recovered’’ from her death, Mrs. Park said. "I watched him die.’’
In Florida, the average stay on Death Row is 11.85 years. Grossman has been there for 19.

"We’re basically reviewing any and all issues that were raised during the appellate process and during trial,’’ said James Viggiano, one of his attorneys. "We want to ensure that Mr. Grossman’s rights were not violated.’’

Mrs. Park said Grossman’s death "won’t bring closure’’ in all ways. But, she added, "It will prevent him from ever, under any circumstances, being released and injuring other people.’’

She promised her husband that she would "see it through to the end,’’ and she plans to return to Florida to witness Grossman’s execution.

The same sense of responsibility that Mrs. Park tried to instill in her students is what she thinks has been lost on Grossman.

"I spent 25 years teaching kids that they had to take responsibility for their actions,’’ she said. "And I think he needs to be held accountable for what he did.’’

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