Mother copes with grisly find

By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Willie Mae McGilvary can't grasp the horror of knowing a killer dismembered her daughter.
"Oh, Lord, they said she was cut in pieces. I do OK for a while, then I lose it and can't do nothing," McGilvary said, her voice rising. "Anne was a lovable girl. Who could have done it?"
Anne L. Griffin, 48, of East Philadelphia Avenue was reported missing Sept. 17 by her live-in boyfriend. Last Friday, search dogs from Greenville, Pa., found Griffin's remains in trash bags at an illegal dump site on the East Side.
"She was a good girl, friendly, smiled all the time," McGilvary said, tears on her cheeks. "I don't see why anyone would want to hurt her."
McGilvary, 68, who had five children, has known before the pain of losing a loved one to violence. She said a son, Freddie Lee Beacham, was killed in a shootout in 1973.
McGilvary last saw her daughter Sept. 15. "Anne wasn't feeling well, said she had a cold," she recalled.
McGilvary is rearing Griffin's 14-year-old son, Robert. She said he's playing football for Hillman Middle School and "keeping busy."
"I keep an eye on my grandson," McGilvary said. "I don't know if he's in danger. I don't know who got his mother."
Robert stayed at his mother's the night before she disappeared. He went up to bed and didn't see her leave.
Other children
Griffin was also the mother of twins, a boy and a girl, and another son. John McGilvary is in the Mahoning County jail, Antonio Griffin is in a state prison and Anetra Griffin lives in Columbus, their grandmother said.
Emotions ran high Tuesday, as McGilvary made arrangements for her daughter's funeral this weekend at Mount Gilead Church on Hillman Street. She fretted about how to explain to everyone what happened.
She believes her two incarcerated grandsons will be able to attend. She's asked that a local TV station videotape the service as a keepsake of the outpouring of sympathy and support.
As the family copes, the police investigation continues.
Capt. Robert Kane, chief of detectives, couldn't recall a homicide like this one in his 32 years on the job.
Vindicator files show that communities in Trumbull County have had bizarre killing cases, not Youngstown.
"It takes a very sick mind to desecrate a body," Kane said.
Kane suggested that maybe in the killer's mind, dismemberment would prevent identification. Dental records were used.
Didn't try to hide it
The illegal dump site, he said, is constantly patrolled by police and litter crews. "It's a known trash dump, so it's not like they didn't figure the body [would] be found."
Detective Sgt. Daryl Martin agreed with Kane that whoever disposed of the body didn't try to hide it.
Martin asks that anyone who may have seen Griffin since Sept. 17 give him a call at (330) 742-8911. He believes she may have died shortly after being reported missing.
McGilvary had high praise for Martin's efforts. She said she knows most of the detectives.
Until 1996, McGilvary operated Willie Mae's Soul Kitchen on Hillman Street for 26 years. She gunned down a customer in 1989 who had attacked one of her employees with a knife; the employee later died.
The small eatery was the scene of more violence in 1990, when a man was shot to death, according to Vindicator files.
McGilvary said Tuesday that she's remodeling the place to make it a home. "All my children worked there; Anne, too," she said.
meade@vindy.com