Saturday, October 23, 2004
A jury heard evidence in 2002 but didn't return any indictments.
ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Two Pennsylvania residents have been indicted in the 1997 slaying of a University of a Cincinnati medical student whose body was found on a remote road near this eastern Ohio city a few days after his disappearance.
A Belmont County grand jury indicted Marlene Smith, 49, and Douglas Main, 43, both of Washington, Pa., on Friday. They were indicted on one count each of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, according to a statement released Friday by the Belmont County prosecutor's office.
Anthony Proviano, 29, of Baldwin Borough, Pa., was reported missing by his family when he failed to arrive at his family's home as expected for Christmas in 1997. The UC College of Medicine student's body was found Dec. 28 behind a hotel along Interstate 70 in Belmont County. His car was found nearby in a hotel parking lot, its trunk filled with Christmas presents.
Proviano had been shot in the chest with his own gun, authorities said.
Gained more evidence
A Belmont County grand jury heard evidence in 2002 but didn't return any indictments. Since then, Smith had implicated her boyfriend, Main, in the slaying in conversations with friends and in a videotaped statement to detectives, Baldwin police said.
Baldwin Police Chief Christopher Kelly said earlier this year that Smith told friends, "Me and Doug robbed a guy. Doug shot him and left him for dead. We were so scared we left all the Christmas presents in the car."
Smith had no comment after her arraignment Friday.
Main has denied any involvement in Proviano's death, saying in an interview earlier this year that members of a drug ring were trying to frame him in the slaying out of revenge for Main's cooperation with authorities in the prosecution of drug ring members.
Kelly said Friday that Main is being held in the Washington County jail and Smith is in the Allegheny County jail, both in Pennsylvania. Efforts to extradite the two suspects to Ohio are expected to begin Monday, he said.
Proviano's parents, Carmen and Maryann Proviano, thanked Kelly and Bill Fera, a retired Allegheny County homicide detective, at a news conference in Belmont County on Friday.
"I want it to be known that they are the people who solved this case," said Carmen Proviano, adding that Kelly promised him seven years ago that the case eventually would be solved.