It was 1996 .
To set the 1996 time frame .. IBM was just leaving the Kingston, NY area. The NY Yankees were winning a lot and headed to a World Series Championship. Jerry Maguire was the top movie …
March 25th, 1996.
A Monday night.
Joey Martin
A 15 year old student at Rondout Valley High School
He lived on Sampsonville Rd in Kerhonson, NY. (Kerhonson is an extremely rural town 20 miles from Kingston, NY. )
Joey was planning to meet up with friends Daniel Malak and Alexander Barsky. There was a rare comet that was set to pass overhead that night and these boys wanted to try and see it.
Because it was a Monday night and a school night, Joey snuck out of the house on this planned adventure in the woods with this friends.
Fast forward to the next day. Joey failed to show up for school. He had a track meet that day and was unlikely to simply just skip school.
His parents then contacted the police when they realized he didn’t show up to school .
Barsky and Malak had been interviewed and always denied any involvement in Martin’s disappearance.
Nobody could prove that these boys were involved with any crime that evening.
Years eventually passed with Joey’s disappearance being a missing persons case.
The story of that evening just faded with time. All roads lead police to dead ends. Nobody knew if Joey was dead or alive.
Can you imagine the pain and worry his family was experiencing?
In 2007 (11 years since Joey was last seen), a NY State police officer named Peter Cirigliano started looking over this cold case with a fresh set of eyes.
Cirigliano noticed some “red flags” in the statements from Daniel Malak and Alexander Barsky… One of the boys wrote some words in their write up which stood out. Things like “I went home and IMMEDIATELY went to bed.” And “we were ALL on foot.” Using the words “immediately” and “all” are sometimes words of deception when used in that context.
So Cirigliano and his team of investigators decided to go find Malak and Barsky and interview them again.
Malak, turns out, was serving 20 years to life in State prison for murdering a 62-year-old man in 1997 during an attempted car theft. He shot a man named George Allison (a New York City resident) at Allison’s weekend home in Samsonville, NY.
Investigators also found Alexander Barsky and brought him in for questioning. He failed the polygraph test. Barsky soon began to give previously undisclosed details from that evening in 1996. He ultimately admitted to being involved in the killing of Joey Martin.
He said Daniel Malak was angry with Joey Martin for allegedly stealing some of his marijuana a few days before. He asked Barksy to help convince Joey to meet up at a specific spot in the woods that evening for the comet viewing.
Barksy said that Joey died after they hit him with a metal pipe.
He said they hid Joey’s body in a small cave nearby.
Barsky also admitted to being worried that the body would be found in that cave and that he actually returned to the location 6 years later. He collected the remains and brought it to New York City and put them in a dumpster.
When Barsky brought investigators to the crime scene cave in Kerhonson , additional evidence remained at the scene. 11 years later …A tooth, a scrap of bone, and a piece of fabric from Joey’s clothing were still there.
Barksy was charged with second-degree murder in May 2008. He pled guilty to manslaughter and sentenced to just three to ten years in prison (because he had been 16 years old at the time of the crime, the juvenile law was in effect .)
Malak was also charged with second-degree murder. He pled “not guilty” and the trial occurred in Ulster County Court in Kingston, NY. Alex Barsky testified against him.
Malak was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years to life (to be added on top of the sentencing from his previous murder conviction.)
Joey’s family was able to find out what happened to him. That is not always the case with a missing person. I would say that State Police detective deserves recognition for his work.
Kerhonson, NY …. A rural small town with no immunity to horrific crimes.
