NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – 38 years ago today, a Pax River trash crew was cleaning a dirt road leading to Fisherman’s Point on base. They found a blanket near the road in a wooded area. Under the blanket was the body of Vincent Paul Caciola.
Vincent Paul Caciola went missing on Wednesday, August 14, 1985. His wife, Kimberly Rene Caciola (now Kimberly Grubbs) told investigators she left him at their home on Iris Drive in California late that evening as she had to get some things from her office at the Pax River Naval Air Station.
She stated she returned home around midnight, the kids were asleep and Vincent was nowhere to be found. She told investigators his motorcycle helmet, a pair of boots, gold rim prescription glasses and a tan Velcro wallet was also missing from the home.
His friends knew him as “Vince.” He was a church-going man who attended the SAYSF Church on Rue Purchase Road. “He was a very loving fellow and really cared for his family,” Reverend Theron Davidson recalled in a 1985 interview. “He was a good man.”
Vince sang in the church choir and enjoyed playing guitar. A ham radio enthusiast, he used those skills to help his church.
Pastor Davidson recalled, “He used his ham radio to help the missionaries (in South America) talk to their families here at home.”
An electronics engineer by trade, Vince moved to St. Mary’s around 1980 and married Kimberly Lowery about two years before he was murdered.
Vince’s body was found wearing a t-shirt, cutoff shorts, white socks and a ligature was tied around his neck. Nothing else was on him – no motorcycle helmet, no boots, no glasses, no wallet.
Autopsy results revealed his blood contained a lethal dose of prescription medicines that were not his. The cause of his death was strangulation.
Investigators from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and the FBI believed Vince was sedated with the drugs before he was strangled.
It is believed Vince was murdered during the same time frame his wife last saw him alive.
Investigators believe the person who killed Vince likely had help carrying out the murder.
Vincent Paul Caciola now rests at Charles Memorial Gardens in Leonardtown.
GOT A TIP?
If you have any information on this case – old or new, fact or rumor – you can contact Sheriff’s Office Detective Sergeant Keith Moritz at (301) 475-4200 ext 8093 or keith.moritz@stmaryscountymd.gov. You can also contact Supervisory Special Agent Steven Dreiss at steven.dreiss@ncis.navy.mil or submit a tip to NCIS at www.ncis.navy.mil.
Help Vincent Paul Caciola, his family, and his friends get the justice they have been seeking for over 38 years.
Why the wife leave at night to get something from her job but didn’t return until midnight? Hmmmmmmmmm
Exactly