The Attack at the Silk Plant Forest

NAVIGATION

Break comes in beating of pregnant woman

By Mark Bixler

JOURNAL REPORTER

WINSTON-SALEM

November 13, 1996

Jill Marker is beginning to remember.

She has given police and family an account of what happened the night someone nearly beat her to death Dec. 9. Her memory and a tip that police received last week have produced what police described yesterday as the biggest break in a case that has attracted national attention.

Marker was four months' pregnant when someone attacked her just before closing time at Silk Plant Forest, a store she managed in Silas Creek Crossing. Police have chased leads for 11 months without much success.

Until now.

Two detectives with the Winston-Salem Police Department interviewed Marker about two weeks ago. They questioned her in Ohio, where she moved to be near foamily. Marker still can't speak but answers questions with nods and other gestures. Edna Hoisington, Marker's mother, said last night that the detectives were encouraged after the interview.

"They said they were happy about the way she responded," she said. "They said she did real well."

Hoisington said she and her husband, Bud, have asked Marker whether she remembers what happened. She said that Marker has given them a general description of the attacker.

"She told us what we wanted to know. She confirmed it over and over," she said. Hoisington declined to discuss Marker's account of the attack. She said she did not want to reveal details that might interfere with the investigation.

Capt. Cliff Cranford of the Winston-Salem Police Department said that the big break came when someone called and told them things that only someone with inside knowledge about the case would know.

The caller gave police a general description of the man that matches the description Marker recently gave detectives. The caller gave them other details that they are not ready to release, but did not know the attacker's name.

"We need to find this person," Cranford said. He urged anyone with information to call Crimestoppers at 727-2800.

Hoisington and police declined to comment when asked whether Marker knew the man.

It was not clear why the person who called police last week did not come forward earlier. The detective investigating the case considered the caller's information extremely valuable, Cranford said.

"He thinks it's big, and I do, too," he said.

Cranford also said yesterday that police now believe that the motive probably was robbery. Detectives have known since the attack that money was missing from the store, but the severity of Marker's injuries suggested that the attacker knew her and was motivated by rage.

For weeks after the attack, Marker languished in a near coma. She gave birth last April to a baby boy. Her husband, Aaron, named the boy Barron Lloyd Marker. Doctors worried that the baby might suffer brain damage, but Aaron Marker said recently that Barron is doing fine.

Doctors also were surprised by the pace of Marker's recovery. She learned again to write her name and draw a circle. She could curl her finger to summon a visitor. She also has learned to push herself in a wheelchair, her mother said, but she cannot smile and has poor vision.

Marker has moved from a hospital in Cleveland to a rehabilitation hospital in Chardon, Ohio. Her husband said that doctors do not yet know whether she will have permanent brain damage.

He said they do not know whether she will speak again.

He is not convinced that she has an accurate memory of what happened to her.

"I really don't think she'll remember," he said. "I would like to see the guy come to justice, but I just have to be skeptical."

Hoisington said she and her husband will never feel a sense of closure until their daughter improves considerably, regardless of what the recent breaks in the case yield. Still, she hopes that detectives find the person responsible.

"If I had my way, he would spend the rest of his life in prison."

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