Frances Catapano

Howard Burton Elkins was born on June 20th, 1929 in Brooklyn, New York to Joseph Elkins (1899-1990) and Beatrice Rand (1906-1986). He had a brother named Stuart Elkins (1932-2005). Howard Elkins grew up in New York City and later served in the US Air Force from January 17, 1946 until his discharge on June 24, 1948. A few years after his discharge, Howard Elkins married Ruth Shapiro in Brooklyn, NY in 1952. Together the couple had a son and a daughter. Howard Elkins later became the prime suspect in the 1969 murder of Reyna Angélica Marroquín in Nassau County, New York. Reyna's body was discovered 30 years later in a 55-gallon drum in the basement crawl space of a house that Elkins once owned. The drum was traced back to Melrose Plastics, a synthetic flower company in which Howard was a part owner. Reyna was believed to have had an affair with Howard, and it is thought that he murdered her to avoid fathering a child with her. When detectives interviewed Howard and requested his DNA to compare with the fetus found inside Marroquín's body, he committed suicide the next day. Post-mortem DNA testing confirmed that Howard was indeed the father of the nine-month-old fetus. This tragic story has received significant media attention and has been featured in various television episodes, such as The New Detectives, Murder Book, NYPD Blue, Forensic Files (see The Reyna Marroquin Story Unsealed for a detailed report on the crime, the perpetrator, and the victim from Forensic Files), Grave Secrets, and Buried in the Backyard. Read the details of this story and about Howard's suicide at Suicide Adds to Mystery Of Corpse Found in Barrel and an 2005 updated article about the crime at 70-year-old man questioned in woman's death commits suicide.