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But closure wasn't quite at hand. On Thursday, June 27, she and Capano had a $154 dinner at Ristorante Panorama, a posh Philadelphia waterfront eatery. A waitress described Fahey as "solemn" and wearing a "forced smile." Fahey had reason to want to move on. According to friends, she had finally found happiness with a man her age, bank executive Mike Scanlan, now 33, whom she met through Carper. She had begun daydreaming about bridesmaid dresses and had got a grip on a long struggle with bulimia (the 5-ft. 10-in. Fahey reportedly once dropped to 117 lbs.).
According to an FBI affidavit, her hairdresser, Lisa D'Amico, said Fahey was "nervous and frightened that [Capano] might harm her." D'Amico said Fahey once jumped out of Capano's car after he grabbed her neck when she tried to end the affair. A close friend of Fahey's, Kim Horstman, said that after another break-up attempt, Capano took back some of the gifts he had lavished on Fahey, saying, "No man is going to watch the TV that I gave you or see you in the dresses I gave you." Fahey's therapist at the time of her disappearance, Michele Sullivan, urged her to report Capano's behavior.
It was Fahey's new beau, Scanlan, and her sister Kathleen who on Saturday, June 29, went to Fahey's modest third-floor walkup after Anne Marie failed to keep a dinner date. They were struck by strewn groceries and shoe boxes and a blinking answering machine, things the compulsive Fahey wouldn't have tolerated. When grilled by police, Capano admitted to the affair and called Fahey unpredictable and "airheaded." In other words, just the type to disappear without a trace.
Then why, on the weekend of June 29, did Capano buy a bottle of Carbona Blood and Milk remover and an inexpensive Oriental rug to replace beige wall-to-wall carpeting that his cleaning lady said was in good condition? On July 31 investigators found bloodstains in his home that were eventually matched to Fahey. Capano was then their sole suspect. But with no eyewitnesses, no murder weapon and no body, the blood evidence was not enough.
Capano last week was charged with state murder one, which permits authorities to seek the death penalty. Looking disheveled and disoriented after his arrest, he was held without bail in a 7-ft. by 10-ft. cell set apart from the other inmates at Gander Hill prison, awaiting a preliminary hearing. "You can bet every dollar in your pocket and every hair on your head that he's going to plead not guilty," said his lawyer, Joseph Hurley Jr., adding, "Gerard Capano is trying to get out of 10 years."
Fahey's body is likely never to be found, and without it, prosecutors will have to rely on the mountain of circumstantial evidence they have accumulated. Nevertheless, the state is confident. Says prosecutor Ferris Wharton: "You'd like to have a body, but it's not an obstacle that can't be overcome."
Though they'd prefer a proper burial, Fahey's siblings plan to hold a memorial service for her next month.