Cobra Killer (2 page)

Valuable paper records that told the story of Kocis’ business and his key contacts, although stacked on his dining room table, were badly burned or charred, but some remained readable. Wagner helped investigators make sense of what remained.

Wagner also pointed out an empty Rolex watch box—evidence that an expensive Rolex watch was missing. The watch, which Kocis rarely removed from its box when he wasn’t wearing it, was also missing from his body.

Polishan said investigators scooped up multiple documents from the living room and dining room area, along with three tapes stowed inside a fireproof Sentry safe.
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The three “mini DV tapes” seized from the small safe contained master tape images of a porno Kocis was producing. Eventually, detectives would recover a matching fourth “mini DV tape,” identical to the three in Kocis’ safe far from Midland Drive. The fourth matching tape was contained inside a Sony camera seized weeks later during a search warrant served on a Virginia Beach, Virginia home.

The brutal manner of death: Homicide

While detectives took their initial steps into determining what had happened at Bryan Kocis’ home and why, pathologists were determining how he died. Dr. Mary Pascucci, a clinical pathologist, conducted an autopsy on Kocis’ body on the morning of January 25, 2007 in the morgue of the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. Luzerne County Coroner Dr. Jack Consalvo observed, as is standard practice.

As Kocis’ remains were removed from the body bag, investigators continued to photograph the body. One picture showed Kocis badly charred body lying lifeless on the morgue’s examination table with fabric from his clothing and the sofa still clinging to his corpse. Dr. Consalvo determined the cause of death was a near decapitating wound to the neck, and ruled the manner of death was homicide.
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The autopsy revealed Kocis also suffered second degree burns on his back, and third degree burns on his legs, hands and arms. His fingertips were completely burned away. Fragments of his clothing were burned into his skin. Kocis’ genitals were also heavily charred and there was a stab wound to the left side of his groin area.
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The gruesome neck wound “completely severed” Kocis’ windpipe, his esophagus and the carotid artery serving his brain and heart. He had been stabbed twenty-eight times, mostly in the area of his sternum and abdomen. Dr. Consalvo said the autopsy showed Kocis was dead prior to being set on fire. The autopsy was complicated, however, by the post-mortem burns over eighty percent of the victim’s body.

Consalvo also ruled Kocis was dead from his neck wound before he was stabbed repeatedly elsewhere on his body. This matched observations by Deputy Coroner Lisman at the scene of “frothing, bubbling” body fluids around the neck wound, consistent to what he has witnessed with other fire victims as a veteran of the county coroner’s office. Lisman said the “frothing”(normally seen from the mouth of fire victims) came from the gaping wound to Kocis’ throat, indicating where his boiled body fluids erupted amidst the fire.

Toxicology results showed Kocis’ blood alcohol level was .035, the equivalent of having consumed two one-ounce drinks, Dr. Consalvo said. No illicit drugs were found in Kocis’ system.

Melnick said the manner of death was one of the few known answers early on. “The only thing we could say with certainty (at the start) was that it was one fell swoop, as Shakespeare would say. One fell swoop. It was a terrific blow.”
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A motive was not clear, but it was clear that this was not a simple robbery gone bad. It looked and felt more like a “planned hit,” investigators believed. “Whoever did this we knew was interested in destroying Kocis,” Melnick said.
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High tech chatter, high tech investigation

As the days between Bryan Kocis’ death and any news or public update stretched on, the Internet buzzed with speculation and “reporting” on the case. The murder was being discussed nationwide on gay blogs and news sites of all types, making the investigation more complicated, said Capt. Fred Hacken of the Pennsylvania State Police. “Technology has changed the process of policing to a certain degree, that’s something that makes the case more complex…and you’re dealing with people associated all over the country.”
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But technology would prove to be helpful too. E-mail traffic, Melnick said, led investigators almost immediately to their prime suspects.

Pennsylvania State Police Corporal Leo D. Hannon, Jr., who eventually was named the chief criminal investigator of the case, credited the department’s computer crimes analysts with producing many of the important first e-mail and computer leads needed in the case. Hannon said the computer analysts generated a lot of key leads that “were invaluable to building the case.”
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State Trooper Bryan Murphy and Assistant DA Shannon Crake worked long hours sifting through the “cyber” elements of the case. As Melnick put it, “This was the most complex case ever for me both legally and factually. Legally because we had some very tough issues with the criminal conspiracy, and there was a lot of computer evidence that had to be sifted through.”
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As the investigation shifted away from the house on Midland Drive, authorities turned the property over to the victim’s father, Michael J. Kocis, Jr. as the daylight gave way to night on January 26. The police also returned the five loaded handguns found inside the home.

To secure the site, Michael Kocis hired a contractor to nail plywood boards up against the burned out doors and windows of the home. He went home to share his grief with his wife, Joyce, and his daughter Melody. All three returned the next morning, to walk through what remained of Bryan’s physical possessions.

During their visit to the burned out house, Melody (who knew more about her brother’s gay pornography business and personal life than his parents did) immediately noticed the missing computer towers. She also noticed that the key documents proving the age of Kocis’ porn actors were also missing.

The documents, commonly referred to as “2257 forms,” are a result of strict federal law covering the production, distribution, and possession of adult content under the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988. The 2257 law requires producers of adult content, such as Kocis, to obtain proof of each performer’s true age, to certify that the person is above the age of eighteen, and to maintain the records permanently. The only exception is adult material produced before July 3, 1995.

Melody’s information, along with that provided by Wagner, proved very helpful to investigators. Their knowledge of what was missing from the house told a story about what may have been behind this horrible act.

Kocis’ cell phone records would also provide good leads for investigators. Cell phone calls to and from the victim—just before, after, and possibly even during the murder—provided a specific roadmap to possible suspects’ activities and movements.

Combined, computer and cell phone evidence would lead directly to two suspects—and in the words of Assistant DA Crake, “all of a sudden, things started to fall into place.”
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Investigators tapped the Federal Bureau of Investigation—high-level help arranged by Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas—to obtain needed search warrants. (Lupas later resigned as district attorney before the case was closed to accept appointment as a judge.)

Early on, with no clear suspect identified, the ability of the Pennsylvania investigators to enlist the help of the FBI was particularly helpful, Melnick said, because they had already impaneled a grand jury that could possibly review evidence and even order subpoenas if the case went federal.
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As other detectives canvassed neighbors and talked to Kocis’ known associates, police learned that Kocis was last seen outside of his home at 2:05 P.M. on January 24 when he picked up a “to go” order at the Really Cooking Café in Dallas, an establishment he visited often.

As investigators dug deeper into the records and materials salvaged from Kocis’ home, Trooper Murphy obtained information about the victim Kocis from his regular e-mails and web traffic. Just seventy-two hours after the murder, detectives had already interviewed Kocis’ Florida-based webmaster who reported that Kocis almost always used an e-mail address known as [email protected] or [email protected] for all company-related business. E-mail messages from that mailbox were captured, as well as model applicant information sent to Kocis’ Cobra Video operation via its website.

The investigation quickly showed the very last contact Kocis had with anyone online was with a model named “Danny Moilin,” who allegedly lived in the Philadelphia suburb of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and wanted to work for Kocis’ company. “Danny’s” application came in at 10:18 A.M. on January 22, 2007. The application came from a free Yahoo e-mail account under the address of [email protected] and included photographs of “Danny” submitted for Kocis’ consideration.

Tracking down “IP addresses,” or an Internet Protocol address for everyone associated with Kocis’ e-mail and website was key. “(The IP addresses) gave us a specific internet connection location,” Murphy would later testify. “There’s over four billion possible IP addresses (in the world), and no two IP addresses can be connected to the Internet at the same time.”
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In simplest terms, IP addresses led to the front door of the key suspects.

The investigation goes public

Progress on the case, it would seem, first came fast and then slowed to a crawl. How would detectives learn who this “Danny Moilin” was, and what was his connection to the case? Stymied by a lack of information about the would-be model beyond what the e-mail records revealed, police used a tried and true method: they asked the public for help.

On February 2, now more than a week after Kocis was slain, they released one of the photographs “Danny” had submitted as part of his model application. Not only did media throughout northeast Pennsylvania pick up the story and run it, but gay media across the U.S. broadcast the image as well.

It didn’t take long for more information to surface.

The next day, a Norfolk resident called police and said he knew who “Danny” was—Harlow Raymond Cuadra. The informant said he knew Cuadra well, and even helped authorities track down Cuadra’s MySpace profile page and the separate escort and gay porn sites he owned: www.boisrus.com, www.norfolkmaleescorts.com, and www.boybatter.com. Together, the information provided by the Norfolk source was a jackpot—the pictures matched: “Danny” was Harlow Cuadra.

Detectives also surfaced, for the first time, the name of Cuadra’s lover and business partner, Joseph Manuel Kerekes, also an escort and actor for their burgeoning home-based gay porn and male escort enterprise.

Ironically, the website postings by Cuadra also revealed a photo taken after a Las Vegas dinner meeting just days before showing Cuadra embracing former Cobra Video star Sean Lockhart—a well known gay porn star first “discovered” by victim Bryan Kocis. Lines were beginning to be connected.

Another Virginia man notified authorities after reading about the Kocis murder online and recognizing Cuadra’s picture, saying Cuadra lived in nearby Virginia Beach and often operated under the alias “Drake.”

“Drake” himself popped up in a telephone interview with Sarah Buynovsky, a reporter with the local ABC affiliate television station in nearby Scranton, WNEP. Buynovsky reported that Harlow Cuadra confirmed that he was the person in the picture of the so-called “Drake.”

Buynovsky reported that Cuadra said he never knew Bryan Kocis personally and that he had never used the name “Drake” and was in Virginia the night Kocis died. Cuadra told WNEP that his image online is often stolen and used by other people.
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Buynovsky reported what detectives were just learning: Cuadra was a male escort and went by various aliases.

“My clients are always calling saying, ‘You’re in Atlanta, you’re here, you’re there,’” Cuadra told Buynovsky. “I have to say, ‘No, that’s not me.’”
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The
Citizen’s Voice
of Wilkes-Barre tracked down Cuadra
and
Kerekes. Reporters Wade Malcolm and Robert Kalinowski spoke first by phone to “Mark” (later identified by the reporters as actually Kerekes), who answered the phone at Norfolk Male Companions. He confirmed the “Drake” picture was actually Cuadra and that Cuadra worked for the escort service.
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Malcolm and Kalinowski then had luck getting Cuadra on the phone. He promptly denied ever knowing Kocis and that he was “freaked out” that his image was being linked to a murder investigation. “That picture (the police) are using, I’ve used everywhere. It’s my cover picture,” Cuadra said. Repeating that he did not know Kocis, he did acknowledge meeting with Lockhart, one of Kocis’ former actors, just a few weeks prior in Las Vegas.
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“We talked about working together, but nothing really came of it,” Cuadra said to the reporters.
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Cuadra told them he had no plans to contact the police investigating Kocis’ murder, and although he was talking freely with television and newspaper reporters, he said he planned to follow his lawyer’s advice and not talk to the police.
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At the time, police investigators would say only that they were still checking to determine who “Drake” was, and that Cuadra’s conversations with the media did not represent the kind of “coming forward” they were expecting from a “person of interest” such as “Drake”.