Anne Marie Fahey kept the governor of Delaware’s schedule. She was also trying to make a change in her own life. She’d begun seeing Michael Scanlon and wanted her relationship with Thomas Capano, a married Wilmington lawyer, to end. Her diaries and messages describe a relationship she had struggled to leave. Capano would tell a jury that by then they were affectionate friends. [1]
On June 27, 1996, Anne Marie went to dinner with him in Philadelphia. It was the last time anyone outside Capano’s account reported seeing her alive. Her family reported her missing on June 30. By the time of his trial, Capano would admit that she’d died in his house and that he’d disposed of her body at sea. He said someone else had fired the shot. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder. [1]
The purchases police had to explain
The investigators who searched Capano’s home found small spots of blood that testing associated with Anne Marie. They also looked into furniture that had disappeared. People close to Capano had given accounts that kept some of the evidence out of sight. As those accounts changed, detectives could go back to purchases made before the dinner. [1]
There was a large cooler, bought in April. Capano said it had been a gift for his brother Gerry’s boat. In May, Deborah MacIntyre bought a handgun at Capano’s request, she later testified, and gave it to him. She’d originally lied about the purchase and her relationship with him. The purchase became particularly important when Capano took the stand and named her as the person who, he said, had brought a gun to his house. [1]
Gerry also described a loan. He said Thomas had borrowed $8,000 in February after telling him that people were threatening his family and career. The prosecution treated the explanation as part of a cover story. Thomas said the money was for a gift he planned to give Anne Marie. The loan was a transaction the jury could consider. It didn’t tell jurors whether the people Thomas had described ever existed. [1]
What Gerry took out on the boat
Gerry began cooperating in November 1997 after federal agents searched his home and he faced possible charges. He told investigators that Thomas had come to him early on June 28 and asked to use the boat. Gerry said they carried a cooler from Thomas’s house to the New Jersey shore and took it out to sea. He helped dispose of Anne Marie’s body. Another brother, Louis, testified that Thomas wanted a dumpster emptied after leaving material in it. [1]
Gerry had helped conceal the death and had lied about it. Investigators needed evidence outside his word. Phone records and gas receipts supported parts of the trip. And a fisherman had found the cooler at sea. Gerry could describe what he and Thomas did on the boat. The cooler gave jurors a way to check that part of his account. It couldn’t show them how Anne Marie died. [1]
The account Capano gave the jury
Capano said Anne Marie went home with him after dinner. He testified that MacIntyre arrived, threatened to shoot herself and accidentally shot Anne Marie as he intervened. MacIntyre denied being there. Capano admitted concealing the death and disposing of the body with Gerry. Jurors had to decide whether they believed his explanation for the shooting or the state’s case that he’d planned to kill Anne Marie. [1]
The jury convicted him in January 1999. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed on direct appeal in 2001. In 2006, a later ruling set aside the death sentence while leaving the conviction in place. Capano was resentenced to life without parole and died in prison in September 2011. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The cooler came back. Anne Marie didn’t. The evidence was enough for a jury to decide who killed her, but her family never recovered her body. They’d been the ones to report her missing three days after that dinner. [1]
Case brief
Wilmington, Delaware · 1996
- Recorded outcome
- Thomas Capano convicted in 1999; death sentence vacated and replaced with life without parole in 2006; died in prison in 2011.
Key moments
People in this case
- Thomas Capano
Convicted of murdering Anne Marie Fahey
Photo at source · WHYY · Associated Press courtroom and booking photographs
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Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
The cooler that corroborated a witness
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The recovered cooler corroborated Gerry’s account alongside receipts and phone records.
Generic cooler. It corroborated concealment but did not independently show the fatal act.
The disputed loan explanation
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Gerry described an extortion story; Thomas disputed it. The loan featured in the prosecution’s planning argument.
Not an authentic bank record. The alleged extortionists are not established as real people.
The purchase through MacIntyre
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
MacIntyre testified that she bought a handgun at Capano’s request and gave it to him.
Generic transaction symbol, not a gun photograph or original receipt. She initially concealed information from investigators.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
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Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- Capano v. State, Delaware Supreme CourtRelationships, disappearance, investigation, cooperation, trial evidence, defense and direct appeal.
- Capano v. State, later Delaware Supreme Court reviewLater post-conviction and sentencing history.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer: Capano gets life without paroleResentencing after death sentence overturned.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer: convicted Delaware killer Capano dies in prisonDeath in prison and life-sentence status.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 663 words