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Keep My Mother's Murder Out of Our Family Court Battle, Daughter Says

By James Fanelli | November 19, 2015 7:32am
 Dawn Mark said her aunt's accusations about her dad playing role in her mom's death have no place in court case.   
Dawn Mark Calls Aunts' Accusations About Dad Hurtful
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MURRAY HILL — The daughter of a housewife who was stabbed and strangled 33 years ago says that her aunts took a cheap shot at her when they recently brought up her mom's murder in a court battle over a $23 million estate.

Dawn Mark, who was only 3 years old when the killer wearing her "E.T." mask murdered her mother Gail Mark in their Murray Hill duplex, said in a court filing last week that her aunt's recent accusation that her dad was responsible for the unsolved murder was intentionally hurtful and has no bearing on their fight over the estate.

► READ MORE OF DNAINFO'S COVERAGE OF THE GAIL MARK MURDER

Mark and her two aunts, Ann Boyarsky and Sharon Levine, are feuding over the will of her grandmother and their mother, Marcia Mark. Boyarsky and Levine claim that Mark, with the help of her dad and lawyer Mitchell Lapidus, looted Marcia of at least $10 million in the last years of her life, when she was mentally incapacitated.

Boyarsky also stated in an affidavit in September that she believes Mark's dad — her brother, Franklin Mark — hired a hitman to kill his wife, Gail, in 1982. But Dawn's lawyer, Rain Barkhorn, said there was no reason to resurrect the murder.

"The court should not countenance [Mark's aunt's] improper attempts to dredge up an old family tragedy," Barkhorn said in a Nov. 13 filing.

"This court should direct [the aunts] to cease and desist from including such allegations in any future court submissions or from further inquiring about this subject matter, which is plainly irrelevant to the will contest and is meant only to hurt [Mark] and damage her father's reputation."

Boyarsky and Levine brought up the murder in the court case because they want to depose Lapidus, who helped draft Marcia Mark's final will. The will leaves $8 million to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the remainder of her estate to Dawn, according to court records.

The sisters want to know if Franklin Mark ever spoke to Lapidus about the murder of his wife.

In her Nov. 13 filing, Barkhorn asks the judge to throw out the request.

"[Boyarsky and Levine's] attempt to examine Lapidus regarding an alleged unsolved murder of [Dawn's] mother in 1982, more than 30 years ago, is nothing more than an inflammatory and harmful attack, which is completely irrelevant to the validity of the will," Barkhorn said in the filing.

Barkhorn declined to comment for this story.

Jason Stern, the lawyer for Boyarsky and Levine, did not respond to a request for comment.

DNAinfo New York first reported Boyarsky's accusation about Franklin Mark playing a role in his wife's murder. The NYPD re-opened an investigation into the murder after DNAinfo's story.