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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
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Watch How the Gail Mark Murder Was Covered in 1982

If you have any information about the Gail Mark Murder please contact us at tips@dnainfo.com.

MANHATTAN — Thirty-three years ago today, 28-year-old housewife Gail Mark was stabbed and strangled in the bedroom of her Murray Hill apartment while her 3-year-old daughter, Dawn, was locked in a bathroom.

The killer in the unsolved 1982 murder wore the little girl's "E.T." mask.

"'E.T.' did it," Dawn told investigators before they carried her out of the building.

Video broadcast that tragic day by CBS Channel 2 showed Dawn's trauma as she was carried away from her parents' East 28th Street duplex to safety by detectives following her mother's brutal murder.

Gail Mark

Since that broadcast three decades ago, two separate investigations into Gail Mark's murder (the case was previously reopened in 2000) were conducted without a suspect being arrested.

Police initially suspected Gail's husband, Franklin Mark, but he was never charged and he has denied any involvement in the killing.

DNAinfo New York's exclusive investigative reporting on the case in October renewed interest in the Mark murder from the NYPD and Manhattan District Attorney's office, which are now conducting a third probe of the evidence.

Investigators hope scientific advancements and new witnesses may finally help crack the case.

Here's what we reported:

October 7, 2015: My Millionaire Brother Is Responsible For His Wife's Murder, Sister Says

DNAinfo obtained court records from an ongoing legal battle between Gail Mark's husband, Franklin Mark, and his sister, Ann Boyarsky, over their parents' estate.

Boyarsky, who claims that Franklin Mark stole at least $10 million from their elderly mother in the years before her death, accused her brother of playing a role in Gail Mark's murder.

“It was common knowledge in the family that my brother Franklin Mark was responsible for the death of Gail Mark in 1982,” Boyarsky said in the affidavit. “It was believed that he hired a hitman to kill his wife.”

Boyarsky also claimed that her parents — who later disowned both of the siblings during the last two decades of their lives — protected Franklin Mark from being prosecuted.

October 7, 2015: NYPD to Open Probe Into 1982 Murder of Manhattan Housewife Gail Mark

The NYPD announced it was reopening the cold case, hours after DNAinfo's exclusive story brought Boyarsky's comments in the affadavit to their attention.

October 9, 2015: NYPD and DA's Office Assemble Team to Re-Examine Unsolved 1982 Murder

Homicide investigators from both the NYPD and the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced that they were teaming up to reexamine the case.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said advances in DNA testing may help crack the case.

"The way we could test evidence now has changed dramatically in 33 years," Boyce said. "So we'll take a look at that investigation, see if we have evidence that we can get DNA [to make an arrest]."

October 26, 2015: I Worry My Husband Will Stab Me, Said Wife in Unsolved Murder

DNAinfo's investigation into the murder uncovers a 1984 court filing that showed Gail Mark was worried that her husband, Franklin, would stab her.

Detectives on the case in 1982 learned that Gail Mark had been assaulted by Franklin Mark several times and that she told a close confidante she feared her husband would stab her.

The 1984 document was from a civil case that Franklin Mark brought on Long Island against Metropolitan Savings Bank to claim the $40,000 in life insurance policies he had taken out on his wife.

The bank had refused to pay it out after the murder after it learned detectives were investigating whether Franklin had a role in Gail's death.

The court appointed attorney John Easa to represent Dawn to protect her interests in the case, since if the insurance money couldn't be paid to Franklin it would go to Dawn.

“A review of the records indicated that in order for me to properly protect the rights of my ward, I would have to prove that Franklin Mark killed his wife and therefore my ward would be entitled to the proceeds of the policy,” Easa said in one legal filing in the case.

Franklin and Dawn Mark.

Easa had subpoenaed the NYPD to look at the case file, but was denied access to it. Instead, detectives shared it with the presiding judge.

The judge urged Franklin to settle, which he did initially. But he later appealed the settlement and was awarded the money.

October 27, 2015: Detective 'Thought We Had Enough' Evidence For Arrest in E.T. Murder

DNAinfo's investigative reporters spoke exclusively to Michael Abruzzi, one of the detectives who investigated the murder back in 1982.

He said investigators quickly discounted rumors about a hitman being involved. They believed Franklin was involved in the killing because the ferocity of the murder was the hallmark of an extremely personal attack. The NYPD felt it had the evidence to charge him, but the prosecutors disagreed.

Michael Abruzzi

“I thought we had enough," Abruzzi told DNAinfo. "I don’t know what else you needed unless he said he did it."

October 28, 2015: Scientific Advances Could Crack Unsolved 1982 Murder of Gail Mark

Dr. Robert Shaler was director of the city’s Medical Examiner’s serology lab in 1982 and is now one of the nation’s leading experts on blood analysis and DNA testing.

The Mark murder case was one of his first, and he believes that scientific advances and another look at the evidence could crack the case.

“I definitely believe another look could make the difference,” he told DNAinfo.

Shaler said testing blood on a carpet similar to what was found in the Marks' apartment could help determine the exact time of death.

And advances in DNA testing on the bloody 10-inch kitchen knife used as the murder weapon, which was bent into a U shape from the force of the killer's blows, could help identify the killer.

“DNA is pretty stable once it has dried,” Shaler said. “Skin cells come off in large volume when someone grabs a knife really hard compared to someone chopping celery.”

Complicating the mission, however, is the fact that the original blood-soaked carpet and "E.T." mask are missing from the medical examiner's and NYPD's evidence offices.

► October 29, 2015: Husband of 'E.T.' Murder Victim Was Disowned by His Millionaire Parents

The Mark family had a rocky relationship. 

Near the end of their lives, the parents of Franklin Mark and Ann Boyarsky wrote instructions that they didn't want either of them involved if they became physically or mentally incapacitated.

“I don’t want Franklin Mark or Ann Mindy Boyarsky, to be appointed my, or my [spouse’s] guardian or conservator, or should they have anything to do with us,” the parents, Samuel and Marcia Mark, each wrote in signed documents on July 11, 1991.

“Under no circumstances do we want Franklin Mark or Ann Mindy Boyarsky to gain access to our residence, or any of our possessions.”

► October 30, 2015: 'E.T.' Murder Inspired Neighbor to Write Acclaimed Play

Playwright and novelist Laurence Klavan lived in the East 28th Street apartment building where Gail Mark was murdered.

Klavan moved out his apartment above the Mark family a year before the killing, but said his experience living in the building and the grisly murder served as fodder for “The Summer Sublet,” a one-act play he wrote in 2001.

“It was clearly something that had an impact on me,” Klavan told DNAinfo New York.

“The Summer Sublet” and the real-life murder share many similarities: the landlord, Frank, and his wife, Bernice, argue constantly.  She ends up murdered, and their child is locked in the bathroom.

► November 19, 2015: Keep My Mother's Murder Out of Our Family Court Battle, Daughter Says

Dawn Mark has declined repeated requests to speak to DNAinfo about her mother's murder.

But at a hearing on the estate fight between Franklin Mark and Ann Boyarsky, Dawn Mark's lawyer blasted her aunt for dredging up her mother's murder.

"The court should not countenance [Mark's aunt's] improper attempts to dredge up an old family tragedy," the lawyer, Rain 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."

Rita Fitzgerald (DNAinfo/James Fanelli)

Gail Mark’s mother, Rita Fitzgerald, hopes investigators' renewed interest in the case will bring her daughter's killer to justice.

“If you kill someone, you should pay the penalty,” Fitzgerald, 82, said. “I love my daughter very much, and she didn’t deserve to be killed.”

If you have any information about the Gail Mark Murder please contact us at tips@dnainfo.com.