Name: Margaret Reiley
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: August 16, 1992
Location Last Seen: Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York
Date of Birth: April 4, 1962
Age: 30 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 4'11-5'0"
Weight: 90 lbs.
Hair Color: Long, brown
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Peggy
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Thin build.
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: White, dress shirt and blue jeans.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Margaret left Duffy's Tavern at 501 S. Geddes St. on August 16, 1992 at approximately 0130 hours and was last seen riding in a vehicle in the 600 block of Gifford St. with her boyfriend, Phillip Whaley.
Her live-in boyfriend, reported her missing August 18. Reiley had not picked up her latest welfare check. The boyfriend told police she has never left for more than a day.
Reiley left all of her clothing and her identification in her apartment. She never told her 14-year-old daughter or her live-in boyfriend of any plans to leave.
She and Whaley knew each other from socializing in near west side bars, but they never dated.
A few days after Reiley disappeared, Whaley stopped in at Tony G's to ask if she had turned up. He claimed that he left her and went one way and she got on her bike and went the other way.
On September 29 and 30, police searched the Salmon River hoping to find Reiley's body as a state police helicopter hovered overhead. Nothing was located in the search.
A blue 10-speed bicycle Reiley rode everywhere was found in a storage shed at Whaley's mother's home in Pulaski.
Whaley was sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison for the homicide of Reiley and another missing woman, Josephine Chatraw . The bodies of the two women were never found. A witness at the trial testified that Whaley said he shot Reiley twice with a black powder pistol because she tried to steal his cocaine. Then Whaley wrapped her body in blankets and plastic held together with duct tape and rolled her into the Salmon River. The prosecution's only physical evidence against him was a drop of blood found on a pillow in Whaley's camp trailer. DNA tests showed the blood was Reiley's but not how old the blood was or how it got into the trailer.
Agency Name: Syracuse Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Detective Christopher DeJoseph
Agency Phone Number: 315-442-5222
Agency E-Mail: homicideunit@syracusepolice.org
Agency Case Number: 92-12118
Namus Case Number: 7857
NCIC Case Number: M-586537813
Syracuse Herald-Journal
Syracuse Police Department
Namus
Syracuse Police Department
Added: 10-29-2007; Last Updated: 12-21-2022 - By: Admin
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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