Reward Increased in Engineer’s Death

On the last day of his life, Joe Marien worked a full day at Rocketdyne, leaving only at lunch to cash his paycheck and to have sushi with a buddy. After work, he picked up a few last-minute Christmas gifts then spent a couple of hours at a Sun Valley bar.

Twelve hours later, three of Marien’s North Hollywood neighbors called 911 to report a fire at Marien’s house. By mid-morning, on a gray and drizzly Dec. 21, 1996, homicide detectives were at work, seeking clues to the slaying of the 33-year-old man, whose body was set on fire.

Authorities said Monday they are no closer to solving Marien’s death. So city officials and Marien’s family have posted a joint $125,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

At a crowded morning news conference attended by family members and Fred Goldman, whose son, Ronald, and Nicole Brown Simpson were slain three years ago, Marien’s brother and sisters solemnly asked: Why would anyone want to kill the shy, strawberryblond test engineer?

Authorities do not believe this was a random killing. It seemed too personal: Nothing appeared to have been stolen and there were no signs of forced entry. Marien was beaten and the small backyard guest house he lived in set ablaze, destroying most evidence.

“I just feel it was someone Joe knew,” said his older brother, Peter Marien. “But it’s real baffling. It’s a real whodunit.”

Authorities say Marien enjoyed a night life apart from his family and co-workers. They say he liked to have after-work drinks in North Hollywood and Sun Valley strip bars. Places, they say, where he might have met his killer.

Police released a composite sketch of a witness or suspect about Marien’s age--a man none of his friends or family recognize. The manager at the Sun Valley bar where Marien had drinks on the night of his death gave police the description. He told detectives Marien chatted with the man on the next bar stool for a couple of hours.

But homicide detectives have no solid connection between Marien’s nighttime entertainment and his death.

North Hollywood Division Det. Gil Uribe, lead investigator on the case, said Marien didn’t appear to have enemies and wasn’t involved with drugs. Police say he wasn’t the boisterous, barroom-brawl type.

Marien was born in the San Fernando Valley and grew up in Thousand Oaks, the youngest in a family of three sisters and a brother. He graduated from Newbury Park High School, winning awards in math, and was a member of the school’s championship water polo team.

He atended UCLA, working at Boeing’s Rocketdyne Division a year before earning an electrical engineering degree in 1986. He worked in the space power electronics lab, testing power for the space station.

His family and close friends say he spent his free time playing guitar, listening to a vast jazz collection--most of which was burned in the fire--and visiting friends. Lorri McCawley recalled how her brother also had a good sense of humor, often mimicking Orson Welles and the Three Stooges.

He sometimes rode his bike but mostly rode the bus, giving up driving after his license was suspended several years ago in a drunk driving case.

Marien ate nearly all his meals out, frequently en route from work.

“He was a true bachelor,” said Matt Fields, a friend and co-worker. “Always eating on the road, spending a lot of time out of his house.”

The couple who own the home on the 12000 block of Califa and rented Marien his adjacent guest house say he kept fairly regular hours, working weekdays and occasional weekends. They were out of town the night of the death.

Marien apparently didn’t have a girlfriend, according to family and friends.

But he left behind a close-knit family who say they won’t rest until his killer is brought to justice. The family added $100,000 to the city’s $25,000 reward.

“We’ve all become quite accustomed, sadly, to the violence out there every single day,” said Goldman, the public affairs director for the Safe Streets Coalition.

Police asked that anyone with information about the slaying call the North Hollywood detectives at (818) 623-4075 or (818) 623-4016.