Jul 27, 20222 min read

The Suspicious Death of Danny Casolaro

Danny Casolaro was a devoted journalist, with a thirst for knowledge on the cusp of breaking the story of a lifetime. A story that some say, he paid the ultimate price for. But what is the reality of Danny Casolaro’s “Octopus?” Did multiple facets of the worlds governing powers engage in a myriad of corruption? Or was the Octopus merely a mythical Kracken?

Days before embarking to Martinsburg, Danny confided in a close friend that he would be meeting a source, who promised to provide the final piece of information that tied his story together. On Thursday, August 8, 1991, Danny left his home in Fairfax, VA and checked into Sheraton Hotel (Currently the Holiday Inn) in Martinsburg, WV shortly before 12:30pm. It is known that Danny frequented the Stone Crab Inn Bar as well as the local Pizza Hut that afternoon. It is known that he left around 10:00pm from the Sheraton, only to return around an hour later to Heatherfields Bar within the hotel vicinity. The next day, Friday, August 9th, he left his room around 1:00pm. It is said that he met with William “Bill” Turner around this time and that Turner handed over several documents detailing corruption which corroborated Casolaro’s Octopus Conspiracy. He was subsequently witnessed drinking by himself at the bar at the Stone Crab Inn and appeared in a state of melancholy. He was later confirmed to have visited Heatherfields Bar where he was observed drinking with a male of (presumably) foreign descent. According to Mike Looney, a guest in a neighboring room, Casolaro was observed around 5:30pm and again at 8:00pm. Around 9:00pm Danny excused himself and took a phone call—he had been blown off by his source. At 10:00pm, Danny was observed purchasing a medium coffee from a nearby Sheetz Gas Station. This would be the last confirmed sighting of Danny Casolaro alive.

The following afternoon, Danny was set to return home. Presuming the guest had already checked out, the housekeeping staff at the Sheraton entered room 517 to perform their standard cleaning routine but instead were met with a gruesome scene. In the main part of the room, a man’s clothing lay neatly folded on the un slept in bed. Everything was still in order a total juxtaposition to the chaos that lay in wait, concealed behind the bathroom door.

The contents of the bathroom resembled something out of a horror film. Blood covered the floor pooling in large puddles. While a trail of blood droplets painted the floor, as though part of a grisly painting by Jackson Pollock. In the center of it all, lay the naked and deceased body of Danny Casolaro, a sacrificial lamb of sorts. To the untrained eye, it would appear that Danny Casolaro had been murdered in cold blood. But authorities would ultimately rule Danny’s death a suicide.

Join the Cold Case Crew as they discuss, “The Suspicious Death of Danny Casolaro and the Octopus Conspiracy,” a case local to Martinsburg, WV. And let us know what’s YOUR theory?