Was Jessica Savitch murdered?
Some people think the NBC News anchorwoman may have been killed because she found out too much about the Vatican banking scandal, the New York Post reported today.
Savitch, 36, a former co-anchor on KYW-TV here, and New York Post executive Martin Fischbein died in 1983 when their car plunged into a rain-swollen Delaware Canal spillway in New Hope, Bucks County.
Officials of Unitel, an international investigation firm, told the Post that Savitch was in danger after she began looking into the life and death of Italian banker Robert Calvi. The collapse of Calvi's Milan-based bank cost the Vatican $250 million, the Post said.
"Miss Savitch's death came shortly after she finished an investigation of Calvi," Unitel President William Callahan was quoted in the Post story. "We also know that she was about to do another," he said.
"She may have been getting too close to something someone didn't want made public," Callahan said.
After dining at the Chez Odette restaurant the night of Oct. 23, 1983, Savitch and Fischbein apparently made a wrong turn from the parking lot and drove into the canal, officials said at the time. Savitch's Siberian husky, Chewy, also died.
Bucks County District Attorney Alan Rubenstein said this morning that the case was intensively examined, and there was "no evidence of any foul play." The deaths were ruled accidental.
"It's fashionable to concoct conspiracy theories and murder plots, but in the absence of hard evidence, the conclusion stands," he said. However, he added, "If anyone has any information and wishes to come forward, we would investigate it."
Unitel - United Intelligence Inc. - is a Manhattan-based agency founded 14 years ago that specializes in criminal investigations for corporations, usually of sensitive matters demanding discretion, the Associated Press reported in a 1987 profile of the firm.
