‘This is probably our last shot’: Decades after brutal murder, Margaret Pizio’s family still searches for answers

SEEKONK, Mass. (WLNE) – Last fall, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office reopened the cold case murder of Margaret Pizio, a 35-year-old woman from Riverside who was brutally killed at the motel she worked at back in 1979.

Now, 41 years later, for Margaret’s family, finding out why she was murdered is more important than getting justice.

It was August 20, 1979, and Margaret Pizio was working her overnight shift at the Susse Chalet Motor Lodge on Route 6 in Seekonk. But the mother of four never made it home from work that morning.

Margaret’s daughter, Beth, was just six days away from turning nine years old.

“She would usually get home between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning,” Beth said. “It was a normal morning and then there was this rising sense of tension in the house. After like, I don’t know, an hour or 45 minutes later than she would have normally come home, we got a phone call from a radio station actually wanting to talk to someone about my mom’s murder.”

Margaret was found stabbed and beaten to death behind the counter. Investigators at the time thought that robbery was a possible motive. Margaret had been preparing to testify about a previous robbery at the motel.

“If it were just a robbery, take the money, you know? But why the brutality? This kind of violence suggests really strong emotion and who would have felt that way? It’s kind of unfathomable.”

Beth, who’s now 50, has had no choice but to move on. After the murder, Margaret’s Riverside home was sold and Beth and her siblings went to live with their father and stepmother in Warwick, later moving to Florida. She now lives in New York City.

“One of the ways I kind of mark things in my life is by stuff like, I’m older than she was and that hit me when I turned 35.”

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Around the year 2000, Beth said, investigators collected DNA from her older brother while they followed a lead, but it turned out to be a dead end.

“I was totally at peace with the idea that it was never going to be solved because, you know, it’s been so long. And then of course we got the call from the Bristol DA’s office.”

In late 2020, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office called Beth’s father with the news that they were reopening Margaret’s case. Back in 2018, the office created a cold case unit to re-examine old homicides and assaults, hoping new forensic technology will help solve them.

Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn said they’re reopening around 100 cold cases dating back to 1974, and Margaret’s case is one of them.

“She was a hardworking woman trying to provide for her family who suffered a brutal death,” said DA Quinn. “We’re gonna review all of them, publicize them, and hopefully get some tips on these cases and bring the individuals to justice.”

For Beth, it feels like her family’s last chance at finding out why.

“If they do this again in another five years, I don’t think my mom’s case will make it. So it really feels like this is probably our last shot.”

She said her mother, a single mom who worked multiple jobs, loved to bake fancy cakes for her children’s birthdays, pick wild blueberries, attend yard sales, and go to church. That’s why, Beth says, the circumstances don’t add up.

“She just didn’t have a lot of time or inclination for that matter to get involved in anything that was, that you think would lead to something like this so it’s just senseless.”

Beth said, for her, it’s less about finding justice, and more about getting her questions answered.

“The ‘why’ is more important to me personally than justice,” Beth said. “There’s some weird kind of comfort to be taken from the fact that I strongly suspect that whoever did this has probably suffered for it in some way. Because I just can’t imagine being able to sleep.”

If you have any information on the Margaret Pizio cold case or any other cases in Bristol County, you’re urged to contact the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

© WLNE-TV 2021