Prominent Lawyer Arrested in Disappearance of Governor’s Aide

A politically connected lawyer who has been the sole suspect in the 1996 disappearance of the governor’s secretary was charged with her murder Wednesday after his brothers provided evidence against him, police said.

Thomas Capano, 48, was ordered held without bail. He did not enter a plea.

Anne Marie Fahey, who worked for Gov. Thomas R. Carper, was last seen having dinner with Capano in a Philadelphia restaurant on June 27, 1996. Her diary indicated she had been trying to end a secret affair with Capano, who was married.

Friends and family of Fahey had described Capano as a possessive man who became enraged when she tried to end their turbulent three-year affair. A legal aide to GOP Rep. Michael N. Castle when Castle was governor, Capano is a member of a family prominent in the construction business in Delaware.

Prosecutors suspect Fahey was killed by Capano, whose house and Jeep were found to contain bloodstains. But Capano told police he dropped Fahey off at her home after dinner.

However, according to a Wilmington police affidavit filed Wednesday, a witness who a lawyer claims is Capano’s younger brother, Gerard Capano, claimed to have helped Capano dump a body off a boat the day after Fahey disappeared.

Capano’s lawyer, Joseph Hurley Jr., claimed that the younger Capano lied to police to get out of a federal prosecution on drug charges.