Divorce called reason for du Pont heir's LV trip

A du Pont family heir whose girlfriend's strangled body was found inside a Las Vegas motel room's air conditioning duct had apparently traveled to Las Vegas to get a divorce from his estranged wife.

Tom O'Connell of the U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment on when Dean MacGuigan arrived in the city, fearing the release of too many details could jeopardize the case against MacGuigan's stepfather, Christopher Moseley, and three Las Vegans currently behind bars in connection with the killing of 45-year-old Patricia Margello.

Metro Police homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen did confirm that MacGuigan was seeking a divorce from his wife. State law requires that anyone filing for divorce be a resident of Nevada for a minimum of six weeks.

Where the couple was staying, however, remains a mystery in the slowly unfolding story of Margello's fatal encounter with her killers inside the Del Mar Motel, 1411 Las Vegas Blvd. South -- the latest in a string of bizarre events connected with the prominent du Pont family, one of the richest in American history.

According to wire reports, a complaint filed in a Delaware federal district court by FBI Special Agent Henry Schlumpf states that Moseley waived his right to remain silent and confessed to hiring people to kill his stepson's girlfriend.

Sometime in July, the complaint alleges, Moseley called Diana Hironaga in Las Vegas and asked her to kill Margello, also known as Patricia Howarth. The case at that point became a federal issue because the telephone call and other communication efforts crossed state lines.

Hironaga and two other Las Vegans, Ricardo Murillo and Joseph Balignasa, are accused of luring Margello to the Del Mar motel Aug. 2 where she was beaten and strangled sometime that night. The Philadelphia, Pa., woman's body was bound with wire and tape, stuffed into plastic garbage bags and wedged into the motel room's air duct by the killers who took the time to remove its cover and screen, then carefully replace them after stowing the body.

The killers checked out of the room by Monday, and several more people rented out the same room over the next few days until motel employees made the gruesome discovery Aug. 5 while searching for the source of a nauseating odor wafting through the property.

According to the complaint, the body had not even been found when, on Aug. 4, Hironaga and Murillo flew to Philadelphia to collect their monetary prize.

MacGuigan provided police with an essential lead, having been able to tell them who his girlfriend was seen with before she disappeared.

Subsequent investigation by Metro and the FBI led to the arrest last week in Greenville, Del., of Moseley, 58. Hironaga, Murillo and Balignasa also have been jailed with pending court dates in connection with Margello's death.

Moseley had been the gardener at the family's estate before marrying MacGuigan's mother, Lisa Dean Moseley, a direct descendant of the founder of the DuPont chemical company whose second husband died years ago.

Authorities said Moseley did not approve of his stepson's relationship with Margello and wanted the woman dead. Margello's criminal record shows prior prostitution-related incidents, Petersen said.

The killers were expected to receive "thousands of dollars" for killing Margello, sources said.

The du Pont family is estimated to be worth in excess of $10 billion, although they have virtually no say in the operations of the company, which has made them a household name.

The du Ponts are a very private clan, descendants of French aristocracy, but occasionally family members break into the public eye.

Eleuthere Irenee du Pont had apprenticed as a chemist and founded a gunpowder factory on Brandywine Creek in Delaware in 1802 before founding the family's chemical empire years later.

Ruly Carpenter, part of the extensive family, once owned the Philadelphia Phillies. His father, Bob Carpenter, had previously owned the team and also was a major contributor to the University of Delaware.

Lewis du Pont Smith wound up in the news years ago when his father, E. Newbold Smith, was charged with, and later acquitted of, trying to kidnap his son from the clutches of political fringe candidate Lyndon LaRouche, who served five years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.

The family most recently made headlines when John du Pont, E.I. du Pont's great-great grandson, was convicted of killing Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz, who lived on the grounds of du Pont's 800-acre estate in Newtown Square, 13 miles west of Philadelphia.

John du Pont was a noted eccentric in his East Coast town, having once driven two luxury cars into a pond on his property. He also was a wrestling aficionado and had recruited talented amateur athletes, among them Schultz, to train and live at a center he'd built on his estate.

His passion for guns landed him honorary membership with the local police, to whom he reportedly gave shooting lessons.

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