Thirty-five years after police pulled the bodies of a conservation officer and his wife from Mattituck Inlet, his fellow officers are seeking new leads in a case that has long baffled the couple’s North Fork community. 
 
 Department of Environmental Conservation officers said Tuesday that, in advance of the 35th anniversary of the case, they are offering $15,000 for new information in the deaths of William and Michelle Becker of Mattituck on the night of March 10, 1981. 
 
 The case has hung for decades over William’s former colleagues at the DEC and the couple’s relatives, who said they could never quite accept police’s explanation that the pair accidentally drowned. 
 
 “We’ve always had the case open. We’ve always pondered what happened,” said Maj. Scott Florence, who leads the DEC’s Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigation and probed the Beckers’ deaths in the 1990s. 
 
 Suffolk County homicide detectives said in a statement Tuesday that they “would be open to receiving any new information anyone had to provide.” 
 
 Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley could not be reached for comment Tuesday. 
 
 The DEC officers’ union and fraternal organization raised money for the reward, the largest in the department’s history. 
 
 advertisement | advertise on newsday 
 
 Michelle, 36, raised three children while running her beauty salon that, despite changes in ownership, is still called Michelle’s, said her brother, Michael Malkush of Cutchogue. 
 
 William, 43, he said, was a 15-year veteran of the DEC who took the North Fork assignment after patrolling elsewhere on Long Island. 
 
 They were last seen leaving a dinner party at the Mattituck home of Arthur Siemerling, a local heating oil dealer, about 11 p.m. on a brisk Tuesday night, police said. 
 
 William’s body was found 12 hours later in what was then called Matt-A-Mar marina, his foot caught on a boat’s swim platform and his arm tangled in electrical cable, in his forest green DEC uniform. He had a lump on his head, police said. 
 
 A Suffolk County police diver found Michelle’s body 40 feet from her husband’s about 20 hours later. Her slippers were on the dock near Siemerling’s boat. 
 
 Police said at the time that it appeared the couple took a detour to the boat on their way home from the dinner party. Yet relatives say a late-night trip to the dock seemed out of character for William, who was cautious and reserved. 
 
 William seemed to have drowned trying to save Michelle, who could not swim, then-Southold Town Police Chief Carl Cataldo told Newsday in 1981. 
 
 But Malkush said he felt police came to that conclusion too quickly, just hours after a marina worker found William’s body and before police discovered Michelle’s. 
 
 “I’m there in shock saying, ‘Why aren’t you out there looking for my sister?’ ” said Malkush, 64, a retired teacher. 
 
 Timothy Becker, the oldest of the couple’s three children, said he and his siblings are “so disenchanted with how the initial investigation took place” and want closure. 
 
 advertisement | advertise on newsday 
 
 “My mother’s body wasn’t even found yet, and Southold Town police detectives already put together exactly what happened and sold it to us as fact,” said Becker, 51, who lives in Southern California. 
 
 Malkush has hired two private investigators over the years. After 35 years, he said, police risk losing witnesses to old age. 
 
 “It’s going to take somebody to talk,” he said. “Somebody on their deathbed, or somebody who finds religion, or somebody with a guilty conscience.” ||||| The case of a police officer and his beautician wife who drowned after leaving a dinner party 35 years ago is getting a fresh look and a $15,000 reward. 
 
 The 1981 deaths of William and Michelle Becker were deemed an accident, but relatives and colleagues say they have nagging questions. 
 
 Now, officers at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, where William Becker, 43, worked as a police officer, have put up reward cash in the hopes of getting some answers. 
 
 "We don't know what happened after they left the dinner party," said DEC Police Maj. Scott Florence, who began looking into the mystery in the 1990s. "Some things at the scene raised a lot of questions." 
 
 An undated photo of Michelle and William Becker, who drowned in 1981. Courtesy Michael Malkush 
 
 The Beckers, married for 17 years and parents to three children, spent the evening of March 10, 1981, at a friend's house in Mattituck, Long Island, leaving shortly before midnight. 
 
 William Becker's body was found in a marina the next morning and the body of Michelle, 36, who owned a local beauty parlor, was discovered the next day. 
 
 The Suffolk County Police Department said there was no evidence of foul play and the case was officially closed in 1983. 
 
 Michelle Becker's brother, Michael Malkush, said investigators told him their theory was that the couple went to the marina to find the boat that belonged to the dinner party host and "get romantic." 
 
 "It made no sense," Malkush said, noting that it was dark and cold, the boat was under repair, his brother-in-law had a fear of water, and the couple's warm home was just a half-mile away. 
 
 "We just feel that they didn't go down there on their own and accidentally fall in the water and both drown. We're just trying to find out the missing pieces." 
 
 Florence noted that a kitchen table on the boat had come apart, and Becker's clip-on uniform tie was found on the floor, potential signs of a struggle. 
 
 "It leads you to believe the tie was pulled off and the table was broken," he said. 
 
 He said the 35th anniversary of the drownings was seen as an opportunity to bring attention to the case and perhaps dislodge some long-held secrets. 
 
 The police union and a fraternal organizations came up with the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone who might have been involved in the Beckers' deaths. 
 
 In a statement, the Suffolk County Police Department said Homicide Squad detectives are "open to receiving any new information anyone had to provide." 
 
 "I know we can't bring them back," Malkush said. "But there's got to be someone out there who has some answers. It just takes one person." ||||| A woman is being accused by her friends of collecting more than $18,000 for terminal cancer that she never had. (12/4/2014) 
 
 A woman is being accused by her friends of collecting more than $18,000 for terminal cancer that she never had. (12/4/2014) 
 
 Woman accused of collecting more than $18,000 for cancer she didn't have 
 
 Woman accused of collecting more than $18,000 for cancer she didn't have 
 
 A pest control experts says they move inside during the cold weather... 
 
 Watch out for brown recluse spiders during the winter 
 
 Watch out for brown recluse spiders during the winter 
 
 After a day of duck hunting, Raymond Verhoeven and Bradley Taylor posed for photos with the day's kill and St. Francis County Sheriff Bobby May can't stomach it. 
 
 Man picks up rock and finds something 'from above' 
 
 Man picks up rock and finds something 'from above' 
 
 The mugshot of a Cary teen arrested on drug charges is going viral nearly a month after her arrest. 
 
 The mugshot of a Cary teen arrested on drug charges is going viral nearly a month after her arrest. 
 
 31 people are in trouble with the law after a three day prostitution sting in Richmond. Police told NBC12 they targeted specific areas where residents and business owners complained about the illegal activity. 
 
 By Laura Geller - bio | email RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) – 31 people are in trouble with the law after a three day prostitution sting in Richmond. Police told NBC12 they targeted specific areas where residents 
 
 One person in custody following "suspicious" fires overnight in Carolina Beach. 
 
 One person in custody following "suspicious" fires overnight in Carolina Beach. 
 
 Investigators were conducting the operation in the parking lot of the Bi-Lo store on the 700 block of Highway 27 when, around 4 p.m., they saw two vehicles meet up for a drug transaction. 
 
 Investigators were conducting the operation in the parking lot of the Bi-Lo store on the 700 block of Highway 27 when, around 4 p.m., they saw two vehicles meet up for a drug transaction. 
 
 The price of one of the oldest houses in Raleigh has been dropped $50,000 after the home was moved from its original location on Wake Forest Road. 
 
 The price of one of the oldest houses in Raleigh has been dropped $50,000 after the home was moved from its original location on Wake Forest Road. 
 
 The home was moved Feb. 3 to a nearby location on Hillmer Drive. (Photo by Jeff Reeves/WNCN) 
 
 The home was moved Feb. 3 to a nearby location on Hillmer Drive. (Photo by Jeff Reeves/WNCN) 
 
 New search warrants are revealing more details about the days leading up to the mysterious death of Sarah Catherine Long. Long was found with a single gunshot wound to the left side of her head at her Davidson home in July. 
 
 At first, her death was considered a suicide, but several factors led police to reclassify the case as a homicide. 
 
 According to search warrants, a neighbor told police the last time she saw Long was on Friday, July 18. She said Long was walking with a man, later identified as William Drew Becker. 
 
 The warrants say Becker showed police documents that the 41-year-old victim left him everything in her will. It totaled about $1.5 million dollars. Becker claimed they were lovers and she was sick with cervical cancer. 
 
 Another neighbor told officers that she saw Long on July 19 wearing a long dress and standing outside her home with a man. 
 
 That same day, another neighbor who lives next door, told police she heard a heavy slam coming from Long's bedroom. That's the day police believe Long died. 
 
 Her body was found four days later after police received a call from a concerned citizen, later identified as Becker. 
 
 A week after Long's death, on Tuesday, July 29, the Mecklenburg County medical examiner told police he could not detect any blood on Long's left hand, the hand she was suspected of using to take her own life. 
 
 In the warrants, both police and the examiner agreed that the gun was found in an odd position. After talking with family, police also learned Sarah Long was right-handed. 
 
 On August 6, Long's OBGYN told detectives that Long did not have cervical cancer. 
 
 Davidson Police say they are examining electronic evidence collected at Long's home, as well as reviewing Long's financial information. 
 
 The search warrant states that investigators believe Long's financial records could determine who long was with the evening she died. At this time no arrests have been made in this case. 
 
 A spokesperson for Davidson Police says they are looking into a person of interest, but are not releasing their name. 
 
 Copyright 2014 WBTV. All rights reserved.
– It's been exactly 35 years since the mysterious March 10, 1981, drowning of a Long Island couple, but their family and community are still calling on somebody—anybody—to come forward with information so they can finally piece together what happened, reports NBC News. The Department of Environmental Conservation officers' union and fraternal organization has even raised $15,000, the largest reward in the department's history, reports Newsday, while homicide detectives say they are "open to receiving any new information." William Becker, who was 43, was a 15-year veteran of the DEC; wife Michelle Becker, 36, owned a beauty salon. Married 17 years, the parents of three had gone to a dinner party in Mattituck that cold winter's night and left shortly before midnight. Police said William's body was found 12 hours later in his forest-green DEC uniform at what was then called Matt-A-Mar Marina with a bump on his head and his arm tangled in electrical cable. By the time Michelle's body was found 40 feet away 20 hours later, her slippers on the dock, police had surmised that the couple had stopped by a friend's boat to "get romantic," Michelle's brother Michael Malkush says, and that William had died trying to save Michelle, who couldn't swim. But many felt this didn't make sense given their fear of the water, the cold, and their home being so nearby. Even an investigator in the late '80s concluded that accidental drowning didn't make sense, reports the Suffolk Times. The Beckers' oldest child says he and his siblings are "so disenchanted" with the police investigation, adding, "It's going to take somebody to talk. Somebody on their deathbed, or somebody who finds religion, or somebody with a guilty conscience." (A man recently confessed to this 1982 cold case.)