Worthington-"step sis" is Greineder's hooker
JoAnn
Greineder ex-escort is tied to Truro case
Woman questioned in 2d slaying probe
By Ellen Barry and John Ellement,
Boston Globe, 1/15/2002
A Quincy woman who has been questioned about the killing of fashion
writer Christa Worthington was a key figure in the prosecution of Dirk
Greineder, the Wellesley doctor convicted last summer of murdering his
wife, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the
Worthington case.
State Police Sergeant James Plath, who is leading the investigation into
Worthington's slaying in Truro, would not comment last night on Beth
Porter's connection to the two cases.
A woman answering the phone at Porter's mother's home, identifying
herself as Porter's sister, said Porter would not comment on the Truro
investigation. ''She's devastated by all this,'' she said.
Porter's involvement deepens the mystery surrounding the death of
Christa Worthington, a freelance writer found stabbed to death Jan. 6 on
the kitchen floor of her Truro home. Worthington's 21/2-year-old
daughter, Ava, who was found beside her mother's body, stands to inherit
her mother's $700,000 estate.
The first days of the investigation focused on the close-knit off-season
Cape Cod community where Worthington was raising her child, who was
fathered by a married local man. But late in the week, State Police left
the Cape to interview Porter and a man who had been living with her in a
Quincy apartment building, the Ritz Manor.
Last year, Porter testified before a grand jury that she had met
Greineder in 1998 while working for an escort service. The renowned
allergist had wooed her in a hotel suite with champagne and
chocolate-covered strawberries.
Worthington's father, Christopher Worthington, rented the apartment for
Porter, said building manager Rocco Vasile. Police questioned Porter and
the other occupant, known only as Ed, for five hours, Vasile said.
Shortly after Porter was approached by reporters on Thursday,
Christopher Worthington drove to her apartment and picked her up, said a
witness.
''From what I gathered from the State Police, they do not believe she is
involved one iota,'' said Vasile. ''They told me, `She is a good
kid.´´´
Yesterday morning, investigators returned to a Quincy Store 24 seeking a
surveillance tape that might provide evidence in the case, said Nancy
Perez, a Store 24 employee.
About a year ago, Christopher Worthington, an attorney, rented the
apartment for about $500 a month, said Walter Perry, who was the Ritz
Manor's building manager at the time.
Perry said Worthington, a white-haired man in his 60s, told him he had
separated from his wife and was ''looking for a place to live.'' The
Ritz Manor has had a history of drug problems, and has been the site of
several overdose deaths in recent years, Perry said.
But Worthington himself turned out to be an occasional visitor, and
Porter was the one who stayed in the apartment. She was not employed and
told Perry she had trouble breathing and that her back hurt, Perry said.
Vasile said Christopher Worthington told her the occupant of the
apartment was his stepdaughter.
Several days after Christa Worthington's slaying, Porter came up the
stairs crying, and asked Vasile if he had ''made the connection''
between her and the victim because she used the name Worthington.
''She was very distraught about the death. She came to me and said she
didn't want to talk to nobody,'' Vasile said.
Several close friends of Christa Worthington said the victim had been
distraught over her father's relationship with a much younger woman.
According to Tim Arnold, a sometime boyfriend who lived with Worthington
for several months last year, Worthington's father had been involved
with the woman while her mother was dying of cancer. He told his
daughter ''he was in love,'' Arnold said.
Worthington was so concerned that she hired a private investigator to
look into her father's relationship, he said.
''He was spending quite a bit each month'' on the young woman, Arnold
said. ''Christa was worried he would start spending her inheritance.''
A call to Christopher Worthington's law office in Dedham was not
returned, and a man answering the telephone in his Weymouth home said he
would not comment on any relationship with Beth Porter.
''You're going to have to find another source,'' the man said.
One relative, who grew up with Christopher Worthington and was close to
his daughter, said Christa was concerned about her father's
''inappropriate girlfriends.'' Christa's mother, Gloria Worthington, a
landscape painter, died in 1999.
Christa ''thought he was not being home enough, and was going off with
some girlfriend,'' said the relative, Patricia Worthington Bartlett, 68,
who lives in Georgia. ''I didn't pay much attention. It's probably a
natural daughter thing to do.''
Christopher Worthington, a former assistant attorney general, now
practices law with the Dedham firm of Parasco, Worthington and Chase.
Many of his colleagues showed up on Saturday for a memorial service for
his daughter, and said rumors of his relationship with a younger woman
could not be true.
''None of this sounds like Chris,'' said David Hopwood, 56, who called
him his mentor. ''It doesn't sound like him at all.''
Greineder, 60, had said he found his wife, Mabel, with her throat
slashed after they separated during a walk near their home. Prosecutors
said he killed her because she had discovered his extramarital sex life,
including pornographic chat rooms and trysts with prostitutes. He was
convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life without
parole.
JoAnn
feelings of being let down by her relatives.
Tuesday, January 15, 2002
Victim had felt cheated by aunt
Christa Worthington hired an investigator after she did not receive
proceeds from the sale of her mother's property.
Cape Cod Times
TRURO - Several months before she was stabbed to death in her Truro
home, Christa Worthington hired a private detective to find money that
an aunt may have stashed after selling family real estate.
Whether this is connected to the murder of Worthington, 46, was unclear
yesterday. The police have declined to name suspects in the in the
stabbing death of the single mother, whose body was found Jan. 6. Her
21/2-year-old daughter, Ava, was found beside the body.
The police remained silent yesterday, but they are looking into a real
estate sale in Florida from which Worthington and her aunt were to
equally benefit.
At the same time, the police are investigating whether the victim had
any relationship with a 29-year-old woman who has a history of multiple
heroin possession convictions and prostitution.
The woman, Elizabeth Porter, has a relationship with Worthington's
father, Christopher Worthington, 72, who pays the rent on her Quincy
residence.
The relationship between Porter and the elder Worthington, worried
Christa Worthington, said Ellen Webb, of Wellfleet, a close friend of
Christa's and Ava's former nanny.
But Christa Worthington was also upset about the sale of some property
in Florida formerly owned by mother, Gloria S. Worthington, who died in
1999, Webb said.
Christa and her maternal aunt, Alice Truitt of Naples, Fla., were
supposed to split the proceeds from the sale. The property was sold, for
an unknown amount of money, but Christa never received any of the money,
Webb said.
"Christa was, of course, incensed because she looked at everything as
Ava's inheritance," she said.
Wanted a family
Her father was against her hiring the private investigator because he
felt she should let it go. But Christa was intent on making sure she
could be a stay-at-home mom, said Webb, a teacher's assistant in the
Provincetown schools.
Worthington, a fashion writer who lived in Europe and New York City and
wrote for top fashion magazines, scaled back her career and moved to
Truro seven years ago. She was intent on marrying and starting a family,
friends have said.
But she ended up having an affair with Anthony Jackett of Truro in the
summer of 1998. Jackett, a married father of six who is the shellfish
constable for Truro and Provincetown, has been married for about 30
years.
Jackett, 51, and Worthington parted ways when she got pregnant. Jackett
did not tell his wife of the child until April, after Worthington sought
child support for Ava.
But Jackett and his wife, Susan, have said they were starting to build a
relationship with Christa and Ava and even spent Christmas together.
On Thursday, the police questioned Porter, and her boyfriend, identified
only as Ed, for three to four hours inside a rooming house where she
lives in Quincy, according Rocco Vasile, the building manager of the
Ritz Manor.
Jim Leach, who said he was a former tenant, described the Ritz Manor
rooming house as a place filled with heroin addicts. He claimed four
people overdosed while he lived there and he used to see dirty needles
in the lobby.
Lease was renewed
Vasile described Porter as a "good kid." He said police left the
interview "satisfied" that Porter and her male friend had nothing to do
with the murder. When Vasile asked Porter why an older man was paying
her rent, she told him she was Christopher Worthington's stepdaughter,
he said.
Worthington, an attorney, recently renewed the lease on Porter's room,
which rents for $550 a month, Vasile said. Worthington's last name is
listed next to hers by her room number in the entrance to the rooming
house.
Yesterday, Worthington refused to comment as he was walking out of his
modest home in a working-class neighborhood in the center of Weymouth.
Worthington, a state assistant attorney general from 1970 to 1987,
boughtthe home in 1999, for $162,200, a month before selling his home in
Hingham for $620,000.
Porter, who was arrested numerous times on drug possession charges, was
described in Quincy District Court documents as a "high-risk drug
offender."
In 1999, she received a six-month, suspended sentence at the
Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Framingham for possession of
heroin and hypodermic needles.
She was also identified as a prostitute when she testified in the trial
of Dr. Dirk Greineder, a renowned allergist from Wellesley who was found
guilty of bludgeoning and stabbing his wife to death on Oct. 31, 1999.
Testified at trial
During the trial, prosecutors used testimony from Porter, a prostitute
who said she had several encounters with Greineder,to prove he led an
adventurous sex life and had reason to want to get rid of his wife.
Published reports from last year also state that Porter has AIDS.
According to Webb, the elder Worthington's relationship with Porter
worried Christa Worthington, but it was not a source of animosity
between father and daughter, said Webb, who spent Thanksgiving with
Christa, her father and Ava.
"As far as a loving father he was definitely that," Webb said.
If she hadn't trusted her father she would not have made him the
executor to her estate, she said.
There was tension, however, between Christa and Truitt, her mother's
sister, who apparently failed to share the proceeds of the real estate
sale, Webb said.
Attempts to reach Truitt by phone were not successful yesterday.
Since Worthington's death, police have interviewed numerous friends,
relatives and former lovers of the victim, including Jackett.
.
Jackett and his wife, Susanare fighting for custody of Ava. Christa,
however, had designated Clifford and Amyra Chase, of Cohasset, in her
will as Ava's guardian if she died. The Chases said last week they would
fight Jackett for custody of Ava.
Christa Worthington left an estate of
about $700,000.
The police have also been questioning Tim Arnold, 45, a children's book
illustrator, who lived with Worthington and had a year-long romantic
relationship with her about 18 months ago. Arnold found Worthington's
body on the floor of the kitchen Jan. 6 when he was returning a
flashlight.
JoAnn
"Wellesley doc's hooker tied to Truro slay case
by Tom Farmer and Franci Richardson
Tuesday, January 15, 2002
The Quincy woman questioned about the murder of a Truro fashion writer
and whose rent is being paid by the victim's father is the AIDS-infected
hooker who twice had sex with convicted wife-killer Dr. Dirk Greineder,
sources told the Herald yesterday.
Elizabeth ``Beth´´ Porter, who has tried to pass herself off to
acquaintances as the grieving stepsister of Christa Worthington - the
single mother found a week ago stabbed to death in her Truro home - was
interrogated, along with her boyfriend, Ed, for five hours Thursday by
detectives in her Quincy roominghouse apartment, according to her
landlord.
``She said she was the stepsister of Christa Worthington and that´s
why she´s been so distraught,´´ landlord Rocco Vasile said. ``She
acts like a girl who is hurt.´´
Relatives and friends of the Worthingtons said Christa was the only
child of her parents, and that she had no stepsiblings.
Worthington's father, Christopher
Worthington, a widower and retired prosecutor for the civil bureau of
the office of the Attorney General, last month renewed a year-long lease
for Porter and pays the monthly $550 rent, said Vasile.
Reached at his Weymouth home yesterday, Worthington refused comment.
``Sorry, I´m busy,´´ he said. ``No, I´m not talking.´´
A source said Porter left her apartment with Worthington Thursday, and
Vasile said neither she nor her boyfriend has returned since.
Yesterday, authorities said Porter is the same woman with AIDS who had
two trysts with Greineder in February 1998, before the Wellesley
allergist savagely beat and stabbed his wife, Mabel, during an early
morning walk at Morses Pond on Halloween 1999.
Worthington, 46, was found dead in her bungalow a week ago Sunday,
stabbed at least once in the chest, with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter,
Ava, nursing on her.
The nightgown-clad woman could have been murdered up to 36 hours before
she was found, a source said.
A New York friend of Worthington told the Herald Thursday that his
friend recently voiced concern about the relationship between her father
and the ``manipulative, 20-something girlfriend´´ she believed was
extracting money from him.
``(Worthington) was worried her father was funneling a lot of money in
her direction,´´ said the friend, who didn´t want to be named.
``She seemed to be fearful of the girl for her father´s sake.´´
Another friend reportedly said Worthington was worried that her father
would dip into her trust fund to pay for the girl's medical expenses.
Worthington is worth $700,000, which included her $400,000 Truro home
bequeathed to her by her mother, who died two years ago, and a $300,000
trust fund, according to family and her will that was filed at
Barnstable Probate Court.
Christopher Worthington was appointed co-executor of the will along with
the Cape Cod Bank and Trust Co. in Hyannis.
The money is to be administered to the victim's daughter, Ava, who is
the focus of a custody battle between a Cohasset couple appointed
guardians by Worthington, and Tony Jackett, the father of the baby who
had an extramarital affair with Worthington in 1998.
Jackett will take a paternity test within the next two days, his
attorney, Chris Snow, said yesterday.
It's unclear how Porter and Christopher Worthington met, but sources say
she also recently lived in Weymouth.
Porter had two trysts with Greineder, now serving a life sentence for
the first-degree murder of his wife, at a Natick hotel in February 1998
when she worked for ``Commonwealth Entertainment,´´ an escort
service in Quincy.
Porter testified before a Norfolk County grand jury that her first
encounter with Greineder was Feb. 3, 1998, at the Crowne Plaza hotel in
Natick. He was waiting for her in a room with champagne, roses, and
chocolate-covered strawberries.
When Porter asked about his wedding ring, Greineder said he was
``separated,´´ and explained he was no longer attracted to his wife,
that she had gone ``soft,´´ and that there was no passion in their
marriage, she testified.
The pair met again five days later at the Westin Hotel in Boston, where
Greineder paid her $450 for 90 minutes. In addition to having sex with
her, Greineder also watched her shower and massaged her with roses and
oil.
Greineder is not believed to be HIV-positive, sources said.
Yesterday, detectives reportedly asked to see a surveillance tape from
Jan. 5 - the day Worthington was killed - of the Store 24 in Quincy.
Investigators are allegedly interested in trying to identify a
white-haired man and young woman, but the specific tape they've
requested is missing, according to WBZ-TV.
Employees at the convenience store refused comment."
© Copyright by the Boston Herald and Herald Interactive Advertising
Systems, Inc.
nan
Dear Joann,
This is a very curious twisty case, indeed. from Nan