What happened to Megan McDonald? Suspect freed a week after arrest for 2003 murder

In 2003, the lifeless body of Megan McDonald, a 20-year-old SUNY Orange County Community College student, was found in a field in Wallkill, just outside the city of Middletown. She died of blunt force trauma, and her car was found two days later in a parking lot in the Kensington Manor Complex, also in Wallkill.

Megan McDonald's ex-boyfriend, Edward Holley, 42, was charged with second-degree murder. According to a state police investigator, Megan McDonald and Holley broke up shortly before her death. The police categorized this case as an instance of "intimate partner violence," the Times Union reported.

However, after over 20 years of the crime, the alleged killer was released due to a mistake in standard operating procedures. The judge ruled that Holley, who was charged with murder last week, will not be held in custody as the Orange County District Attorney's Office failed to present the case to a grand jury on time.

The case has not yet been dropped and Holley is due back in court on May 3.

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Megan McDonald reportedly met Holley the night before her disappearance to buy marijuana

Megan McDonald was the daughter of former NYPD Detective Dennis McDonald, who passed away a year before she was killed. She disappeared on March 14, 2003, after leaving a local party to meet her ex-boyfriend Holley to buy marijuana.

According to state police investigators, "the victim acquired or intended to acquire marijuana from Holley shortly as a last resort after her last outgoing call at 12:20 a.m." on March 13, 2003, The Post reported.

The case was also featured on Dateline. In one episode, detectives discussed the latest developments in the case, revealing that Megan McDonald had a conversation with two people she knew who were throwing a birthday party in Wallkill, near Greenway Terrace. As per NBC, they tried to get her to join, but Megan McDonald refused.

According to detectives, people who attended the party later reported that the two told the rest of the group that Megan had left to spend time with other friends in Middletown. She ended up at her friend's home and stayed until about midnight, after which she told her friend she had to go home because she had to get up early for work the next morning.

However, detectives stated that Megan McDonald allegedly went back to the party instead of returning home. Before leaving the party, Megan McDonald quickly told two other friends that she was planning to hang out with "someone."

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Edward Holley maintained that he is not guilty in the Megan McDonald case

Edward Holley, a suspect in the 20-year-old murder case, was released after a prosecutor's blunder. Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler stated that prosecutors didn't have enough time to prepare the case for presentation to the grand jury.

A statement from the District Attorney's Office read:

"Edward V. Holley was released from custody by operation of law as it is not feasible for any prosecutor to present a matter of this size and complexity — and obtain an indictment — within the six days required by New York State law."

State law mandates that prosecutors have a specific time frame to obtain an indictment against a defendant who is in custody, and if they fail to do so within the given time, the defendant must be released.

Megan McDonald's family expressed their disappointment with the news of Holley's release. John Beatty, the family's attorney, said that while his release was "disheartening," the family was "already aware of this phase of the criminal justice process."

James A. McCarty, who supervises the Felony Criminal Parts of the Ninth Judicial District, appointed veteran prosecutor Julia D. Cornachio, who will now lead the prosecution in this case, a press release from the District Attorney's Office stated.

Holley was already serving a sentence for an unrelated drug charge in the Orange County Jail when he was arrested and charged with second-degree murder by the police last week. He still faces murder charges in the case. If he is indicted by a grand jury, prosecutors could ask the judge to put him back in jail or set bail.

Meanwhile, Holley has denied all allegations against him and maintained that he is not guilty.