Richard Fox

An arrest has been made in a case involving a body found near a trail off Woleben Road in Portland in the fall of 2021.

A press conference was held today in Buffalo to announced the arrest of Richard Fox, 61, a Level 3 registered sex offender, in the death of Marquita Mull, a Buffalo woman previously reported missing. Fox was picked up in Niagara Falls and was convicted in sex crimes that occurred in 2005 in Buffalo and 1993 in Chautauqua County.

Buffalo Police Department and Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department took part in the 11 a.m. conference.

Mull was last seen on June 25, 2021, in Erie County and was reported missing to authorities the following month.

“Even though she had her issues, she was a great person,” Mull’s sister, Wendy, told The Post-Journal in an interview in 2022. “I loved her with all my heart. She was just so sweet, and when she died, my heart died.”

Mull’s body was found in some thick brush off the Rails to Trails hiking area — a day after a hiker found what they believed was a human skull and resulted in the discovery of human remains. When investigators were conducting a grid search for other evidence, they came across Mull’s body 10 yards from the spot where the first person was buried.