"This is a case for the police. This man was murdered. Just from the autopsy report, he suffered a blunt trauma to his abdomen, and this ruptured his small bowel."

Metro-Dade Detective James McDermott interviewed at least 10 workers at Landmark. None claimed to know for sure how Daniels got the bruises.

The one person McDermott didn't interview at the time was David Medy. Medy, a recreational-therapy aide who has worked at Landmark since 1989, said that criminal authorities never approached him about the case and that he was afraid at the time to step forward.

"This kind of thing is nothing unusual at Landmark," Medy says today. "I did not want to say anything else about Richard because I was frightened. It was not only fear. It was like there was a cover-up."

Medy says he saw Alfred Hill, a former behavioral program specialist, repeatedly strike and kick Daniels in the week before his death, but he didn't say anything about it because nothing was done to stop Hill when Medy first reported him in February to Veronica Gaffney, his supervisor.

"I stopped right there," Medy said. "I wasn't going to say anything else. It wasn't just Richard Daniels that was treated this way."

Gaffney adamantly denies that Medy ever came to her to report any abuse of Daniels, saying, "He never ever told me anything like that." Towey said HRS is looking into whether such a report was made to Gaffney.

Davis, the Landmark administrator, called Medy a credible employee, but he wouldn't say whether he believes Medy's account of what happened to Daniels.

"I'm trying to keep an open mind about it," Davis said.

Hill was subsequently fired a year later after he was accused of abusing and withholding food from another retarded man who lived in the same cottage. Hill, now unemployed, denies that he ever mistreated anyone.

"I ain't never hit Richard Daniels, none whatsoever," said Hill, who first started working at Landmark in 1976. "I've always, well, like I said, I always liked what I was doing. I honestly thought when I was working there that I really could make a difference.

"I don't like anybody trying to make me feel guilty for something I didn't have anything to do with. You ask me about Richard Daniels. I didn't have anything to do with that. Period."

State authorities, after numerous requests by The Herald for public records involving the death, say they are now intensifying their investigation and looking at the possible allegations of abuse against Hill.

George Havens, chief investigator for the Dade state attorney's office, would not elaborate, but confirmed that "there is new information which has come to light and we're looking at it." Medy has been interviewed by Metro-Dade homicide investigators and has been asked to take a polygraph test, which he agreed to do.

Hill was never interviewed by police at the time of Daniels' death. But few, including Hill, now believe Daniels' death was caused by a fatal fall on his wheelchair.

"It was alleged that somebody in the cottage hit him," Hill said. "I didn't want to get myself involved with it. Administration have always told us, 'Look, if there's a problem in this building involving questioning by the police and everything, send the police to the front office. We'll handle it from there.' "

In Hill's letter of dismissal obtained by The Herald and dated July 1, 1991, Hill was accused of withholding food from Cornell Williams, a resident, as punishment, twisting his arm behind his body and locking his partially paralyzed arm over the back of the wheelchair to restrict movement.

He was also accused of slapping him in the head and face, using his elbow to deliver a blow to the chest and abdomen, dumping him onto the floor from his wheelchair and tying a sock through the spokes of his wheelchair to keep it from moving.

Hill, who had received two stellar performance evaluations before his firing, appealed the dismissal, saying he never "intentionally or willfully abused" anyone. The appeal has been denied.

"I honestly felt that I was doing something good and something constructive for the benefit of the residents," Hill added. "As far as being aggressive to them . . . no way."

Two men testified against Hill in his state appeal hearing. One was Medy. The other was Moses Monroe, another aide. William Salmon, a Florida hearing officer, found both men to be credible witnesses, although they obviously feared Hill.

"Medy and Monroe candidly admitted that they were afraid of him because of their subordinate positions. . . . However, together they presented a credible version that Hill physically abused a client," Salmon said.

Hill says the two men were going after him, but he says he doesn't know why. And the Landmark administration, he says, wanted to make an example of him because the center was under fire for not acting swiftly and aggressively on complaints of abuse and neglect.

An internal investigation conducted by HRS during Hill's firing noted several problems in the Leon cottage where Hill worked and Daniels lived before his death.

In April 1991, a special investigative committee found that workers were not properly trained in behavioral techniques, that accident reports were not being completed when required and that residents "were having their rights violated on a consistent basis."

But the problems with Hill and the Leon cottage were never linked to Daniels' death -- until now.

Barbara Daniels, a school cafeteria worker in Stuart, has filed a wrongful-death suit against the state. She learned of her son's death three days later in a Western Union telegram:

"We regret to inform you that your son, Richard Daniels, has passed away. We attempted to contact you today without success. Therefore, we are sending you this telegram."

"All these years, and that's what I got, that's what I have left," Barbara Daniels said. "It just breaks your heart, not just for me because I lost my son, but for all the kids who are still out there. I know something went wrong, very wrong."