The authorities working to solve the $5.8 million robbery of Lufthansa's cargo building at Kennedy International Airport last Dec. 11 now suspect that five people may have been murdered in connection with the holdup.

One man was found shot to death in his Queens apartment a week after the robbery, and a second was found frozen, with no marks on his body, in a truck trailer in Brooklyn.

The three others believed murdered, two men and a woman, simply disappeared. Law enforcement officials said they were working on the supposition that the three were killed and are not just in hiding, but refused to elaborate.

The officials said the five, in one way or another, were all believed to be connected with the group of what the authorities describe as a low‐level organizederime group headed by James Burke, a former convict who has been named, but not charged, as a key suspect in the Lufthansa case.
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The new avenue of investigation comes after more than three months of frustrating work by the Organized Crime Strike Force for the Eastern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York City Police Department, the Port Authority police, the Nassau County Police and the United States Customs Service — an alliance that has produced some sparks of friction from time to time.

Now, with only one man formally charged for participating in the holdup. and the missing $5 million in United States currency and $850,000 worth of jewels yet to be recovered, investigators from the different agencies are sharing information and piecing together bits of the puzzle behind the largest robbery in the nation's history.

In one week, the offer of a reward of up to $500,000, extended by insurance companies for information leading to recovery of the stolen cargo, will expire.

Among the new leads being pursued by investigators now is the possibility that Theresa Ferrara, a 27‐year‐old partowner of a Long Island beauty parlor who disappeared on Feb. 10, was somehow associated with the Lufthansa robbers. The Nassau County police, investigating her disappearance, reportedly determined that she previously lived in a two‐family Queens house shared by someone affili ated with Mr. Burke.

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The police said Mrs. Ferrara was last seen at her beauty shop, Apples Hairstyle on Merrick Road in Bellmore, L.I., where she received what she said was an anonymous telephone call asking her to meet someone at a nearby diner. She left with out her pocketbook, money or keys and told her niece to come look for her if she did not return within 15 minutes. According to the police in Nassau County, she never got to the diner.
Similarly, they are looking into the disappearance, around the same time, of Martin Krugman, a beautician and alleged bookmaker in Nassau County. The police there say that Mr. Krugman's family specifically requested that no information be released about his disappearance. Authorities suspect, however, that Louis Werner, a Lufthansa cargo employee indicted as the “inside man” on the robbery, was heavily in debt to Mr. Krugman and went to him with the idea for the holdup and for help in assembling a crew to pull it off.

On a prior occasion when Mr. Krugman needed help, officials say, he went to Mr. Burke, who sent Thomas DeSimone, another former convict, to Mr. Krugman's aid. Mr. DeSimone, named by an informant soon after the airport holdup as hav ling participated in it, was on parole when he was reported missing on Jan. 14. His wife, Cookie, who has since been called by the grand jury investigating the Lufthansa case, went to the police to report his disappearance.

DeSimone's Friend Slain

At that time, Mr. DeSimone. who ?? in Ozone Park, was being sought for questioning about a murder that occurred there on Dec. 18. The Queens police had found Steven EdwardS, a close associate of Mr. DeSimone, shot to death in his recently acquired Ozone Park apartment and suspected Mr. DeSimone of having killed him.

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According to Chief Edward J. Stoll of the Queens detectives, both men had been associated with the Paul Vario crime “family,” a group he said had been responsible for other crimes at Kennedy International Airport. Mr. Burke, identified by the police as a key figure in that group. lives in Howard Beach. Queens, but was on parole and in a Federal halfway house with Mr. DeSimone at the time of the Lufthansa holdup.

Mr. Burke was also with Angelo J. Sepe on the afternoon that Mr. Sepe was arrested on.charges of having participated in the robbery, and now faces the possibility of having his parole revoked for having associated with known criminals and having made an unauthorized trip to Florida, following the Lufthansa holdup.

The Organized Crime Strike Force, headed by Thomas P. Puccio has decided not to seek an ind??ment of Mr. Sepe at this time while ??ng him in custody for having Violated his parole.

Mr. Burke's name was found by authorities in an address book belonging to Richard Eaton, whose frozen body was found in a trailer in the East New York section of Brooklyn in early February.

Investigators believe that Mr. Eaton may have played a role in helping the robbers “launder” the money taken in the robbery. In an effort to recover the currency, the police flew to Florida some weeks ago and searched a safe deposit box in which they had been told Mr. Eaton had placed millions of dollars, but they found nothing.