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[Music] up next a beautiful young woman is found dead under a bridge did she jump from that bridge or did
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somebody push her and police learn she had a secret life she was dancing under the name roxanne
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and they were calling her foxy roxy police find a surveillance image of a truck near the bridge
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on the night she disappeared you can see an apparent body in the back of the pickup truck but who
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is driving the truck and what is the motive there was something more going on than just a woman leaping from a bridge
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for no apparent reason it was early on a saturday morning underneath a bridge in burlington township new jersey when
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an atv writer found the body of a young woman he assumed she'd taken her own life
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we just see a young girl she looks like she's about 20 to 30 years old about 100
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pounds she had no id on her the damage to her body was consistent with a drop of about 12 to 14 stories
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insect activity indicated she'd been dead several days but who was this woman
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police released a description to the media her manager from work called in an ex-boyfriend
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called in saying that they recognized the description of the jewelry that she was wearing from
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the victim's butterfly pendant she was identified as 21 year old rachel siani
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i kept telling myself that it wasn't true and i told myself that all the way up
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until her funeral until i actually went up and looked at her nancy knew something about her
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cousin rachel cianni that few other people knew rachel was a college student by day
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and an exotic dancer by night she was only doing it just to pay her way through college and the way
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she described it to me was that she was dancing in an extremely skimpy bikini rachel worked at a place called davis
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international gentlemen's club across the bridge in pennsylvania just three miles
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from where her body was found her stage name was roxanne davis is your your typical gentleman's club where guys
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go in mostly guys and you know sit down and have some drinks and watch the girls
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rachel's friends and relatives could not believe she committed suicide they said she exhibited none of the
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typical signs of depression instead she was focused on a career she was studying psychology because she
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said she really wanted to focus on that and help people and rachel had a good relationship with
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her family despite some disagreements about her employment her father absolutely did not approve of
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it they obviously loved her very much as a daughter but i think that they had resolved themselves that rachel had
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to find her own way through life and figure out what was going to be best for rachel
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but was this a suicide evidence on the bridge revealed a disturbing clue there were some fibers
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that were consistent with the sweater that she had on but there was also some blood stains on the outside wall of the
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bridge if the blood on the bridge was rachel's then this might have been murder
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[Music] in a small town on the outskirts of philadelphia a young exotic dancer found dead beneath
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the bridge was front page news i mean if she worked at an ice cream stand it wouldn't have
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said ice cream girl you know murdered it was unsettling because everything was exotic dancer murdered or stripper
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thrown off bridge it was never her name or that she was a bucks county community college student
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since rachel was found at the bottom of the bridge without shoes wearing clean socks
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investigators suspected she had been carried to the bridge and thrown over the side
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they were very clean up on top of the bridge there were no shoes there was no car
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there was a lot of road debris and other dirt that would have become embedded in her socks if she was walking
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around up there fibers from her sweater wedged in the concrete of the bridge also made it clear she didn't jump her
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body scraped along the side of the bridge dna testing on blood found near those fibers confirmed
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it was rachel's blood and that she was bleeding before she hit the ground so the police
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had to work backwards they had to find out you know how did that blood and how did that fiber get on
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the pennsylvania turnpike bridge rail there were no marks on rachel's neck so
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investigators didn't believe a ligature or even the killer's hands were used to strangle
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her if it's a large surface like a forearm pressing against the neck or a large
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just flat of the hand pressing against the neck you don't get bruising significant internal bleeding told
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medical examiners rachel was still alive when she was thrown from the bridge the victim had
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blood spatters on the side of her face and it wasn't consistent with a fall from the bridge
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two broken fingernails made it clear she tried to defend herself the cause of death was blunt force
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trauma a skull fracture the fracture extends from one ear canal to the other here can help rachel's carr
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a battered old lincoln was in the parking lot of divas the gentleman's club where she worked
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there was food and money strewn about in the car which led us to believe that her demise
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was not a result of a robbery fellow dancers told police that a former cook 26 year old jason woods had been
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bothering her he seemed to have somewhat of a fixation or obsession towards rachel
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where he actually told people that rachel was his girlfriend wasn't true but he told people that in
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fact jason had been fired just a month earlier and when police found out why they knew
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they had a solid suspect he was infatuated with her and he was subsequently terminated because of his infatuation
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with rachel cione when questioned by police jason denied any involvement in rachel's murder
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he was believable but we still couldn't rule him out we always have to keep that that
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individual in mind he can be a good actor then homicide investigators got a break
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on the last night rachel worked at divas she was in the parking lot talking with
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a friend after the club closed and the man obviously drunk started banging on the door of the club
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a local police officer witnessed the incident the policeman offered to help one of the owners or managers came out
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said that it was okay they knew jack he was a regular customer jack was john danafa a 35 year old
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businessman who had been in the club earlier that night according to diva's manager rachel
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offered to walk danafa to the motel located right next door to the club maybe she thought he'd had too much to
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drink and she wanted to take care of him help him perhaps get to his room her friend had actually asked rachel she
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was okay and rachel indicated to her no it's just jack i'm fine i'm okay
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motel records indicate danafa checked into room 223. the hotel clerk remembered that rachel helped danafa up to his room
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but he didn't recall seeing her leave danafa contradicted that he claimed rachel left and that he went up to his
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room alone he said that he was with her and she just went her way and he went his way
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and that was it he said he had absolutely nothing to do with her demise whatsoever but to investigators
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something just didn't seem right i didn't like the guy the prime suspect in rachel cianni's
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murder was the last known person to see her alive jack danatha he was married with no
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children and owned a sign company employees say like clockwork dunapha visited divas
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every tuesday night rachel was his favorite dancer she had mentioned jack and she said that you know she wouldn't
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even have to work that night if she didn't want to because he would just give her money to sit
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there and talk to him and she said that you know he seemed like a just like a lonely
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guy and that he was basically paying for her friendship we had never discovered any evidence of
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any kind of sexual relationships we asked the girls that and we have no evidence at all that
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rachel ever engaged in any kind of activity like that with him or anyone else for that matter
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jack had a previous drunk driving arrest so it wasn't unusual for him to stay at
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the motel connected to the dance club he would rent a motel room himself and if he was too drunk to drive sometimes
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the divas management would comp him a room the weird thing about that was his wife was cool with it and she would
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actually drive him to divas and drop him off jack danafa had no criminal past and was
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well liked if you could pick your neighbors you'd pick jack dinoff because there
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wasn't anything you wouldn't do for you came from a good family was a workaholic ace pool player
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backslapping guy you know chairman of his high school alumni association great guy on the night of rachel's
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murder witnesses saw rachel accompany an inebriated danafa to the motel next door
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to the club jack danafa didn't deny that he simply said she left without going to his room
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we knew jack denofa was in there but we wanted to find out we want to place rachel
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in that room four days had passed since danafa stayed in the motel room and it had been cleaned repeatedly but
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analysts got a break on the outside windowsill they found white fibers and there was a tiny spot
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of blood in the shower stall andrew nardelli compared those fibers to fibers from rachel's sweater
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one of the main types of characteristics that we would look for first off would be color and a number of
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the fibers from the window were a different color than the types of fibers that were from the
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sweater though superficially similar the fibers did not match investigators now compared the blood
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sample from the shower stall to rachel's dna and got another setback with the swab from the shower stall
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there was no dna detected i ran the sample twice i tried to concentrate the sample
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however it was a small very weak blood swab so no dna was detected from that swab on dinafa's
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hotel registration he said he was driving a 1996 red dodge pickup truck that was parked in the hotel parking lot
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if he did cross the bridge that night surveillance cameras would show it they show clearly a 1996
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red dodge ram pickup truck with a motionless body in the open bed with clothes similar to
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rachel ciani's going through the toll booth at 13 minutes after three on march 29th
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25 minutes later the truck returned with nothing in the back what the tapes don't show
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clearly anyway is who's behind the wheel of that truck the license plate was
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impossible to read but police now had probable cause to search danafa's truck
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they discovered it had been thoroughly cleaned we thought we possibly lost any trace
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evidence of rachel being in that in that truck the first search didn't turn up any fibers fingerprints
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or blood from rachel but part of the truck might have withstood multiple washings
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a plastic bed liner in the same area where this surveillance image showed what looked like
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rachel's body what had happened was the black bed liner was not connected properly to the bed when the
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bed liner was removed analysts found what looked like blood dna showed it was rachel cianni's
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i couldn't wait to hear how he would ever try to explain that rachel siani's
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blood was in the back of his pickup truck when questioned by police danafa had an
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incredible explanation he said someone else must have driven his truck what am i missing here
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am i the dumbest prosecutor on earth that this guy really thinks he can win this thing
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this is the last known picture of rachel siani taken by a girlfriend just hours before
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her murder for some crazy reason she had a camera in the car i guess this girl young girls
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will do she pulled out the camera and snapped a picture of her right opposite her in the car
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surveillance photograph showed what appeared to be rachel's body injecting off his red
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pickup truck as he drove over the bridge into new jersey on the night of the murder according to
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friends rachel was dinoff's favorite dancer at divas gentlemen's club rachel knew him pretty well and she told
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people that she thought he was a loser a sucker is what she called him he would give her a hundred
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two hundred sometimes three hundred dollars just for sitting next to him at divas
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and so his money did not buy her heart but it did buy her trust and that would prove fatal to rachel
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she thought he was harmless on the night of rachel's murder dinafa stayed in room 223 of the motel
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next door to the club but investigators found no forensic evidence in the room so they tracked down the guest who
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stayed in the room directly below danafa's room that night there was a man staying in the room
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about 3 a.m he reported hearing uh a noise outside his room a thud or a thunk whatever it was it was
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odd but he did not get up to check it out their rooms faced the back of the hotel where there was
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little traffic late at night on the sidewalk below room 223 investigators noticed a dark stain
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we thought that it could be oil we thought that it was odd that someone was changing oil or that their oil
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leaked up on the sidewalk because it was the sidewalk was very close to the building
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i took a white piece of paper and rubbed the stain and when i looked at it it was red a
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presumptive test showed this was human blood a dna test showed it was rachel cialdi's something went
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south in that room that night so what happened to rachel cianni on the night of her
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murder prosecutors say that tuesday night was like any other the regulars were at the gentleman's
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club including jack danafa rachel cianni was the girl that jack dinosaur always wanted
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but couldn't get and you know if he couldn't win her affections with his uh
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pudgy good looks and oily charm he would ply her with money and gifts and buy it that way
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but it didn't work after the club closed for the night while rachel and her friend
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were talking outside jack returned obviously drunk and knocked wildly on the door
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rachel offered to walk jack to the motel next door where he usually stayed after a night out drinking
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the evidence shows she walked him to room [Music] 223. prosecutors believe jack may have made
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some type of advance towards her one that was rejected [Music] enraged he choked rachel
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until she lost consciousness [Music] danafa may have thought she was dead and tried to get rid of her body
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by putting her on the awning below his window this way he could lower her into his
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truck but investigators believe rachel slipped from his grasp and fell to the sidewalk leaving the
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bloodstain later found by police dinafa threw rachel's body in the truck and her blood seeped underneath the
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plastic lining of the truck bed he drove over the bridge into new jersey where he was photographed with what
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looked like rachel's body in the back with little traffic on the bridge that
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time of night he threw rachel's body over the side thinking her death would be ruled a suicide
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but her blood and the fibers from her sweater were found on the side of the bridge proof she was
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injured before she was thrown over proof that it wasn't suicide he was buying her
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drinks tipping her and obviously trying to get something out of her that she didn't want to give
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him whether it was money sex or drugs and when she didn't give it to him he got angry and he hurt her and the
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total lack of respect that he had for her he just dumps her body like she's like she's
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garbage you know we can only assume how it actually started but at least we know
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what happened after it started in november of 2002 jack dinoffa was found guilty of first degree murder
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and given a sentence of 30 years to life in prison it was a bizarre murder two crime scenes
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were extensively cleaned but a few spots of blood survived and pointed directly to jack dinaffa
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they didn't have much to work with in their defense they produced no experts because i'm
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sure they couldn't find any that could attack the validity of the dna or any of the other evidence the
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evidence in the eyewitness accounts kept pointing back the jack dinova but it would have been criminal for us to
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not look at him jack didn't offer certainly wasn't the big shot he pretended to be
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he wanted to be a big shot in the worst way you know he wanted to own dudes when
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he walked in there and he was just a small little man and perhaps the most incompetent killer that
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bucks county's ever seen