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ashley.com today thank you [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
00:01:13
you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man whose
00:01:19
business is always open for business here is Captain it's good to be seen and good to
00:01:25
see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] we are still sipping on a fine New
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through Apple podcast subscription and Colonel that is enough of my business being open up for business
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all right business everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
00:02:39
[Music] for every mystery there is some somewhere who knows the truth perhaps that someone was watching
00:02:58
perhaps as you join watch closely perhaps you may be able to help all the Mysteries
00:03:08
thank you Paul diamano attorney was hired by the Valente family to represent them in
00:03:17
hopes of getting a verdict that would change the manner of death ruling in the death of their daughter 18 year old
00:03:24
Tiffany Valente and this is straight from the diamato law firm.com website right underneath the hashtag Justice for
00:03:35
Tiffany it reads it has been more than seven years since Diane and Steven Valente were told by authorities that
00:03:43
their 18 year old daughter Tiffany had taken her own life struck and killed by a New Jersey Transit Atlantic City rail
00:03:51
line train close to midnight on July 12 2015 near mile marker 45. five miles from their maze Landing home law
00:04:02
enforcement officials believe Tiffany walked the five miles over roadways they had no street lights and for most of it
00:04:10
in her bare feet Tiffany suffered from nectophobia a fear of the dark the parents along with numerous forensic
00:04:18
experts have consistently labeled the suicide determination the product of an investigatory rush to judgment and
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they've appealed through their attorney Paul R D'Amato and his Law Firm to have the case reopen to no avail but the
00:04:35
valente's attorney D'Amato and many others in and Beyond New Jersey believe there's still hope for hashtag Justice
00:04:43
for Tiffany and that the new Unsolved Mysteries Netflix episode mystery at mile marker 45 will be the Catalyst for
00:04:52
new information leading to answers in the lingering troubling question about Tiffany's death was she the victim of
00:05:01
murder was her death an accident the victim of a prank that got fatally out of hand why
00:05:09
was her death so quickly ruled a suicide without first conducting a full-scale autopsy
00:05:16
there is reward information available in this case and last I saw Captain we were
00:05:23
talking forty thousand dollar reward to help solve the 2015 suspicious death of Tiffany Valente and if you have
00:05:31
information they want you to reach out to the family's attorney again that's diamato
00:05:38
law firm.com and there's also reward at Justice for Tiff tiff.com like I said last time I saw the
00:05:49
reward was up to forty thousand dollars now we give that brief description there to
00:05:55
one bring you up to speed and two because the family thinks that something happened to their daughter
00:06:03
between the time she left their home and when she was found and they were notified of her death well we have her
00:06:11
cell phone so don't we have like a cell phone record of who she spoke with we do
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and that's where things get very interesting her family is of the belief of a there's
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a few different theories that they're working with that maybe she went to the end of their
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driveway remember she's afraid of the dark they don't think that she would have went off walking on her own not for
00:06:32
any great distance anyway in the middle of the night so they think that maybe she went out to
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the end of their driveway down the street a little bit on foot and was going to meet a friend there and then
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got picked up by a friend now some have suggested maybe she gets into a vehicle with someone she thought she could trust
00:06:50
and then things got bad quickly and they tossed whoever she got the ride with tossed the
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phone out of the vehicle and took Tiffany away now if you want to go to the ruling side
00:07:02
of it the suicide ruling I guess the belief would be that she decided to toss her phone and just keep on walking that
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night there are other people that suggest something that's even it's to me it's a little more
00:07:17
information and it might be a better Theory there are some that have suggested maybe the cell phone was later
00:07:25
dropped near the family's property and strategically placed there to throw people off well because think
00:07:34
about this she gets into a vehicle with somebody they're driving her around maybe they get out of the vehicle with
00:07:43
her or she just gets out of the vehicle she gets out of the vehicle you still have her items so then you go drop off
00:07:50
all of our items in a location so at least those items aren't in your car anymore
00:07:57
exactly and the situation here being that something happens to Tiffany and they want to discard these items we
00:08:05
talked yesterday about the shoes and the headband being found this would be about
00:08:09
a mile from the family's home and there's no way that those items were at the scene where her body was found when
00:08:16
the incident took place and so we know that for a fact which is which is so bizarre because again you
00:08:24
got to go to the fact that her feet do not show signs of her traveling that Terrain
00:08:30
for that distance before she was later found yeah I know a lot of people seem to put a lot of
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weight to that to me I'm not a foot expert so some people walk around in their bare
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feet all the time so they would have tougher feet I can't walk that much you know on on a
00:08:53
concrete or gravel or anything I always have to have shoes on so I wouldn't be uh you want to catch me without shoes
00:09:01
outside and this area is described as sharp rocks broken glass rough wood now I don't know if they're embellishing a
00:09:09
little bit to push forward their case I've not traveled that this this made that Trek uh on foot or otherwise so I
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cannot tell you exactly what that terrain would be like now we do have a situation where we talked about
00:09:27
possible evidence that may have been not collected at the scene right and one thing we do know for a fact is that
00:09:36
shortly after her death we have one of her uncles one of Tiffany's uncles along with what would be her cousin
00:09:44
go out there and they are looking and retrieving items that were not collected or maybe just not found or located by
00:09:54
the authorities when they had the scene roped off and these items include a bracelet that
00:10:01
was returned to Tiffany's mother Diane but also included things like pieces of her skull and Jawbone
00:10:10
so I would suggest that I mean those are significant items that should have been collected at the scene again
00:10:19
it's either not collected or not located by authorities to collect them it's not
00:10:26
an easy scene I I do want to remind everybody about that it's this is not an easy situation
00:10:34
just the destructive incredibly destructive nature of this incident an accident Foul Play
00:10:44
homicide suicide whatever you want to label it the destruction of any of that taking
00:10:51
place here by train is going to make it very difficult for those to locate certain items especially out in the dark
00:10:58
now maybe they should have roped off this scene longer and again that's what the family's argument is
00:11:05
that this was a quick rush to judgment and they don't like the ruling but just because the family doesn't like the
00:11:13
ruling doesn't mean that it's not true and I I think with like you said a very difficult situation because you have the
00:11:22
destruction you also have you know this is basically train tracks in the middle of the woods so you have a you know very
00:11:30
odd terrain and then on top of that you know this is happening at night again they probably should have came
00:11:38
back several times during the day and I think they should have done several steps
00:11:43
because we've seen this in other cases and they might have been suicides but if you don't cross your t's and Dot your
00:11:52
eyes and do your due diligence it's almost like you're not giving you need to do that you need to be extra
00:11:59
careful with this because this is a hard this is going to be a hard ruling for the family to accept
00:12:06
well it's not just that if there was Foul Play involved in this young woman's death there's nobody investigating it
00:12:13
because of the ruling as a manner of death so when it's ruled a suicide there they will never investigate this as a
00:12:20
homicide now one thing we have pointed out there are many jurisdictions out there that when they respond to a death
00:12:28
that it regardless of what it ends up their findings end up being many jurisdictions work under the
00:12:35
protocol that until we find evidence that it is that suggests otherwise this is a homicide right
00:12:42
and I wish that that would have taken place here because now with this ruling nobody's
00:12:49
ever going to investigate this as a homicide so you may have a killer or people that were involved in the demise
00:12:54
of this young woman out there that will never be caught they will never be identified because
00:13:01
there's nobody working it now some people are probably saying well maybe I don't see a crime here that's fine
00:13:07
that's what we're trying to do lay out the information and let you form an opinion but I will remind you all of
00:13:12
this last year we covered the Boardman murders the murders of three young males in Boardman Ohio that took place in the
00:13:22
70s the third death was ruled by the I believe he was not just Pathologists he was an actual doctor
00:13:31
was ruled to be natural causes the victim had diabetes and and slipped into a diabetic coma
00:13:40
okay now that case would have never been investigated as a murder or a homicide but the police the Boardman police said
00:13:50
you know what we don't like your ruling doctor we see obvious evidence that there is Foul Play and that somebody is
00:13:57
responsible for this boy's death that boy is David Evans 12 years old David Evans
00:14:05
he's he's abducted and killed is what we later learned the person responsible was
00:14:11
a man named Joseph Hill they connected this serial killer to that young boy's death
00:14:18
with Joseph Hill's DNA this year this year 2023 so almost 50 years later we had a bad ruling by a medical
00:14:29
examiner a police department that refused to believe it and continue to work it as a homicide and they solved it
00:14:34
almost 50 years later so these things do exist yeah and I don't understand it seems
00:14:41
like in our society and also in the True Crime world and correct me if I'm wrong
00:14:47
here is that everybody who just wants to be right like they I you know whether it's the
00:14:56
Delphi investigation whether it's JonBenet Ramsey whether it's Mara Murray whether it's Brian Shaffer people come
00:15:03
to me with opinions and they're willing to die on that sword and not listen to anybody on anything
00:15:11
what's so wrong with law enforcement going hey our initial findings you you discussed this only with the family our
00:15:18
initial findings is that we believe that this is suicide now we're going to take
00:15:24
some time to try to prove ourselves wrong do the work well and that's why most jurisdictions will arrive on scene and
00:15:33
say until we have evidence to suggest otherwise this is a homicide investigation right because then you
00:15:39
can't really go wrong it's easier to look all the families asking for here is that this be ruled a suspicious death or
00:15:47
an indetermined death and so let's let's get into some of this information because we got a lot to get
00:15:54
through here Captain this is from Louise Houseman she's a retired senior medical
00:15:59
investigator who was yes hired by the family and yes hired by the family's attorney so she does have a dog in the
00:16:08
fight we don't know her so we cannot say that she went into this impartial at all and
00:16:15
then made a ruling I'm hoping that that is the case that she went in there to give an expert opinion based off of the
00:16:21
evidence that she could review and went in there impartially and arrived at this conclusion but what
00:16:27
she's stating here is it since September 21 2016 she has had several opportunities to read
00:16:34
reports and interviews by employees of the New Jersey Transit Police Department the Atlantic County prosecutor's office
00:16:41
and the regional medical examiner's office she goes on to say that she's visited the scene where Tiffany Valenti
00:16:47
was struck by a New Jersey Transit train and has reviewed all photographs that were taken by investigators regarding
00:16:53
Tiffany's death and she goes on to say all these items that she's reviewed and the the long she
00:16:59
went on a very long process of reviewing this case much longer than the medical examiner did and
00:17:07
what we have here is she's stating that it is her opinion that the medical examiner arrived at the conclusion of
00:17:16
suicide manner of death is suicide simply based off of verbal and writings by the engineer the train engineer so
00:17:31
making this determination based off of nothing other than the engineer statement the engineer doesn't know
00:17:38
the person that's dead on the tracks does it know anything going on in their life prior to doesn't know anything
00:17:44
about the evidence doesn't know about the missing shoes and headband you gotta make your ruling off of a
00:17:52
totality of the evidence and I'm not saying that the medical did not I'm saying it is this
00:17:59
medical examiner retired medical examiner's opinion that the medical examiner made that determination simply
00:18:06
off of that engineer statement now this senior medical investigator retired houseman
00:18:15
is reviewing the case and arrived at the conclusion that this should be up for review that they should take into
00:18:23
consideration and label this a suspicious death or manner of death indetermined because I think most will agree
00:18:33
especially once we get through this that there are reasons there are things that
00:18:37
a logical individual could arrive at the conclusion of suicide but there's other
00:18:42
reasons to suggest other that something more Sinister may be at play here she goes on to state that it is highly
00:18:50
unlikely that Tiffany Valente a very accomplished 18 year old female athlete walked Barefoot from her home on Tilton
00:18:57
Road along Poma Road to the railroad tracks and then walked over a mile alongside the tracks to
00:19:03
where Tiffany's body came in contact with the train so that's we get a distance there Captain it's a mile from
00:19:11
the time that she would have been on a road she would have been walking along the train tracks for a mile before she
00:19:18
arrived at the location where her body came in contact with the train like we said there's no evidence
00:19:25
that she was impaired but it makes you wonder like is is there a possibility that she just passed out
00:19:32
on the the tracks I don't know why somebody would do that but I I I've well that she cites that so
00:19:42
here we go death by train is extremely unusual method of suicide to be contemplated by anyone especially a
00:19:49
female teenager with no history of emotional instability the loud sound of an approaching train is much more likely
00:19:57
to invoke a flight response in a sober individual which we know toxicology says she was in fact sober
00:20:05
had Tiffany wanted to commit suicide she could have walked in front of a car on a
00:20:09
heavily traveled highways of Tilton Road or route 30. the toxicology report from
00:20:14
the medical examiner's office was negative for drugs and alcohol and I agree completely with that
00:20:21
statement she's the expert so you don't need me to agree one thing we need to point out here Captain is the engineers
00:20:29
both engineer statements have changed okay and I love it when people's stories change well
00:20:38
I'm going to give them a little I'm going to show them a little mercy no no mercy well not in this Dojo if you hit
00:20:45
somebody with your car I would it would be logical to think that you might be experiencing some
00:20:53
trauma and some Shock of your own yes and in the moment maybe not be able to give a clear
00:21:01
statement and maybe you filled in some of the blanks because you felt that you that you had to give a statement at that
00:21:09
time right and then later your statement changed and so the the senior engineer who is
00:21:18
teaching the student engineer the short we can give the short version of of how his statement changed
00:21:23
originally this the student engineer says that he saw the trespasser which is what they labeled Tiffany as
00:21:31
trespasser who Dove right in front of the train as the train approached the senior engineer backs up that
00:21:40
statement then later the senior engineer changes his statement to saying that his back
00:21:47
was turned before impact meaning that he did not see the trespasser dive in front of the
00:21:56
train but he saw impact no he didn't see anything he didn't see well I mean we're talking
00:22:02
not not even a second man like it's uh not even a split second but between the time of the the person diving in front
00:22:11
of the train to impact it would be so incredibly quick lightning fast the Train's traveling 80 mile an hour
00:22:19
this guy's saying when this happened my back was turned initially backed up the student engineer
00:22:26
later changes it to my back was turned and these employees probably feel completely awful
00:22:32
and just a side note yes there was I believe a little over 60 passengers they weren't in a position that that they
00:22:41
were able to be eyewitnesses to this event that's correct the only Witnesses believed to be and this is based off of
00:22:50
the Transit Police interviews with everybody on that train is there were so there were three
00:22:57
trained Personnel that were interviewed of the three we have two Engineers are the only listed as the only Witnesses
00:23:07
and we as we just pointed out one of those Engineers statement changed and our medical examiner Houseman she's
00:23:15
going to say Tiffany was struck by the train at 20 23 10 hours so that's 11 10 at night on July 12th the medical
00:23:26
examiner arrived on the scene about about two hours a little less than two hours later according to the medical
00:23:33
examiner's report it says that the statements differ greatly by these Engineers that were later made
00:23:43
by the transit Personnel charged with the operation of the train that night so that's not in question we we have the
00:23:51
original medical examiner and this individual who's reviewing everything both agree that the statements changed
00:23:59
greatly is the word that's used here and these are the reasons why the family questioning this outcome is makes a lot
00:24:07
of sense there's so many red flags she's afraid of the dark to she get picked up
00:24:12
by somebody well why was her phone in this location why were her shoes in this other location what would she be doing
00:24:20
walking along the train tracks then you find out that there's items left by law enforcement why are they so quick to
00:24:28
rush to judgment now we have two Engineers one of them is changing their story completely
00:24:35
hey it's enough of a reason to if you're law enforcement to go hey well we we understand where you're
00:24:42
coming from we're going to leave this open we're not going to make a ruling on it until we feel like we're 100 sure of
00:24:50
what happened right so here's the short of how these statements by the student engineer
00:24:58
change okay so initially what is told is that the trespasser darted out or dove in front of the train
00:25:12
and then it was struck by the head of the train and this will change to a statement that
00:25:21
goes like this as I come closer approximately a quarter of a mile away or a little closer than that I noticed
00:25:28
that it was in fact a human being he's talking about he had the headlights on on Bright and auxiliary lights on as
00:25:36
well and could see something up ahead so he's already blowing the horn and he says as he got closer I could in fact
00:25:43
see that it was a human being in a crouched position in dark clothing well that's not the description of what
00:25:51
she was wearing at all and the engineer goes on to say a I'm blowing the horn a really long horn just to get their
00:25:58
attention you know just to let them know hey I'm traveling pretty fast I was traveling approximately 80 miles an hour
00:26:07
maximum authorized speed 79 perhaps and as I'm getting closer the individual in the black clothing stands up and I
00:26:16
immediately recognize that it's a female I keep blowing my horn as I'm as I'm approaching closer the individual stands
00:26:24
up faces toward the gouge of the track or towards the track and as I'm approaching closer
00:26:31
probably within like five seconds of passing her she jumps she Dives in front of the train to the
00:26:38
lower portion of the cab car I was operating from the cab car and I noticed and I'm still blowing my horn I shout
00:26:45
immediately because you know it was a first experience for me we hit her I see matter go everywhere and then I
00:26:55
placed the track the train immediately into emergency brake application the reason why we need to have this
00:27:04
statement underline and make mental note of the the statement of I see matter go everywhere we talked
00:27:12
about without getting too much into the weeds in too much detail here we talked about the trauma and the destruction to
00:27:19
the body right limbs severed cut or ripped different descriptions but those are the descriptions of the limbs there
00:27:29
was severe trauma and damage to the skull area we already talked about the uncle and the cousin collecting pieces
00:27:36
of that part of her body later after the police had left the scene if somebody were to do something to this young woman
00:27:44
you could kill her with a gun an ax a knife strangulation and after being run over by this train Place her body on
00:27:52
those tracks and it would show you would see no sign of that that that would be complete a complete mystery to the
00:28:00
medical examiner and that's why it's called a mystery at mile marker 45 let's take a quick beer break
00:28:09
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garage today [Music] all right we are back cheers mates onward and upwards cheers to you Colonel cheers to you
00:33:07
Captain we need to Circle back into something that we left off with on yesterday's show and that was the bruise
00:33:14
on the arm that sparked the visit of child protective services to the Valente home so Tiffany has this bruise on her
00:33:22
arm and after talking to Child Protective Services her mother Diane admits look we had an argument things
00:33:29
got a little rough had a bit of a dust up here and I punched her in the arm and that's why my daughter had a bruise okay
00:33:36
nobody wants to hear that in a report nobody wants to hear uh an adult punching a child now keep in mind
00:33:44
Tiffany is six foot two or six foot three by every report out there and she would have been 17 years old at the time
00:33:52
of the incident I'm not excusing that type of behavior I don't think anybody should ever do
00:33:57
physical harm to one another but I will tell you something that that we've that I told you before on this show I had
00:34:04
several long conversations with some Suburban police officers a couple years ago
00:34:11
and one thing that I found fascinating was I was talking about domestic violence or house calls and I wanted to
00:34:20
know you know how how many house calls do you get in relation to obvious violence or theft or robbery or
00:34:28
something on the streets or out of business and the officers told me that the overwhelming majority of their calls are
00:34:36
domestic calls and of course immediately I picture some drunk husband slapping his wife
00:34:43
and they said no most of our calls are domestic calls and most of them are mothers and teenage
00:34:52
daughters who are in a rather heated argument and either somebody else in the family
00:34:58
calls the police because things are getting crazy or the daughter calls to the police or the mother calls the
00:35:04
police they said that is the majority of our calls again I'm not explaining I'm not trying to excuse any of this type of
00:35:10
behavior I'm just saying that what is being presented as a huge red flag doesn't seem so big
00:35:19
in retrospect when you cross-reference that with what we know now so we do know in that
00:35:26
situation look we can get let's get very detailed here so this medical examiner is doing a review and says that no one
00:35:36
from the medical examiner's office because we need to call into question the mental and emotional state of the
00:35:42
decedent and this medical examiner is saying no one from the medical examiner's office
00:35:48
has ever interviewed Tiffany's parents or sisters ever not not the day of the day after the week
00:35:57
after according to this report ever and they go on to say that when she worked at the Atlantic County medical
00:36:04
examiner's office it was mandatory under their policy and procedures to interview
00:36:09
the decedent's family as part of the investigation well let's dive more into this uh basically it's an abuse
00:36:17
allegation with the bruise on Tiffany's arm right and let's keep in mind that the mother does admit to punching
00:36:24
Tiffany in the arm so it's not like we're trying to cover anything up here and so in that report what we have is
00:36:34
this it states Tiffany's relationship with her mother in 2014 was strained Diane Valenti the mother admitted she
00:36:42
had become short-tempered but attributed this to menopausal changes remember the
00:36:48
this accusation of abuse or or sending the services out there took place in 2014. it says in 2014 one of Tiffany's
00:36:56
teachers saw Bruce on her arm and contacted d-y-f-s the case was investigated who visited
00:37:05
the home three times and spoke to all family members and even speaking to the sisters the caseworker suggested Diane
00:37:13
and Tiffany undergo counseling because they were having communication problems at the time
00:37:19
not that uncommon for teenagers to not be communicating well with their parents you mean you mean that you mean that
00:37:28
teenagers don't get along with their parents well look we've all been there you you turned 17 18 you start thinking
00:37:36
you know everything and really you're just probably a do Mass you know this is straight from the
00:37:42
Atlantic care summary report mother admits to punching her in the arm after an argument client
00:37:49
that is Tiffany is referred to as the client client has been making poor decisions lately smoking cannabis with
00:37:56
friends skipping class after her grandfather's death and taking money from mother's bank account and they do
00:38:03
clearly State here granted access by mother so she already she had access to the bank account just using it
00:38:10
improperly client Tiffany is a good student athlete and has clear future goals client reports she is aware of the
00:38:19
poor judgment and feels she has learned her lesson so Mom is admitting she's wrong Tiffany's
00:38:27
admitting that she is wrong as well that she's learned her lesson and was just being stupid and immature her own words
00:38:35
per the report mother and client have difficulty communicating but are otherwise a stable family client denies
00:38:43
Suicidal Tendencies homicidal Tendencies denies anxiety and denies depression mother acknowledged not being able to
00:38:52
move on from the incidents due to her anxiety family accepted the suggestion to work on communication in the home
00:39:01
mother will seek independent support if needed return to care if needed as there
00:39:06
is no evidence of psychiatric disorder as such case was not accepted so this was reviewed
00:39:16
investigated they found no trouble in the home they found no signs of abuse and they they found what is described as
00:39:28
stable family so it wasn't like this wasn't looked into and then we have more information about
00:39:37
this relationship remember we said yesterday that a relationship had ended well everything that's in this report
00:39:44
suggests that it was a mutual ending of that relationship and that Not only was it Mutual but
00:39:53
Tiffany had started to move on she was already talking to another interest talking to somebody that she was about
00:40:03
having a relationship with this other person and just again to go back to the abuse claims
00:40:12
these organizations that look into these they're going to do their due diligence
00:40:17
they're going to make sure that they feel confident that when they walk away that child is going to be safe yes there
00:40:24
were three visits there were multiple interviews with family members something that the medical examiner that ruled it
00:40:29
to suicide did not do and on top of that there was a counseling session attended
00:40:34
by mother and daughter well let's dive back into the information we know of the cell phone
00:40:40
yes and I think this is incredibly interesting to me here because let's go into this with with knowing a
00:40:48
couple facts here no one has ever come forward saying that they offered Tiffany a ride that they saw her walking that
00:40:55
night there was no ring doorbell camera footage Simply Safe camera footage ADT residential cons camera footage showing
00:41:06
her walking so however she got there the authorities say she walked there the family says
00:41:13
maybe something else happened now this cell phone is very interesting remember she goes she walks away storms
00:41:21
off at approximately 9 30. her father finds the cell phone at 11 approximately 11 o'clock so an hour and a half later
00:41:28
those times are key before we get into this information so this is what Louise Houseman found
00:41:38
and her statement is if there is one thing a teenager tends to cling to it's their cell phone anyone
00:41:45
with a teenager knows their cell phone becomes an appendage it is highly suspicious Tiffany did not
00:41:51
retain her cell phone after she left her residence it is much more likely she would have blocked her mother's text or
00:41:59
silenced the phone rather than willingly dispose of the cell phone in the brush by the end of her driveway many people
00:42:07
were searching for Tiffany on foot and in open Vehicles so note that the family is texting and calling her at some point
00:42:15
that night trying to figure out where she is phone records reveal many tried calling her cell phone continually to
00:42:22
the point where her phone received a call almost every minute or two from various friends and family yet no one
00:42:30
heard her cell phone ring despite the fact it was found by her father only a few yards from the family driveway
00:42:38
that's that's quite interesting now it could have been in vibrate mode or silent mode
00:42:44
was it purposely placed in the location by someone later in the night or was this where Tiffany
00:42:51
dropped it as she walked away at 9 28 p.m that night the phone was turned over to the Atlantic County prosecutor's
00:43:02
office Major Crimes unit on July 29th by a detective the following is a statement
00:43:08
provided to this medical examiner by Crystal who is Tiffany's one of Tiffany's sisters
00:43:16
so the sister said she examined did an examination of the downloaded data from Tiffany's cell phone
00:43:26
and this statement is it is Crystal's belief that the data shows the cell phone was in use after Tiffany walked
00:43:33
away from the home and before the cell phone was found by her father here we go quote there's some evidence
00:43:40
that I have found in Tiffany's phone that raises a question of how and who there was a call from
00:43:48
I will I'll change the name to JH to Tiffany note the time here captain and everybody out there in listenerland 10
00:43:58
39 PM this is on the night that she died phone is found at approximately 11 she left at approximately 9 30.
00:44:07
this call comes in at 10 39 pm on July 12 2015. it was answered for 24 seconds nobody says they were with Tiffany that
00:44:20
night nobody says they gave her a ride nobody admits to seeing her walking that night yet this information says
00:44:31
that at 10 39 PM that night Tiffany or someone else answered that phone and there was a call for 24 seconds 24
00:44:40
seconds not a lot of time but enough time to tell somebody where you're at to have them pick you up
00:44:47
it certainly raises some questions again if Tiffany didn't answer that phone who
00:44:52
did right so who had Tiffany's phone yeah so many things don't make sense and again it's found by her father just a
00:45:01
few yards from their driveway from the driveway of Tiffany's home home now listen to this it doesn't stop there
00:45:07
there it was also data usage in Tiffany's phone that shows someone was on her phone in an app that uses a large
00:45:15
amount of data at 10 42 pm on the same night there is another time before that at 10
00:45:24
23 PM that shows data usage as well but not as much this is Tiffany's sister saying that
00:45:31
this indicated to me that Tiffany would not have had her phone being she was Miles Away
00:45:37
and it being close to the time of her death okay so what cannot happen What cannot scientifically happen unless she
00:45:45
had a jet pack strapped to her back and managed to discard and hide that before death too she did not answer that phone
00:45:53
where it was found and then end up just minutes later being struck by the train miles away so that's some
00:46:02
more information on the cell phone but we also have the headband and the sneakers that were
00:46:09
found in a different location than the phone right that's correct so this expert is saying that
00:46:15
based off of the the totality of the evidence she is saying the possibility that
00:46:21
Tiffany was abducted at some point and driven to the location where she was later found dead cannot be ruled out due
00:46:28
to the remoteness of the scene vehicles used by First Responders to access the scene most likely destroyed any evidence
00:46:35
of a vehicle having recently been in this location or any Footprints left by anyone prior to the first responder's
00:46:42
arrival and then to your point Captain going on to say on August 3rd she was killed July 12th on August 3rd
00:46:53
at three 19 in the afternoon Tiffany's mother who never gave up searching for evidence in
00:47:01
her daughter's death found Tiffany's headband in sneakers in a leafy area approximately 15 feet off of a heavily
00:47:09
traveled old Tilton Road Mike Valenti called so this is one of uh Tiffany's father's
00:47:18
brothers so her uncle called the police who then contacted the detective in charge who proceeded to photograph the
00:47:27
area and secured these items a sweatshirt was also found on the shoulder of the roadway approximately 15
00:47:35
feet from the sneakers photographs of the sweatshirt suggest it was not weathered and may have been recently
00:47:43
discarded in the location where it was found what they're pointing out here is the
00:47:49
shoes in the headband being found more than half a month later about three weeks later yeah very
00:47:58
bizarre they're saying they may not have been there since the night of the death
00:48:02
that they may have been placed there at another time much closer to the time that they were found
00:48:08
yeah which would be direct evidence that somebody had them somewhere else AKA a vehicle yes and so what we have
00:48:19
here is that sweatshirt that we're talking about we have Diane her mother who's saying that no that sweatshirt did
00:48:26
not belong to Tiffany and Diane's also telling this expert that she found a car key tag on the ground near the sneakers
00:48:36
a tag that would commonly be placed on a key when a car is being serviced at a dealership Diane advised this
00:48:44
investigator that the detective in charge detective Sweeney secured the key tag and all items found at this location
00:48:53
so they did the right thing these items are recovered some of them belong to Tiffany some of them do not but they're
00:48:59
all collected by the authorities bagged and tagged and again I just don't understand law enforcement's
00:49:05
position because as new evidence comes out these missing items that you didn't recover
00:49:13
that were were recovered by the family or somebody else yes you made a ruling but
00:49:21
there's not nothing that says that you can't say hey we got some new information and we want to reopen this
00:49:28
investigation well and I want to sum up what this expert's opinion is in their report because the report itself is
00:49:37
about 20 depending on how you want to look at it it's it's every bit of 29 pages but written by the senior medical
00:49:45
exam investigator who's retired Louise Houseman her written portion is 19 pages long so I'll sum it up for you her
00:49:55
conclusion and it's this it's stating that multiple inaccurate apparently self-serving conflicting statements made
00:50:03
to investigators by the engineer and his student who turns out was unsupervised at the
00:50:10
time of the incident remember he later says his back was turned so the only eyewitness to this event
00:50:18
this is not in question this is based off of their statements the only eyewitness to this event is the student
00:50:24
engineer who this expert says their account factually contradicts the m-i-e-r Black Box on the train that's
00:50:35
recording everything that's going on with the train right this expert goes on to say that no drug or alcohol test of
00:50:42
the student engineer was ever conducted a sworn statement was not taken from this person until 10 days after the
00:50:49
death well this is a big problem because we know that eyewitness statements are not always that accurate so you want to
00:50:56
get a count of the events as quickly as you can and their findings this expert's
00:51:02
findings was that it was improbable that Tiffany would have been able to jump or
00:51:06
dive in front of the train they give a good description here Captain it's a distance
00:51:11
of 15 to 20 feet into a built up Stone railwood railroad grade from a standing position so based off of
00:51:19
his statement he says that it's from a standing position darted or dove in front of the train
00:51:26
the other one was it stood up in front of the train but this expert saying that it would be scientifically incorrect for
00:51:35
someone to in a standing position make that leap of 15 to 20 feet given the built up Stone railroad grade
00:51:44
yeah it's very strange this this is some other things that we kind of talked about a little bit but this is
00:51:51
confirmation from an actual expert that states the head was crushed brain obliterated
00:51:58
the skull severely fragmented obscuring evidence of possible anti-mortem injury such as from a gunshot wound no Footwear
00:52:07
found at the scene there is no indication Tiffany suffered from CTE investigators failed to interview family
00:52:15
in a timely manner popular with a close circle of friends admired by her teachers coaches employers and neighbors
00:52:22
raised as if she were a single child for the past 10 years by Two Loving parents
00:52:27
and indulged by two devoted sisters two grandmothers and many relatives received five scholarships for sports
00:52:35
and academics preparing and looking forward to going away to Mercy College in four weeks to play on a Collegiate
00:52:42
volleyball team and to major in criminal justice so this expert is reviewing it and says that
00:52:52
and I'll read exactly that therefore it is my professional opinion the death of Tiffany Valente warrants further
00:52:57
investigation and the manner of death should be amended by the medical examiner from suicide to undetermined
00:53:05
both of us being huge fans of Unsolved Mysteries this is how we came across this case I remember watching the
00:53:12
episode and texting you about it and saying this is definitely one that you're going to want to watch
00:53:18
it's confusing and I don't know which way Eileen some of the times but I definitely lean towards the idea
00:53:30
that if we don't have all the information if we're finding new evidence after the ruling that the
00:53:37
ruling should just you know just dismiss the ruling and continue the investigation
00:53:45
yeah this one's really hard to put an opinion on and so I'll leave my opinion here with this because
00:53:54
the way that I see it Captain if we're going to apply science and logic to making our determination
00:54:01
is that if that cell phone data if Tiffany's cell phone data is correct then there's Foul Play involved
00:54:10
I I can't stand here and put my hand on a stack of Bibles and tell you that it's
00:54:15
correct I can only tell you what I've reviewed in the information coming out from others who say that they've
00:54:21
reviewed that information right if that cell phone data is correct about that incoming 24 second received call
00:54:29
and the data being used on her cell phone by apps after the time that she leaves her home prior to that phone
00:54:37
being found there's no way that she was using her phone at that location [Music]
00:54:45
and then ended up dead on the tracks four miles away and walked there it just you it cannot
00:54:52
be done it physically cannot be done unless she's like a like a cheetah or something
00:54:58
it just I mean Tyrique Hill could not make that Trek that fast right so if that information is correct then I
00:55:06
suspect strongly that there's Foul Play here there was some local rumors that maybe
00:55:11
Two Three or upward of six people may know what happened that night the one of the local rumors that was that she was
00:55:19
picked up by a a male and two females and uh made to remove some of her clothing
00:55:26
maybe in a vehicle maybe they got rid of her phone maybe they dumped her phone after the fact but that she was taken to
00:55:33
the railroad tracks and humiliated before she was either killed or pushed in front of the train again those are
00:55:41
simply rumors but my opinion is as said if if that information on that phone is as reported
00:55:48
by her sister and as is in that report of the retired medical examiner then Foul Play has to be involved now there
00:55:57
was an update good good news like the family kept pushing and the authorities did agree to re-examine or at least test
00:56:05
some of the air quotes evidence I wish I had the unsolved mystery update music I
00:56:12
do love the update because it always shocks you you know oh oh yeah well especially when they're airing the case
00:56:18
for the very first time and you're like well damn there's already an update that
00:56:21
was these guys were fast these guys but you're like oh no we we recorded the episode a month ago and then like a week
00:56:28
ago we arrested the guy we still we still had to run the the story so listen to this Captain this
00:56:35
if you weren't angry it now is the time the appropriate time to get a little angry so remember they
00:56:43
agreed the authorities agreed to test some of the evidence that they had stored in Tiffany's case okay and here
00:56:54
is what they came up with closure remains elusive is what we are told because the new forensic and DNA
00:57:03
analysis on those items could only conclude that the New Jersey Transit Police had lost
00:57:10
or left to ruin key pieces of the puzzle the shirt Tiffany was wearing had been stored in a plastic bag tied into a knot
00:57:19
where it became covered with mold and scientifically useless other key items quote had been Outdoors exposed to the
00:57:28
elements for a few weeks prior to being collected end quote making them similarly
00:57:34
contaminated the report found this is my problem and this is a growing problem like I said in the True Crime Community
00:57:42
is where people have opinions or they go down a rabbit hole and they get blind sided and they just
00:57:54
they put their blinders on and and and this is the this is the answer that I came up with
00:58:01
and I am not going to listen to any other opinions and it seems like in this case
00:58:09
[Applause] I have no reason not to believe that law enforcement didn't destroy these
00:58:16
items maliciously because they're so they were so hell-bent on not going down any other rabbit holes the
00:58:27
other problem though again goes back to the ruling of the manner of death because if it with it being a suicide I
00:58:34
don't know how much of an obligation they are under to maintain these items very good point and to maintain custody
00:58:40
of this evidence and we should be seeking the truth we should always be seeking the truth it's one of my big
00:58:48
arguments with like The West Memphis Three case okay so you're gonna you're gonna tell me that you're gonna release
00:58:56
three individuals that you think are responsible for killing three children but you're not going to keep the case
00:59:04
open so we can then figure out who actually did it you're saying they did it but you're
00:59:10
going to release them out to the public makes no sense at all it's like if you're going
00:59:16
who need to constantly be looking for the truth and not trying to be the one that's raising our hand up and saying I
00:59:24
was right I was right and I I just don't understand what what did law enforcement has
00:59:33
nothing to lose but a little bit of time and a little bit of effort if the medical examiner comes back and
00:59:41
says well based on what we know based on the tests we've done we're leaning towards suicide we're going to
00:59:49
tell the family that and then tell them hey be patient with us because we don't want
00:59:55
to close this case until we get the information correct get all of our ducks in a row right yes and examine and
01:00:05
vet those Ducks so the the Valente family of course had a response a statement to
01:00:12
uh the the inconclusive finding of the test that was granted on these items and they said look
01:00:23
we were hopeful for a miracle with the DNA testing especially knowing Tiffany's Death From the Start was dismissed as a
01:00:31
suicide without a proper investigation ever conducted there is no excuse for evidence being mishandled
01:00:39
and then it goes on to say we're talking now we're talking about the ax remember that the the acts that
01:00:46
was found near the scene that had red markings on it right well there were hopes that they would test
01:00:54
the acts but the authority said we could not test test the ax because it's missing oh God the family's
01:01:05
response quote NJ Transit lost the ax how do you lose an ax a spokesman for NJ for the New Jersey
01:01:14
Transit declined to comment of course they did a letter to the family's attorney detailing their findings from
01:01:22
these newer tests state from a laboratory director stated that the packaging and maintenance of
01:01:29
the DNA and physical evidence by the New Jersey Transit Police was not in Conformity with acceptable protocols
01:01:37
again it's almost like they had their ruling and they weren't going to have anybody
01:01:43
tell them what to do and when they said hey here's this new information here's new evidence can you
01:01:51
test this instead of doing so because they might have got a different result those items were destroyed or misplaced
01:02:01
and again it looks like given the state of the the evidence at this time the the
01:02:08
only way that this is getting changed the manner of death getting changed or amended in this case or an actual
01:02:14
investigation into possible foul play in the death of Tiffany Valente will be if
01:02:20
a witness or Witnesses come forward if anybody has information again there is a reward out there for information please
01:02:29
contact the family's attorney and you can find their contact information on the website
01:02:35
diamatto law firm.com please [Music] want to thank everybody for joining us each and every week in the garage
01:02:57
Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this week Captain we got a little something
01:03:02
for your eyeballs and your ear balls check out our friends over at the law and crime Network on YouTube You're
01:03:10
Gonna Love what they're doing I'm sure you've probably already heard of them or seen them by now also check out their
01:03:16
latest severed Affair also available in podcast form that's law and crime Network check them out tell them the
01:03:25
colonel and the captain sent you you can find that great recommendation as well as many others on our recommended page
01:03:31
on our website truecrimegarage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't live
01:03:44
thank you [Music] foreign