FAMILY/SUPPORTERS PETITION N.J. ATTORNEY GENERAL TO REOPEN TIFFANY VALIANTE CASE
WWW.CHANGE.ORG PLATFORM HOSTS GRASSROOTS PETITION
Tiffany Valiante was 18 when on July 12, 2015, she was struck by a New Jersey Transit, Atlantic City Rail Line train bound for Atlantic City from Philadelphia. Shocking to this day is that police and the N.J. medical examiner, without conducting a complete investigation (a full autopsy was never conducted; a rape test kit never administered; her parents, years later, had to pay the cost to an independent lab to analyze what DNA evidence wasn’t contaminated), almost immediately said Tiff took her own life. To them, it was case closed before her casket was ordered.
Several experts agree there was a rush to judgement that led to the rapid, unsupported Medical Examiner’s Office ruling of death by suicide (though independent investigators would later lean towards homicide as the cause). The facts didn’t add up in 2015 and they don’t today. That is why there’s an appeal to NJ Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and his Criminal Division (800-277-2427) to order the case reopened. Classifying her death a suicide was in itself an injustice.
Tiffany’s family and friends refuse to write her death off an unsolved mystery, let alone give up. They’ll persist until there’s #JusticeForTiffany.
Family, friends and supporters of #JusticeForTiffany are now petitioning New Jersey’s Attorney General to reopen her case. For more, including a link to the Change.Org Petition, click here. Thank You!
See the full petition below:
TEXT OF PARENTS’ LETTER TO N.J. A.G., AND BASIS FOR PETITION
I am proud and honored to support this petition drive, led by Dianne and Stephen Valiante, in the name of their daughter Tiffany. I fully endorse their position, expressed below, to the N.J. Attorney General:
Our daughter, Tiffany, was 18 when on July 12, 2015, she was struck by a New Jersey Transit, Atlantic City Rail Line train bound for Atlantic City from Philadelphia. Shocking to this day is that police and the N.J. medical examiner, without conducting a complete investigation (the record shows there wasn’t a full autopsy, any psychological autopsy, and an explanation for lost physical evidence from the scene, including a bloody axe) almost immediately concluded Tiff took her own life. To them, it was case closed before her casket was ordered.
Several experts agree there was a rush to judgement that led to the rapid, unsupported Medical Examiner’s Office ruling of suicide. It’s much more likely she was a murder victim. The facts didn’t add up in 2015 and they don’t today as we appeal to NJ Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, and his Division of Criminal Justice, to immediately order the case reopened.
BACKGROUND
It was nearly midnight. Tiff, who was terrified of the dark, was about five miles from our Mays Landing, NJ, house. She was found barefoot and partially clothed when first responders found her remains along along the tracks near Mile Marker 45 of the rail line.
Her death was just weeks before Tiff was to start her college career on a full athletic scholarship. She loved the thought of playing collegiate volleyball. Loved everything about living on campus, making new friends, and pursuing a career, maybe in criminal justice. Not a single forensic expert believed Tiff was anything but a happy, hopeful young woman with an immensely bright future when her life met its violent end.
We never hesitated when Unsolved Mysteries Netflix docuseries, asked if it could research and possibly report on Tiff’s death in its new Season (Vol. 3) starting Oct. 18th. Though triggering, we welcome every effort to tell Tiff’s story in hopes that eventually we will know how and why she died; somebody knows something that investigators, for whatever reason (we defer to the AG to determine if there needs to be an investigation of the investigation), never learned.
It is critical, not just for us, but the people of New Jersey, that those responsible for Tiff’s death are held fully accountable. That’s why we’re also now posting a substantially increased reward and encouraging anyone with any information about Tiff’s death, to urgently come forward.
What motivates us is the love for our daughter and our entire family, all our kids and grand-kids, every relative and friend who stands by us in the fight for #JusticeForTiffany.
Dianne and Stephen Valiante
Mays Landing, New Jersey
October 2020