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D’Amato Law Firm in Egg Harbor Township is proud to be featured in a number of news articles and local media. Check out the information and links below to learn more about what we’ve done throughout the community.
 

Who Killed Tiffany Valiante? Family Marks Eighth Anniversary of The Beloved Teen’s Mysterious Death

6 p.m., July 12th, Mays Landing Candlelight Remembrance

Mays Landing, New Jersey (July 11, 2023) – Eight years ago, near midnight on a steamy summer night, 18-year- old Tiffany Valiante, barefoot and partially clothed, was mysteriously struck and killed by an Atlantic City-bound New Jersey Transit train less than five miles from her house. Without conducting an autopsy, let alone a psychological autopsy, a rape kit, or DNA analysis, investigators quickly labeled her death a suicide. Her family is not alone in believing Tiffany, just weeks before she was to start college on a volleyball scholarship, was murdered; more than 12,000 citizens have signed an online petition urging the N.J. Attorney General to reopen the case, and millions have watched the Netflix ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ episode (Mystery At Mile Marker 45) casting doubt on the hasty suicide ruling.  In what has become an annual ritual, at 6 p.m., Wednesday, July 12th, family and friends will gather at the Valiante’s Mays Landing home (3160 Mannheim Ave., Mays Landing, 08330) for a candlelight celebration – and backyard volleyball in Tiff’s honor – to commemorate Tiffany’s remarkable, but short-lived life.

Contacts:

Paul R. D’Amato / [email protected]  / 609-412-9900

Counsel to the Tiffany Valiante Family

Steph Rosenfeld / [email protected] / 215-514-4101

 

Petition to Reopen Tiffany Valiante Investigation Promoted by Retired FBI Agent

A recent online petition requesting that the New Jersey Transit Board reopen the investigation into Tiffany Valiante‘s death in 2015 has received more signatures following the added statement of Robert Turkavage, a former FBI agent.

In the statement, issued on February 8, Turkavage expounds on the mishandling of evidence, mismatched witness accounts, and the train’s “black box” data that conflict with the Medical Examiner’s ruling that Tiffany’s death was a suicide. The petition has accumulated nearly 10,000 signatures.

Full statement and link to the petition.

 

 

WWW.CHANGE.ORG PETITION ASKS N.J. ATTY. GEN. TO REOPEN VALIANTE CASE

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