1 00:00:10,552 --> 00:00:12,554 [indistinct chatter] 2 00:00:14,556 --> 00:00:15,557 [on video] Hey! 3 00:00:18,101 --> 00:00:20,979 [Dianne Valiante] Tiffany was just… just always beautiful. 4 00:00:21,062 --> 00:00:23,982 Always bright. Energetic. 5 00:00:25,191 --> 00:00:28,403 She got a scholarship to play volleyball. 6 00:00:30,155 --> 00:00:33,074 She was gonna be a middle starter. 7 00:00:33,158 --> 00:00:36,703 That doesn't happen in college, being a freshman starter. 8 00:00:37,829 --> 00:00:39,372 She wanted things in life. 9 00:00:41,416 --> 00:00:43,418 We were all so very proud of her. 10 00:00:49,257 --> 00:00:54,304 That night, she was found approximately four miles away from our house, 11 00:00:55,597 --> 00:00:57,557 where she was hit by that train. 12 00:00:59,309 --> 00:01:03,438 New Jersey Transit put it out there that my daughter committed suicide. 13 00:01:04,856 --> 00:01:06,858 There's absolutely no way! 14 00:01:06,941 --> 00:01:08,526 No way at all. 15 00:01:10,153 --> 00:01:12,405 I wanna know what happened to my daughter. 16 00:01:13,031 --> 00:01:15,033 [mysterious music playing] 17 00:01:58,201 --> 00:02:00,203 [somber music playing softly] 18 00:02:10,380 --> 00:02:11,756 This is my daughter's room. 19 00:02:15,844 --> 00:02:18,096 The whole room is the way she left it. 20 00:02:23,893 --> 00:02:26,437 That's her writing and her little hearts and what. 21 00:02:27,522 --> 00:02:29,482 No one will ever go in this room. 22 00:02:30,650 --> 00:02:31,776 It's like a tomb. 23 00:02:35,029 --> 00:02:38,116 She loved life, and she was full of it too. 24 00:02:40,702 --> 00:02:41,995 That's my baby. 25 00:02:47,584 --> 00:02:51,504 [Dianne] I met Stephen in 1989, 26 00:02:51,588 --> 00:02:55,675 and I had already had my girls, Jessica and Krystal. 27 00:02:55,758 --> 00:03:00,138 I ended up pregnant with Tiffany and had her in 1997. 28 00:03:01,431 --> 00:03:03,975 We were shocked when we had Tiffany. 29 00:03:07,937 --> 00:03:10,315 You know, we didn't expect to get pregnant, 30 00:03:10,398 --> 00:03:13,234 but the first time we laid eyes on her, it was just like… 31 00:03:13,318 --> 00:03:14,944 you know, just heaven. It just… 32 00:03:15,028 --> 00:03:16,988 She was absolutely gorgeous. 33 00:03:18,281 --> 00:03:20,241 [Stephen Valiante] Tiff was just a ball of joy. 34 00:03:20,325 --> 00:03:23,453 She enjoyed what she was doing. She didn't worry about nothing. 35 00:03:23,536 --> 00:03:26,623 I mean, there's nothing that she didn't like. 36 00:03:28,583 --> 00:03:31,753 [Dianne] Picture up there is of her on a beach in North Carolina. 37 00:03:32,712 --> 00:03:34,339 This is New Year's Eve. 38 00:03:35,924 --> 00:03:39,677 Uh, here's her graduation. You can see how happy she is. 39 00:03:43,014 --> 00:03:45,892 Tiffany's sisters are the ones that had this made for me. 40 00:03:47,060 --> 00:03:50,396 Just a memorial of all, you know, of Tiffany's life. 41 00:03:51,397 --> 00:03:55,068 To walk in here every day just makes me feel close. 42 00:03:56,236 --> 00:03:59,405 I feel like she's with me 'cause I miss her so much. 43 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:05,203 [intriguing music playing quietly] 44 00:04:09,374 --> 00:04:10,625 [Dianne] It was a Sunday. 45 00:04:10,708 --> 00:04:14,754 We went to Tiffany's cousin's graduation party across the street. 46 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:17,548 And Tiffany came with us. 47 00:04:19,008 --> 00:04:21,427 We were there for several hours 48 00:04:21,928 --> 00:04:24,722 steaming clams and having a good old time. 49 00:04:24,806 --> 00:04:26,140 Tiff was having a great time. 50 00:04:26,224 --> 00:04:29,143 Playing volleyball, having fun, waiting for her friends to come over. 51 00:04:30,436 --> 00:04:33,940 [Dianne] I remember Tiffany running back home. 52 00:04:35,316 --> 00:04:38,236 We were still at the party, and at 9:15, 53 00:04:38,319 --> 00:04:41,572 I got a phone call from one of her girlfriends and says, 54 00:04:41,656 --> 00:04:44,701 "I'm pulling up now. Can you come over to the house?" 55 00:04:44,784 --> 00:04:46,869 I said, "Sure, is everything okay?" 56 00:04:46,953 --> 00:04:51,291 So I told my husband, Stephen, that I gotta go over to the house, 57 00:04:51,374 --> 00:04:53,293 and he said, "Oh, I'll go with you." 58 00:04:53,376 --> 00:04:57,505 And we walked up to the road between the two houses. 59 00:05:00,341 --> 00:05:03,261 Tiffany's friend got out screaming and hollering, 60 00:05:03,344 --> 00:05:07,682 and accused Tiffany of using her credit card without her knowledge. 61 00:05:07,765 --> 00:05:11,019 And Tiffany denied it until after the friend left, 62 00:05:11,102 --> 00:05:14,897 and then she told me that she did use it. 63 00:05:16,649 --> 00:05:19,319 And I said, "Why would you use somebody else's card?" 64 00:05:19,402 --> 00:05:22,905 "You know better than that. Didn't raise you that way." 65 00:05:22,989 --> 00:05:25,658 "And now I gotta go tell your dad you used the card." 66 00:05:26,617 --> 00:05:28,119 And I went in the house, 67 00:05:28,202 --> 00:05:33,624 I got Stephen, and within one minute, we walked back out, and Tiffany was gone. 68 00:05:43,551 --> 00:05:45,386 [Stephen] We looked for her. Looked around. 69 00:05:45,470 --> 00:05:47,430 I walked up and down the street many times. 70 00:05:47,513 --> 00:05:51,559 There must've been at least 20 or 30 cars going back and forth up this road. 71 00:05:51,642 --> 00:05:55,021 They were all parked on the side of the road. Nobody's seen nothin'. 72 00:05:56,606 --> 00:05:59,817 [Dianne] I know if Tiffany walked, somebody would have saw her. 73 00:05:59,901 --> 00:06:03,780 There's no doubt in my mind. She's 6'2". You couldn't miss her. 74 00:06:04,614 --> 00:06:07,241 [Robert Valiante, Sr.] We were walkin' up and down the streets, 75 00:06:07,325 --> 00:06:09,535 looking behind houses and everything close 76 00:06:09,619 --> 00:06:12,914 'cause we knew she wouldn't walk any distance 77 00:06:12,997 --> 00:06:15,041 because she was scared to death of the dark. 78 00:06:15,124 --> 00:06:17,126 [phone chiming] 79 00:06:23,466 --> 00:06:25,593 [Dianne] Everybody was calling, texting, 80 00:06:25,676 --> 00:06:28,346 you know, trying to find out where she was. 81 00:06:33,184 --> 00:06:35,686 Stephen's calling and she's not answering her phone. 82 00:06:36,854 --> 00:06:39,690 [Stephen on phone] Tiff, please, just come home. 83 00:06:40,691 --> 00:06:44,445 I love you to death. You mean everything in the world to me. 84 00:06:46,030 --> 00:06:47,782 Please just come home. 85 00:06:49,826 --> 00:06:51,661 [Stephen] I walked up and down that street. 86 00:06:51,744 --> 00:06:53,913 And all of a sudden, I looked down at the ground, 87 00:06:53,996 --> 00:06:56,040 and I had seen something flat. 88 00:06:56,124 --> 00:06:58,292 -And it was Tiff's phone. -[phone vibrates] 89 00:06:58,793 --> 00:07:01,671 [Stephen] Phone was about five to eight feet off the side of the road. 90 00:07:01,754 --> 00:07:02,964 In front of my house. 91 00:07:05,049 --> 00:07:06,843 That kid would have never left her phone here. 92 00:07:06,926 --> 00:07:10,596 That phone was locked to her hand 24/7, seven days a week. 93 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:12,098 She took a shower with the phone. 94 00:07:12,181 --> 00:07:13,558 Then when we found the phone, 95 00:07:13,641 --> 00:07:15,685 all kinds of things are going through my head. 96 00:07:15,768 --> 00:07:17,437 I knew there was something wrong. 97 00:07:18,604 --> 00:07:19,772 We were searching, 98 00:07:19,856 --> 00:07:24,068 and then later on, Stephen remembered about 99 00:07:24,152 --> 00:07:26,612 the deer camera being in the woods. 100 00:07:26,696 --> 00:07:28,698 [ominous music playing faintly] 101 00:07:34,078 --> 00:07:36,914 [Stephen] Tiff left at 9:28, according to my deer camera. 102 00:07:37,623 --> 00:07:43,588 And me and Dianne walked out at 9:29 with Tucker, which is her dog. 103 00:07:44,130 --> 00:07:46,257 We walked outside and she was gone. 104 00:07:48,885 --> 00:07:51,304 [Dianne] Tiffany was wearing a black shirt, 105 00:07:51,387 --> 00:07:54,265 white blue-jean shorts. 106 00:07:54,348 --> 00:07:56,934 She had her flat shoes that she had just bought, 107 00:07:57,018 --> 00:08:00,563 and she put her hair up with a messy bob on the top 108 00:08:00,646 --> 00:08:02,064 and her white headband. 109 00:08:04,650 --> 00:08:08,237 She's doing her regular stride, walking down the driveway. 110 00:08:08,738 --> 00:08:11,491 And because of the picture on the deer camera, 111 00:08:11,574 --> 00:08:15,077 the only thing I could come up with is that somebody called her name. 112 00:08:17,788 --> 00:08:20,374 And at that point, she was gone. 113 00:08:22,710 --> 00:08:24,629 I got a phone call, "Hey, Tiffany's missing." 114 00:08:24,712 --> 00:08:26,464 "Can you come and help look for Tiffany?" 115 00:08:26,547 --> 00:08:27,715 I said, "Sure." 116 00:08:27,798 --> 00:08:30,801 We went to my mom's house 'cause they assumed she probably went there. 117 00:08:32,261 --> 00:08:36,682 It's walking distance. I would say roughly a half mile it would be at most. 118 00:08:37,934 --> 00:08:38,768 She wasn't there. 119 00:08:38,851 --> 00:08:41,437 So then we started driving around different places. 120 00:08:41,521 --> 00:08:42,813 We couldn't find her. 121 00:08:43,773 --> 00:08:46,317 Something told me just to go down Pomona. 122 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,612 And when I drove down Pomona, I crossed the railroad tracks. 123 00:08:51,572 --> 00:08:54,033 There's a roadway alongside of the tracks. 124 00:08:54,534 --> 00:08:57,119 -An access road for transit. -[police siren chirps] 125 00:09:00,873 --> 00:09:02,083 [Michael] It was lit up. 126 00:09:06,420 --> 00:09:10,967 There was a Galloway police officer there said somebody was hit, possibly a female. 127 00:09:11,050 --> 00:09:13,970 But Galloway Township didn't get involved in it 128 00:09:14,053 --> 00:09:18,516 because this happened in the jurisdiction of New Jersey Transit. 129 00:09:22,812 --> 00:09:24,814 I saw a transit police officer there. 130 00:09:28,568 --> 00:09:29,402 I spoke to him. 131 00:09:29,485 --> 00:09:32,572 I say, "Hey, did you happen to see a very big girl, 132 00:09:33,114 --> 00:09:35,616 6'2", very athletic?" 133 00:09:36,826 --> 00:09:40,371 And he said, "No, but we had somebody who was struck by the train." 134 00:09:42,456 --> 00:09:45,251 At that point, I'm thinking, "I hope it's not Tiffany." 135 00:09:45,918 --> 00:09:48,254 But they were pretty confident that it was her. 136 00:09:53,593 --> 00:09:57,096 The transit officer said to me, "Can you identify her?" 137 00:09:59,432 --> 00:10:01,559 And I said, "Yes, I can." 138 00:10:05,146 --> 00:10:09,191 And I am very glad that I am the one that went down there, 139 00:10:09,275 --> 00:10:12,153 'cause I truly believe in my whole heart 140 00:10:12,236 --> 00:10:14,989 that my brother would never have been able to handle it. 141 00:10:17,575 --> 00:10:20,536 What I saw that night, no one needs to see that. 142 00:10:22,663 --> 00:10:25,541 It was probably one of the most horrific things I've seen. 143 00:10:27,126 --> 00:10:29,128 You know, being struck by a train. 144 00:10:31,797 --> 00:10:34,425 So I went there, and I did do the identification, 145 00:10:34,925 --> 00:10:38,596 and then they said, "Hey, we have to go back to your brother's, 146 00:10:38,679 --> 00:10:40,431 and you have to tell your brother." 147 00:10:44,310 --> 00:10:46,145 [Dianne] It was 2:30 in the morning. 148 00:10:46,687 --> 00:10:53,027 And I remember walking out of the house, and my son-in-law was standing there, 149 00:10:53,110 --> 00:10:57,406 and he said that Uncle Mickey called him, told us to stay put. 150 00:10:58,032 --> 00:11:01,535 And I remember my son-in-law looking totally white. 151 00:11:03,287 --> 00:11:06,123 And I remember us waiting 152 00:11:06,207 --> 00:11:09,335 and some type of cop car pull in. 153 00:11:11,462 --> 00:11:14,256 My brother, Mickey, got out of a transit police car, 154 00:11:14,340 --> 00:11:17,718 and Dianne's yelling, "What happened? What happened? What happened?" 155 00:11:20,721 --> 00:11:24,934 [Michael] And I told my brother what happened. Tiffany was hit by a train. 156 00:11:28,729 --> 00:11:32,149 He did say, "I wanna go down there." I'm like, "No, you're absolutely not." 157 00:11:32,233 --> 00:11:34,026 "You don't need to see this." 158 00:11:36,487 --> 00:11:37,822 [Stephen] We just lost it. 159 00:11:38,489 --> 00:11:41,325 It's like… you lost your life. 160 00:11:41,826 --> 00:11:44,787 When one of your kids die, you lose part of your life. 161 00:11:45,579 --> 00:11:47,581 [crying] Oh, God, I miss her so much. 162 00:11:48,332 --> 00:11:49,542 She was my baby. 163 00:11:51,627 --> 00:11:53,295 I miss everything about her. 164 00:12:02,388 --> 00:12:04,682 [Robert, Sr.] I mean, we just held each other and cried. 165 00:12:04,765 --> 00:12:06,100 It was like in disbelief. 166 00:12:08,144 --> 00:12:12,064 It was the most horrible thing you could even imagine at that time 167 00:12:12,148 --> 00:12:14,400 that something like that could happen. 168 00:12:15,818 --> 00:12:17,903 [crying] We were in such shock. 169 00:12:17,987 --> 00:12:19,363 Total shock. 170 00:12:20,656 --> 00:12:22,408 'Cause, like, hit by a train? 171 00:12:22,491 --> 00:12:24,410 It just didn't make sense to me. 172 00:12:38,507 --> 00:12:41,510 [Stephen] Mickey said that Tiffany got hit by a train. 173 00:12:42,011 --> 00:12:43,512 We didn't know what happened. 174 00:12:46,807 --> 00:12:49,018 Then the following morning, 175 00:12:49,101 --> 00:12:51,771 it was already in the papers Tiffany had committed suicide. 176 00:12:56,734 --> 00:12:57,902 I was devastated. 177 00:12:59,195 --> 00:13:03,032 I couldn't understand, you know, how they could come up with that. 178 00:13:11,499 --> 00:13:14,251 My daughter wasn't depressed. She wasn't suicidal. 179 00:13:15,628 --> 00:13:17,546 Tiffy was happy. 180 00:13:17,630 --> 00:13:20,549 She was making plans to go to college. 181 00:13:20,633 --> 00:13:23,385 She was making plans with her roommate. 182 00:13:23,886 --> 00:13:28,557 She was making plans to play softball that Wednesday. 183 00:13:29,141 --> 00:13:34,980 She had plans to go to Great Adventure the next morning with friends. 184 00:13:37,650 --> 00:13:41,070 [Robert Valiante, Jr.] The night I spoke with Tiffany, obviously, at the party, 185 00:13:41,153 --> 00:13:43,823 she showed no signs of any kind of stress. 186 00:13:43,906 --> 00:13:47,409 She had her school clothes. She had things prepared. 187 00:13:48,369 --> 00:13:51,914 Tiffany was ready to make that next move. 188 00:13:54,959 --> 00:13:57,795 [Dianne] There's no way in hell she committed suicide. 189 00:14:02,299 --> 00:14:07,137 New Jersey Transit made the determination that my daughter stood on those tracks 190 00:14:07,847 --> 00:14:12,101 and committed suicide in less than 24 hours from the time she was hit. 191 00:14:14,979 --> 00:14:18,357 People that knew Tiffany just couldn't believe it. 192 00:14:21,652 --> 00:14:25,281 We were on a mission because we knew our daughter didn't do this. 193 00:14:25,364 --> 00:14:27,366 [intriguing music playing] 194 00:14:29,827 --> 00:14:32,204 My name is Paul D'Amato. 195 00:14:33,747 --> 00:14:37,126 I've been a trial lawyer for 46 years. 196 00:14:39,086 --> 00:14:43,507 Most of my cases have involved representing victims. 197 00:14:44,174 --> 00:14:47,761 And there have been those cases, like Tiffany's case, 198 00:14:47,845 --> 00:14:51,015 that you simply cannot say no to. 199 00:14:53,684 --> 00:14:56,604 When I first met Steve and Dianne, 200 00:14:56,687 --> 00:14:58,439 they were sitting right here. 201 00:14:59,106 --> 00:15:03,569 And they were so broken 202 00:15:04,361 --> 00:15:06,405 and so upset. 203 00:15:07,823 --> 00:15:10,451 They told me that 204 00:15:10,534 --> 00:15:13,871 their daughter did not take her own life. 205 00:15:14,663 --> 00:15:18,292 I didn't know if I could help them, and I said to myself, 206 00:15:18,375 --> 00:15:22,004 let me get the records 207 00:15:22,087 --> 00:15:24,548 from the New Jersey Transit Police Department. 208 00:15:24,632 --> 00:15:29,178 I'll present the reports to them, and sadly, I'll have to tell them, 209 00:15:29,261 --> 00:15:31,388 "Your daughter took her own life." 210 00:15:33,057 --> 00:15:35,851 But that never happened once we got the records. 211 00:15:37,895 --> 00:15:41,440 Tiffany Valiante was 18 years old and lived with her family 212 00:15:41,523 --> 00:15:45,986 in a very rural area of New Jersey west of Atlantic City. 213 00:15:48,489 --> 00:15:52,201 Now here's what we know about the night that she was killed. 214 00:15:54,620 --> 00:15:56,705 On Sunday, July 12th, 215 00:15:56,789 --> 00:16:00,250 New Jersey Transit train number 4693 216 00:16:00,334 --> 00:16:03,379 left Philadelphia at 9:50 p.m., 217 00:16:03,462 --> 00:16:05,589 heading east to Atlantic City. 218 00:16:08,175 --> 00:16:11,679 There were about 60 passengers and crew on board. 219 00:16:13,639 --> 00:16:17,935 The train had just passed under the bridge at Tilton Road in Galloway Township 220 00:16:18,018 --> 00:16:21,105 and was headed toward the crossing at Genoa Avenue. 221 00:16:21,188 --> 00:16:24,984 It was 11:12 p.m. at mile marker 45 222 00:16:25,067 --> 00:16:29,279 on a very dark stretch of track where Tiffany was hit by the train. 223 00:16:31,073 --> 00:16:33,075 [dark music playing] 224 00:16:34,785 --> 00:16:36,662 [Paul] When the train was examined later, 225 00:16:36,745 --> 00:16:42,167 it showed that the impact was specifically on the lower left side of the train, 226 00:16:42,251 --> 00:16:43,669 close to the track. 227 00:16:46,797 --> 00:16:49,216 There were two engineers on board the train. 228 00:16:49,299 --> 00:16:51,927 A senior engineer and a student engineer. 229 00:16:52,886 --> 00:16:55,139 That night, they both signed the report 230 00:16:55,222 --> 00:16:58,475 saying that Tiffany dove in front of the train. 231 00:17:00,978 --> 00:17:03,063 But here's the problem. 232 00:17:03,147 --> 00:17:07,401 Six days later, when he's put under oath, 233 00:17:07,484 --> 00:17:13,115 the senior engineer comes up with a completely different version 234 00:17:13,198 --> 00:17:16,952 of what he told the detective the night of the incident. 235 00:17:17,036 --> 00:17:18,537 Here's his story. 236 00:17:19,580 --> 00:17:22,166 "I was talking to the conductor." 237 00:17:22,708 --> 00:17:26,587 "I never saw her. My back was turned." 238 00:17:27,921 --> 00:17:30,799 So you throw his statements out, 239 00:17:31,592 --> 00:17:35,220 and then you look at what the student engineer said. 240 00:17:36,221 --> 00:17:38,807 Initially, he was asked, 241 00:17:38,891 --> 00:17:42,352 "When did you first see the trespasser?" 242 00:17:42,436 --> 00:17:44,229 What was his answer? 243 00:17:44,813 --> 00:17:49,651 "I didn't see her until I was on top of her." 244 00:17:49,735 --> 00:17:51,361 [train whistle blowing] 245 00:17:52,738 --> 00:17:56,075 Ten days later, he's put under oath, 246 00:17:56,158 --> 00:17:58,827 and now here's his story. 247 00:17:59,870 --> 00:18:02,915 "I see something when I'm half a mile away." 248 00:18:03,749 --> 00:18:07,294 "Then I see something when I'm a quarter-mile away." 249 00:18:07,795 --> 00:18:11,298 "And then I see this person 250 00:18:11,381 --> 00:18:15,469 jump out of the woods on to the tracks." 251 00:18:21,266 --> 00:18:25,354 In the end, the student engineer was the only witness. 252 00:18:25,437 --> 00:18:28,899 A student engineer who gave variations 253 00:18:28,982 --> 00:18:31,652 of what he saw that night. 254 00:18:33,946 --> 00:18:35,155 To this day, 255 00:18:35,864 --> 00:18:39,451 the New Jersey Transit Police Department 256 00:18:39,535 --> 00:18:42,955 stands by the inconsistent, 257 00:18:43,747 --> 00:18:48,001 contradictory statements of the student engineer. 258 00:18:52,714 --> 00:18:54,967 My name's Louise Houseman, 259 00:18:55,050 --> 00:18:58,637 and I'm retired from the Atlantic County Medical Examiner's Office, 260 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:01,723 where I was the senior investigator. I worked there for 20 years. 261 00:19:04,893 --> 00:19:08,605 I've probably been to several thousand scenes 262 00:19:08,689 --> 00:19:10,107 over the course of 20 years. 263 00:19:12,401 --> 00:19:13,819 I was really concerned 264 00:19:13,902 --> 00:19:20,200 with the sworn statements by the engineer and the student engineer. 265 00:19:21,618 --> 00:19:24,121 Because a great deal of weight was apparently given 266 00:19:24,204 --> 00:19:27,082 to the information they provided at the scene, 267 00:19:28,041 --> 00:19:31,670 which turned out to not be correct. 268 00:19:32,546 --> 00:19:36,925 The major incident event recorder is considered the black box. 269 00:19:37,009 --> 00:19:42,556 It records everything that happens with the engine as it's going along. 270 00:19:42,639 --> 00:19:44,892 The speed of the train, 271 00:19:45,434 --> 00:19:47,436 when the hand brakes are used, 272 00:19:47,519 --> 00:19:49,688 when the horn is rung, 273 00:19:49,771 --> 00:19:51,356 if the headlights are on. 274 00:19:52,107 --> 00:19:54,484 And it gives the distance the train has traveled 275 00:19:54,568 --> 00:19:56,028 when all this happens. 276 00:19:56,111 --> 00:19:58,363 So it's very easy to read. 277 00:19:58,447 --> 00:20:02,034 There's nothing mysterious about it. It's very straightforward. 278 00:20:03,785 --> 00:20:06,538 According to the event recorder, 279 00:20:06,622 --> 00:20:10,959 from the time the apprentice engineer sounded the horn, struck Tiffany, 280 00:20:11,043 --> 00:20:13,212 and applied the emergency brake, 281 00:20:13,295 --> 00:20:16,089 it took a total of 4.1 seconds. 282 00:20:16,173 --> 00:20:18,300 That train's traveling 80 miles an hour. 283 00:20:19,301 --> 00:20:22,471 So, did he see what he thought he saw? 284 00:20:22,554 --> 00:20:25,641 That she jumped in front of him? I don't know. 285 00:20:29,228 --> 00:20:34,733 I believe that the student engineer was in a type of trauma, in shock. 286 00:20:34,816 --> 00:20:35,901 Anyone would be. 287 00:20:35,984 --> 00:20:37,819 If you hit someone in a car, 288 00:20:37,903 --> 00:20:41,323 are you gonna be able to describe exactly what happened? 289 00:20:41,406 --> 00:20:42,658 Probably not. 290 00:20:44,326 --> 00:20:47,996 When you read the transcription, it seems to be rambling. 291 00:20:49,665 --> 00:20:53,627 He's not really sure of what he saw, 292 00:20:53,710 --> 00:20:56,588 and it's possible what he saw was 293 00:20:56,672 --> 00:20:58,465 when the train struck her, 294 00:20:58,548 --> 00:21:03,053 the body parts flew in all different directions 295 00:21:03,136 --> 00:21:05,138 because she was being dismembered. 296 00:21:05,764 --> 00:21:07,391 [train whistle blowing] 297 00:21:07,474 --> 00:21:10,519 [Louise] I don't think he saw her jump in front of the train. 298 00:21:10,602 --> 00:21:13,605 And she may have been dead on the tracks. 299 00:21:23,532 --> 00:21:26,618 [Jim Brennenstuhl] If you assume that it's a suicide right at the beginning 300 00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:29,955 and then tailor the facts to fit your assumption, 301 00:21:30,998 --> 00:21:33,333 everything else after that is suspect. 302 00:21:36,169 --> 00:21:38,213 My name is Jim Brennenstuhl. 303 00:21:38,297 --> 00:21:40,257 I have, for the last 45 years, 304 00:21:40,340 --> 00:21:42,592 either done police work or private detective work. 305 00:21:42,676 --> 00:21:45,679 Mr. D'Amato called me and asked if I would be involved in the case. 306 00:21:46,930 --> 00:21:51,476 The train strike is variously recorded as some time a little after 11:00. 307 00:21:54,521 --> 00:21:59,234 According to the way they reported it, this is where it happened. 308 00:21:59,318 --> 00:22:00,527 Milepost 45. 309 00:22:05,324 --> 00:22:06,783 It's pretty dark. 310 00:22:09,036 --> 00:22:13,290 Why would she walk all of that distance and jump in front of a train there? 311 00:22:13,373 --> 00:22:14,750 What is it about there? 312 00:22:15,834 --> 00:22:19,046 If she killed herself that way, why? 313 00:22:19,129 --> 00:22:22,382 Why go that far? Why do it that way? 314 00:22:26,803 --> 00:22:30,640 [Louise] When I saw exactly where she was struck by the train, 315 00:22:30,724 --> 00:22:32,059 I was really surprised. 316 00:22:32,976 --> 00:22:36,188 She was a mile from the closest intersection 317 00:22:36,271 --> 00:22:37,689 into the woods. 318 00:22:37,773 --> 00:22:39,608 And it was dark. There's no light. 319 00:22:41,526 --> 00:22:43,653 The hairs on the back of my head just went up. 320 00:22:43,737 --> 00:22:45,822 I said, "There's something really wrong here." 321 00:22:46,698 --> 00:22:48,700 [train whistle blowing] 322 00:22:50,243 --> 00:22:53,789 I think there's probably not a day, certainly not a week, 323 00:22:53,872 --> 00:22:56,917 that goes by that I don't ask myself the question. 324 00:22:58,168 --> 00:23:00,379 "How did Tiffany Valiante die?" 325 00:23:01,797 --> 00:23:04,591 I am convinced she did not take her own life. 326 00:23:07,010 --> 00:23:11,640 The lead investigating agency into the death of Tiffany Valiante 327 00:23:12,974 --> 00:23:14,851 was the transit system. 328 00:23:18,897 --> 00:23:23,443 New Jersey Transit is one of America's largest transit operators. 329 00:23:23,527 --> 00:23:26,154 It runs commuter rail trains 330 00:23:26,238 --> 00:23:30,742 and it has a significant-size police force. 331 00:23:30,826 --> 00:23:33,954 And I have great respect for transit police officers 332 00:23:34,037 --> 00:23:35,622 and the job they do. 333 00:23:35,705 --> 00:23:40,293 However, most transit police officers will tell you, 334 00:23:40,377 --> 00:23:45,674 their wheelhouse is not homicide investigations 335 00:23:46,341 --> 00:23:50,345 and not suspicious death investigations. 336 00:23:52,013 --> 00:23:55,851 The first thing investigators need to do, 337 00:23:55,934 --> 00:23:59,855 even in the case of a suspected incident 338 00:23:59,938 --> 00:24:02,983 of somebody possibly taking their own life, 339 00:24:03,066 --> 00:24:07,779 is first determine whether they were the victim of a murder. 340 00:24:08,697 --> 00:24:11,283 We have no indication that was ever done. 341 00:24:12,576 --> 00:24:15,162 [Paul] The area where this whole event took place 342 00:24:15,245 --> 00:24:17,497 was not treated as a crime scene. 343 00:24:18,498 --> 00:24:20,959 People were walking all around there, 344 00:24:21,042 --> 00:24:24,963 and it had not been roped off appropriately. 345 00:24:27,340 --> 00:24:29,301 [Stephan] It appeared from the outset 346 00:24:29,384 --> 00:24:34,139 to be a textbook example of a rush to judgment 347 00:24:34,222 --> 00:24:38,727 to misclassify the manner by which she died. 348 00:24:39,811 --> 00:24:41,771 This is the death certificate. 349 00:24:43,023 --> 00:24:47,819 Tiffany Valiante died shortly before midnight, July 12th. 350 00:24:47,903 --> 00:24:51,907 On the 17th of July, when this is dated, 351 00:24:51,990 --> 00:24:55,702 the manner of death is suicide. 352 00:24:57,329 --> 00:25:02,709 You cannot draw conclusions that early in an investigation. 353 00:25:03,460 --> 00:25:05,420 That's an impossibility. 354 00:25:07,422 --> 00:25:10,592 [Louise] Suicide closes a case, 355 00:25:10,675 --> 00:25:13,470 as far as a prosecutor's office is concerned. 356 00:25:14,095 --> 00:25:16,598 As far as the medical examiner's office is concerned. 357 00:25:16,681 --> 00:25:19,601 As far as New Jersey Transit is concerned. 358 00:25:19,684 --> 00:25:23,605 "This is a suicide," and it's simply a statistic. 359 00:25:24,356 --> 00:25:28,151 As far as the family's concerned, it's their child, 360 00:25:28,235 --> 00:25:31,071 and they wanna know what happened to their child. 361 00:25:33,698 --> 00:25:37,118 [Dianne] They should have investigated like they were supposed to. 362 00:25:38,411 --> 00:25:41,289 You know, the State of New Jersey has books on procedures 363 00:25:41,373 --> 00:25:45,043 on what they're supposed to follow, and those procedures weren't followed. 364 00:25:48,463 --> 00:25:52,259 [Stephan] A full autopsy was never conducted. 365 00:25:52,342 --> 00:25:55,095 No rape kit was ever performed. 366 00:25:55,178 --> 00:25:57,264 DNA was never tested. 367 00:25:57,347 --> 00:25:59,891 No organs were examined. 368 00:26:01,268 --> 00:26:02,143 Why? 369 00:26:02,769 --> 00:26:03,853 Why? 370 00:26:05,397 --> 00:26:09,359 You have to give weight to the toxicology report. 371 00:26:09,442 --> 00:26:15,448 There was no alcohol, no drugs in Tiffany Valiante's system. 372 00:26:15,532 --> 00:26:17,993 A totally clean toxicology report. 373 00:26:18,785 --> 00:26:21,371 After the toxicology report came back, 374 00:26:21,454 --> 00:26:25,458 and it was found that Tiffany had no drugs or alcohol in her system, 375 00:26:25,542 --> 00:26:30,547 the manner of death probably should have been amended to "undetermined." 376 00:26:31,965 --> 00:26:37,804 There's no reason to rule the case "suicide" unless you're sure, 377 00:26:37,887 --> 00:26:39,848 you're absolutely sure, 378 00:26:41,266 --> 00:26:42,976 that this was a suicide. 379 00:26:44,394 --> 00:26:48,440 [Paul] Within a couple of days after Tiffany's death, 380 00:26:48,523 --> 00:26:50,900 her remains were cremated. 381 00:26:50,984 --> 00:26:54,237 So it's not as if we can exhume the body 382 00:26:54,321 --> 00:26:56,364 and have a fresh look at this. 383 00:26:57,866 --> 00:27:01,995 [Louise] Also, the detective does write in his report 384 00:27:02,078 --> 00:27:04,914 that no shoes were found at the scene. 385 00:27:04,998 --> 00:27:06,958 Her shoes were not with the body. 386 00:27:08,084 --> 00:27:09,961 To me, that is suspicious. 387 00:27:12,380 --> 00:27:15,800 [Dianne] When she walked away, she had a white headband on, 388 00:27:15,884 --> 00:27:18,845 she had blue jean shorts that were almost white, 389 00:27:18,928 --> 00:27:21,848 and she had a black T-shirt on and shoes. 390 00:27:23,183 --> 00:27:28,396 When they found her, all she had on was a sports bra and black underwear. 391 00:27:29,147 --> 00:27:31,733 Well, where's her shorts? Where's her shirt? 392 00:27:33,276 --> 00:27:37,113 [Louise] Isn't that one of the questions a medical examiner would wanna know? 393 00:27:38,239 --> 00:27:43,578 The medical examiner's report was so small, so scant. 394 00:27:47,499 --> 00:27:51,670 I saw no evidence that they contacted Tiffany's doctor, 395 00:27:51,753 --> 00:27:54,422 that they contacted anyone from her school. 396 00:27:55,090 --> 00:27:59,552 Nobody ever came and talked to us and asked me questions about my daughter. 397 00:28:00,136 --> 00:28:03,515 [Robert, Jr.] They didn't talk to her mom and dad. They didn't talk to anybody. 398 00:28:03,598 --> 00:28:07,686 You're just gonna say "oh, it's a suicide" because somebody got hit on the tracks? 399 00:28:07,769 --> 00:28:08,853 That's crazy. 400 00:28:12,607 --> 00:28:15,819 [Louise] She had no history of any medical problems. 401 00:28:15,902 --> 00:28:19,280 No history of drug abuse. No history of alcohol abuse. 402 00:28:19,364 --> 00:28:20,824 An active athlete. 403 00:28:20,907 --> 00:28:25,245 Someone that was really loved and was just doted on by her family. 404 00:28:28,540 --> 00:28:32,627 The phone messages that I was able to look at, 405 00:28:32,711 --> 00:28:35,380 I didn't see anything really unusual. 406 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:40,760 She had broken up with her girlfriend, but it seemed to be amicable. 407 00:28:42,387 --> 00:28:44,806 [Dianne] Tiffany had a girlfriend from Philly. 408 00:28:45,306 --> 00:28:50,478 It was, uh, right around that Friday before she died that they broke up. 409 00:28:51,146 --> 00:28:52,439 But it was mutual. 410 00:28:57,318 --> 00:28:59,988 [Louise] There didn't seem to be any hostility 411 00:29:00,071 --> 00:29:01,948 from the phone records that I read. 412 00:29:03,283 --> 00:29:08,371 And actually, Tiffany had started another relationship with another woman, 413 00:29:09,122 --> 00:29:10,957 according to her phone records. 414 00:29:13,001 --> 00:29:14,419 [Dianne] She actually wrote, 415 00:29:14,502 --> 00:29:16,671 even in her phone the night before she died, 416 00:29:16,755 --> 00:29:19,132 that "I'm actually content with my life." 417 00:29:21,718 --> 00:29:23,970 [Louise] So, why did she do this? 418 00:29:24,053 --> 00:29:26,473 If she committed suicide, was there a reason? 419 00:29:26,556 --> 00:29:28,266 Why would she commit suicide? 420 00:29:35,064 --> 00:29:39,277 [Robert, Sr.] This happened at night, and I came down early the next morning. 421 00:29:41,696 --> 00:29:46,534 I didn't want my brother, Stephen, or his wife, Dianne, 422 00:29:46,618 --> 00:29:49,621 to have to walk down that tracks and see what I saw. 423 00:29:50,413 --> 00:29:52,123 Pieces that they just left behind. 424 00:29:52,874 --> 00:29:54,876 [somber music playing] 425 00:29:56,419 --> 00:29:59,422 [Robert, Jr.] My father and I were looking for things that were missing. 426 00:29:59,506 --> 00:30:01,007 We're looking for her sneakers. 427 00:30:01,090 --> 00:30:02,634 We're looking for her headband. 428 00:30:02,717 --> 00:30:07,972 We're looking for her earrings, her jewelry, her shorts. 429 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:10,391 [Robert, Sr.] I don't know how I did it, 430 00:30:10,475 --> 00:30:14,187 but I picked up pieces of her skull with hair on it. 431 00:30:14,270 --> 00:30:20,401 I picked up a jawbone with teeth and various parts of her bones. 432 00:30:22,737 --> 00:30:25,323 We found one of her bracelets and gave it to Dianne, 433 00:30:25,406 --> 00:30:26,825 and she has that today. 434 00:30:27,367 --> 00:30:30,161 And that was on her at the time. 435 00:30:32,163 --> 00:30:35,083 To have to pick up pieces of her off the track 436 00:30:35,166 --> 00:30:38,545 was the most devastating thing I ever done in my life. 437 00:30:44,092 --> 00:30:45,593 [Robert, Jr.] Walking to the tracks, 438 00:30:45,677 --> 00:30:49,264 I see bloody rubber gloves laying on the ground. 439 00:30:49,347 --> 00:30:51,224 That scene's already contaminated. 440 00:30:52,100 --> 00:30:53,852 It wasn't even roped off. 441 00:30:55,228 --> 00:30:58,231 New Jersey Transit just… They're not trained for that. 442 00:30:58,731 --> 00:31:01,234 And they didn't do a good job cleaning the tracks. 443 00:31:02,026 --> 00:31:04,654 We would go down there and keep looking, and looking, 444 00:31:04,737 --> 00:31:06,489 but we never found her shoes there, 445 00:31:06,573 --> 00:31:08,449 we never found her headband there, 446 00:31:08,533 --> 00:31:10,952 we never found any of her clothes there. 447 00:31:13,705 --> 00:31:17,083 Where is the stuff that she was wearing from the party? 448 00:31:30,847 --> 00:31:34,475 [Dianne] Walking down Tilton Road, just walking, 449 00:31:34,559 --> 00:31:37,604 I had already been up and down that street a million times. 450 00:31:40,690 --> 00:31:44,360 For weeks, we were walking just looking for any kind of sign of something 451 00:31:44,444 --> 00:31:46,821 'cause I knew my daughter's shorts were missing. 452 00:31:46,905 --> 00:31:49,657 Her headband was missing. Her shoes were missing. 453 00:31:49,741 --> 00:31:51,659 And as I'm walking along, 454 00:31:52,869 --> 00:31:59,208 I got to about here, and I looked over, and I saw my daughter's shoes. 455 00:32:05,131 --> 00:32:08,134 [crying softly] And when I saw that, I fell to the ground. 456 00:32:10,303 --> 00:32:13,556 And when I fell to the ground, about six feet away, 457 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,142 was Tiffany's white headband. 458 00:32:18,269 --> 00:32:21,564 I felt like a Mack truck hit me. 459 00:32:23,274 --> 00:32:24,609 I'll never forget that day. 460 00:32:24,692 --> 00:32:26,736 And I remember it like yesterday. 461 00:32:26,819 --> 00:32:28,780 We got a phone call from my Aunt Dianne. 462 00:32:29,989 --> 00:32:32,533 That she found Tiffany's shoes and headband. 463 00:32:33,117 --> 00:32:35,370 And it was almost two miles away 464 00:32:35,453 --> 00:32:36,996 from where she was struck. 465 00:32:38,581 --> 00:32:41,084 I ran down there and she's just losing it. 466 00:32:41,167 --> 00:32:45,713 She's… I mean, my wife was hysterical. I couldn't understand what she was saying. 467 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:54,472 Her shoes and stuff were, like, in here, this area. 468 00:32:56,599 --> 00:33:00,603 And they were side-by-side almost, like a foot apart. 469 00:33:01,771 --> 00:33:05,066 The way they were positioned, like, I just… 470 00:33:05,149 --> 00:33:07,902 I felt like somebody took her right out of her shoes. 471 00:33:07,986 --> 00:33:08,987 That's how I felt. 472 00:33:10,571 --> 00:33:13,783 But other people thought maybe somebody placed them there. 473 00:33:16,244 --> 00:33:18,246 New Jersey Transit came here. 474 00:33:18,329 --> 00:33:23,501 They took pictures of her shoes, and they put the shoes in a brown bag. 475 00:33:23,584 --> 00:33:26,421 They took the items in and that was the last you heard of it. 476 00:33:26,504 --> 00:33:28,297 You never heard anything else. 477 00:33:33,970 --> 00:33:35,805 They had all these items, 478 00:33:35,888 --> 00:33:39,642 but they were never sent out for any type of testing 479 00:33:41,019 --> 00:33:44,856 to see if there was any other possible DNA on them. 480 00:33:45,982 --> 00:33:48,776 Five years after their daughter was killed, 481 00:33:48,860 --> 00:33:52,697 the families had to pay to have those items tested for DNA. 482 00:33:54,073 --> 00:33:57,035 But the chain of custody has been broken on that, 483 00:33:57,118 --> 00:33:59,370 so it's not of any use at all. 484 00:34:01,789 --> 00:34:03,875 [Dianne] After we found her shoes, 485 00:34:03,958 --> 00:34:06,335 we actually got about 15 of us together, 486 00:34:06,419 --> 00:34:08,921 and we scoured that woods 487 00:34:09,005 --> 00:34:11,674 all the way to the train tracks where she was hit, 488 00:34:11,758 --> 00:34:15,845 looking for anything that would help to prove that she didn't do this. 489 00:34:16,721 --> 00:34:19,557 The one thing that's still missing of my daughter's… 490 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:21,142 [voice breaks] …is her shorts. 491 00:34:21,684 --> 00:34:23,436 [dark music playing] 492 00:34:23,519 --> 00:34:25,855 [Dianne] To this day, those shorts are missing. 493 00:34:28,816 --> 00:34:32,904 [Paul] I asked myself, "How did the shoes get to this area?" 494 00:34:36,365 --> 00:34:40,244 It may very well be that Tiffany was the victim of foul play. 495 00:34:40,995 --> 00:34:44,665 Someone that was involved in the foul play 496 00:34:44,749 --> 00:34:50,088 picked those items up and threw them away when they were leaving the scene. 497 00:34:55,384 --> 00:34:59,222 Another theory is that Tiffany took her shoes and headband off 498 00:34:59,305 --> 00:35:03,142 where Dianne found them and walked barefoot to the tracks. 499 00:35:05,603 --> 00:35:07,647 I don't know what sense it would make 500 00:35:07,730 --> 00:35:13,569 to walk from Tiffany's house to where the shoes were found, 501 00:35:13,653 --> 00:35:16,697 and then take your shoes off and put them in the woods, 502 00:35:16,781 --> 00:35:19,200 and then walk to where the train strike happened. 503 00:35:21,327 --> 00:35:23,329 You got your shoes on. Why take 'em off? 504 00:35:29,752 --> 00:35:34,340 See how far we've gone so far on this ride down the tracks? 505 00:35:36,676 --> 00:35:39,053 You're sitting in the back. Can you feel this? 506 00:35:39,929 --> 00:35:41,597 -Feel the road surface? -[producer] Yeah. 507 00:35:41,681 --> 00:35:43,391 How you doing that in bare feet? 508 00:35:43,891 --> 00:35:46,561 This is just a railroad bed 509 00:35:47,145 --> 00:35:49,939 and has nothing but sharp rocks with edges. 510 00:35:55,069 --> 00:36:00,324 [Paul] If you look at the photographs of Tiffany's feet, 511 00:36:00,408 --> 00:36:02,577 especially her right foot, 512 00:36:03,661 --> 00:36:07,165 there are no markings whatsoever 513 00:36:07,707 --> 00:36:09,876 that you would expect to see 514 00:36:09,959 --> 00:36:12,920 if someone had walked in their bare feet, 515 00:36:13,004 --> 00:36:18,843 especially over the rocks and the glass along the tracks. 516 00:36:19,927 --> 00:36:22,388 [Dianne] If she walked on the train tracks itself, 517 00:36:22,471 --> 00:36:24,557 she would have had splinters on her feet. 518 00:36:25,266 --> 00:36:28,728 To walk for miles and have her feet completely clean 519 00:36:28,811 --> 00:36:31,355 proves to you that she did not walk. 520 00:36:34,192 --> 00:36:36,986 [Robert, Sr.] I walked that tracks after the fact, 521 00:36:37,069 --> 00:36:39,655 and I had a hard time walking on 'em with work shoes, 522 00:36:39,739 --> 00:36:43,743 and that's what makes me feel that she never ever walked there. 523 00:36:44,952 --> 00:36:46,954 [ominous music playing] 524 00:36:50,666 --> 00:36:54,462 [Louise] If someone, especially a female 6'3", 525 00:36:54,545 --> 00:36:56,422 is walking on the roadway, 526 00:36:56,505 --> 00:36:59,634 someone is going to see them, and going to notice them, 527 00:36:59,717 --> 00:37:03,638 because it's very unusual to see anyone walking on the roadway in this area. 528 00:37:04,513 --> 00:37:07,600 [Paul] If you look at the photos 529 00:37:08,267 --> 00:37:13,397 from Steve's deer cameras outside of his home, 530 00:37:14,148 --> 00:37:17,985 you will see headlights of motor vehicles 531 00:37:18,069 --> 00:37:21,948 at the same time Tiffany's walking down the driveway. 532 00:37:23,074 --> 00:37:28,037 I believe she enters a motor vehicle. 533 00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:31,290 I suspect voluntarily. 534 00:37:34,210 --> 00:37:37,338 I believe she got in a car with somebody she thought she knew, 535 00:37:37,421 --> 00:37:39,215 was very comfortable with them. 536 00:37:42,134 --> 00:37:45,930 When she entered that vehicle, somebody grabbed the phone. 537 00:37:46,013 --> 00:37:47,765 And I think that phone 538 00:37:48,307 --> 00:37:51,352 was thrown out of the car 539 00:37:51,435 --> 00:37:53,145 as they were pulling away. 540 00:37:54,355 --> 00:37:58,150 [Dianne] When they took her phone, that's when I think reality hit. 541 00:37:58,234 --> 00:37:59,527 She was in trouble. 542 00:38:04,740 --> 00:38:07,201 [voice breaking] Everybody has their own scenarios 543 00:38:07,285 --> 00:38:09,161 of what happened to my daughter. 544 00:38:09,912 --> 00:38:12,456 I thought, "Well, maybe they tried to rape her, 545 00:38:12,540 --> 00:38:13,582 and she ran from them, 546 00:38:13,666 --> 00:38:16,002 and maybe she was trying to get away from them, 547 00:38:16,085 --> 00:38:18,129 and then she just couldn't run anymore." 548 00:38:18,796 --> 00:38:22,466 [crying] I truly believe that she was hanging on to this for dear life, 549 00:38:22,550 --> 00:38:25,219 trying to save herself, you know what I mean? 550 00:38:25,303 --> 00:38:27,471 And trying to keep them from taking her. 551 00:38:27,555 --> 00:38:29,557 [mysterious music playing] 552 00:38:35,980 --> 00:38:38,566 [Robert, Sr.] Right behind us, where the tracks are, 553 00:38:38,649 --> 00:38:40,359 that's where Tiffany lost her life. 554 00:38:42,570 --> 00:38:46,907 It's really desolate back here. It's really kind of creepy or spooky. 555 00:38:48,367 --> 00:38:51,412 If you were to pull back here, you wouldn't hear anybody. 556 00:38:51,495 --> 00:38:53,497 You have the noise of the train on one side, 557 00:38:53,581 --> 00:38:57,126 and you have the noise of the pike to the right of me here. 558 00:38:59,253 --> 00:39:02,423 [Robert, Jr.] If I wanted to get rid of somebody, what a better spot to do it. 559 00:39:02,506 --> 00:39:04,717 That remote location, you could do anything you want. 560 00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:07,219 There's nothing there. Nobody's gonna hear a scream. 561 00:39:07,303 --> 00:39:08,637 Nobody's gonna hear anything. 562 00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,266 What a perfect spot to commit a murder. 563 00:39:12,350 --> 00:39:14,352 [dark music playing] 564 00:39:18,481 --> 00:39:21,108 [Paul] If you look at the photographs 565 00:39:21,192 --> 00:39:24,904 that were taken by the New Jersey Transit Police Department, 566 00:39:25,780 --> 00:39:29,742 as well as the New Jersey State Medical Examiner's Office… 567 00:39:31,952 --> 00:39:36,082 you will see that at the point that the train and the body of Tiffany 568 00:39:36,165 --> 00:39:38,667 came in contact with each other, 569 00:39:38,751 --> 00:39:41,754 there is what looks like a large pool of blood. 570 00:39:43,756 --> 00:39:46,634 Which suggests that the body could have been laid there 571 00:39:46,717 --> 00:39:49,762 and was bleeding before the train hit the body. 572 00:39:51,138 --> 00:39:53,140 [ominous music playing] 573 00:39:55,017 --> 00:39:56,852 [Paul] They never tested anything. 574 00:39:56,936 --> 00:40:01,023 They said they had enough to conclude that it was suicide 575 00:40:01,107 --> 00:40:02,733 without doing the testing. 576 00:40:03,609 --> 00:40:05,319 So it was never determined 577 00:40:05,403 --> 00:40:08,531 if that was, in fact, Tiffany's blood on the tracks. 578 00:40:12,493 --> 00:40:16,872 The medical examiner in this report says, 579 00:40:16,956 --> 00:40:22,044 when referring to Tiffany's arms and legs, 580 00:40:22,628 --> 00:40:25,798 that they were cut from the torso. 581 00:40:25,881 --> 00:40:30,219 That word "cut" is right in their report. 582 00:40:30,302 --> 00:40:33,180 Not ripped away, but cut. 583 00:40:34,306 --> 00:40:36,058 And that says to me 584 00:40:36,142 --> 00:40:39,645 that there is a viable theory 585 00:40:39,728 --> 00:40:44,942 that she was harmed before the body was placed on the tracks. 586 00:40:46,110 --> 00:40:47,611 The arms were placed out, 587 00:40:47,695 --> 00:40:50,906 and the legs were hanging over the other track. 588 00:40:51,824 --> 00:40:54,368 [Dianne] Her feet were intact, and her hands were intact. 589 00:40:54,452 --> 00:40:55,411 What's that tell you? 590 00:40:55,494 --> 00:40:59,457 She wasn't standing on that track and hit by the train. 591 00:40:59,540 --> 00:41:01,292 She was laying there. 592 00:41:01,876 --> 00:41:03,002 They were cut off. 593 00:41:06,255 --> 00:41:09,467 [Robert, Sr.] I believe somebody laid her on the tracks, 594 00:41:09,550 --> 00:41:12,511 and, uh, she bled out there. 595 00:41:14,805 --> 00:41:16,182 [Robert, Jr.] Seeing the location, 596 00:41:16,265 --> 00:41:18,976 definitely she was murdered and laid on that tracks. 597 00:41:19,477 --> 00:41:20,978 No doubt in my mind. 598 00:41:21,061 --> 00:41:24,732 She was laid on those tracks. That's how they got rid of her. 599 00:41:24,815 --> 00:41:26,692 And somebody's getting away with it. 600 00:41:27,735 --> 00:41:29,236 Somebody's getting away with it. 601 00:41:36,076 --> 00:41:39,288 My name is Chuck Atkinson. I'm a private investigator. 602 00:41:39,371 --> 00:41:42,249 I was in New Jersey State Police for 26 years. 603 00:41:42,333 --> 00:41:44,376 As a detective for 17 years. 604 00:41:44,460 --> 00:41:48,839 I've been working for Paul D'Amato since early 2008. 605 00:41:48,923 --> 00:41:50,925 [suspenseful music playing] 606 00:41:52,593 --> 00:41:55,429 Paul and the family had decided to set up a hotline, 607 00:41:55,513 --> 00:41:58,682 and they were looking for any type of anonymous tips. 608 00:41:58,766 --> 00:42:00,017 And we got a call 609 00:42:00,100 --> 00:42:03,395 from a convenience store worker 610 00:42:03,479 --> 00:42:07,733 who had overheard three employees of that convenience store 611 00:42:07,816 --> 00:42:10,486 speaking about the Valiante case. 612 00:42:11,654 --> 00:42:14,782 [Paul] I remember quite clearly 613 00:42:14,865 --> 00:42:17,785 my legal assistant telling me, "There's a gentleman, 614 00:42:17,868 --> 00:42:21,830 and he has information about Tiffany's death." 615 00:42:24,708 --> 00:42:27,878 [on video] Sergeant Rosell's gonna be here any minute. We can get started. 616 00:42:27,962 --> 00:42:33,217 And that particular individual was interviewed under oath. 617 00:42:33,300 --> 00:42:34,635 Extensively. 618 00:42:34,718 --> 00:42:36,929 [on video] Of course, I read about it in the newspaper. 619 00:42:37,012 --> 00:42:40,349 I heard about it, you know. The kids were talking about it at work. 620 00:42:40,432 --> 00:42:43,686 [Paul] He shared with that detective 621 00:42:43,769 --> 00:42:45,521 what he had heard. 622 00:42:45,604 --> 00:42:48,941 I had been given some information from these guys that work for me. 623 00:42:49,024 --> 00:42:52,611 [Chuck] They were telling a story about how it had been a homicide. 624 00:42:52,695 --> 00:42:54,905 So the three subjects that he overheard 625 00:42:54,989 --> 00:42:58,158 did not have anything to do with this homicide. 626 00:42:58,242 --> 00:43:00,911 They were just relating something that they had heard. 627 00:43:02,204 --> 00:43:05,249 One of the subjects was at the uncle's party 628 00:43:05,332 --> 00:43:07,543 that Tiffany was at that night, 629 00:43:07,626 --> 00:43:09,962 and he did see Tiffany at the party. 630 00:43:11,463 --> 00:43:13,799 There were references to an argument. 631 00:43:14,383 --> 00:43:17,511 [man on video] And the argument went on, and then Tiffany left. 632 00:43:18,053 --> 00:43:21,223 Now they told me she was picked up by somebody. 633 00:43:21,307 --> 00:43:22,725 They knew Tiffany. 634 00:43:27,396 --> 00:43:32,526 [Chuck] It was two females and a male who pick Tiffany up in a vehicle, 635 00:43:33,319 --> 00:43:36,280 taking her somewhere near the train tracks. 636 00:43:36,363 --> 00:43:40,409 Stripped her naked, held her at gunpoint, and humiliated her. 637 00:43:41,952 --> 00:43:44,455 -[man] I'm telling you third-party stuff. -[officer] Yeah, right. 638 00:43:44,538 --> 00:43:46,999 -I'm just telling you what was told to me. -[officer] Okay. 639 00:43:50,002 --> 00:43:53,005 [Chuck] The prosecutor interviewed the three individuals 640 00:43:53,088 --> 00:43:55,299 that were overheard at the convenience store. 641 00:43:55,382 --> 00:43:57,384 [officer] With relation to the possible homicide, 642 00:43:57,468 --> 00:43:58,844 did you hear anything about that? 643 00:43:58,927 --> 00:44:02,556 Like how it went down or where that came from? 644 00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:04,600 [man 1] No. I don't know. 645 00:44:05,309 --> 00:44:06,977 [officer] Did you hear any other rumors? 646 00:44:07,061 --> 00:44:08,771 -[man 2] I haven't heard anything. -Nothing. 647 00:44:08,854 --> 00:44:09,855 [man 2] No. 648 00:44:11,690 --> 00:44:15,778 [officer] There's rumors that you knew a lot about what happened. 649 00:44:15,861 --> 00:44:18,822 [man 3] To be honest, that sounds completely absurd. 650 00:44:18,906 --> 00:44:22,034 [Chuck] All three witnesses denied ever saying anything 651 00:44:22,117 --> 00:44:26,080 to the effect of what was overheard by the convenience store worker. 652 00:44:26,163 --> 00:44:28,999 [officer] Since that night, have you heard anything about it? 653 00:44:29,083 --> 00:44:30,125 [man 1] No, just… 654 00:44:32,086 --> 00:44:35,047 It's just the… suicide. 655 00:44:35,130 --> 00:44:36,298 [officer] So, there was no-- 656 00:44:36,382 --> 00:44:38,342 It was never brought up about 657 00:44:39,134 --> 00:44:41,804 possibly being anything other than a suicide? 658 00:44:41,887 --> 00:44:43,222 [man 2] Uh, no. No. 659 00:44:46,183 --> 00:44:51,021 [Paul] In the reports of the interviews of certain people that knew Tiffany, 660 00:44:51,730 --> 00:44:55,567 some of them did say that she was sad, that she was depressed. 661 00:44:55,651 --> 00:44:58,153 [woman] I don't think she was, like, very happy. 662 00:44:58,237 --> 00:45:00,280 Like… I mean, like… 663 00:45:00,364 --> 00:45:03,659 I don't think you could see it unless you were, like, really close to her. 664 00:45:03,742 --> 00:45:05,244 -Because… -[officer] Sure. 665 00:45:05,327 --> 00:45:08,706 [woman] …she always was, like, so happy, and like… 666 00:45:08,789 --> 00:45:10,916 Well, like, if you really knew her, 667 00:45:10,999 --> 00:45:12,668 she just, like, I don't know. 668 00:45:12,751 --> 00:45:17,005 I just feel like she felt like she could never fit in. 669 00:45:17,506 --> 00:45:20,676 [officer] Did she ever mention anything to you before about, um… 670 00:45:20,759 --> 00:45:22,720 besides just noticing she wasn't happy, 671 00:45:22,803 --> 00:45:26,557 that she wanted to… she was thinking about harming herself at all? 672 00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:27,641 [woman] No. 673 00:45:28,559 --> 00:45:29,560 [officer] Um… 674 00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:33,522 [somber music playing] 675 00:45:53,500 --> 00:45:55,502 [mysterious music playing] 676 00:45:58,422 --> 00:46:01,383 [Paul] How did Tiffany get from her home 677 00:46:01,467 --> 00:46:05,429 to where her body came in contact with the train? 678 00:46:06,013 --> 00:46:07,264 Did she walk? 679 00:46:07,347 --> 00:46:10,225 Did someone pick her up and drive her there? 680 00:46:10,309 --> 00:46:12,853 Was her death some kind of accident 681 00:46:12,936 --> 00:46:14,605 or was it foul play? 682 00:46:14,688 --> 00:46:16,690 [mysterious music continues] 683 00:46:17,900 --> 00:46:22,029 [Paul] There are people out there, as we speak, 684 00:46:22,613 --> 00:46:25,157 that have knowledge of what happened. 685 00:46:25,240 --> 00:46:28,535 And I'm begging them to come forward 686 00:46:28,619 --> 00:46:30,245 and help this family. 687 00:46:34,958 --> 00:46:36,794 [Stephen] Before my daughter went to college, 688 00:46:36,877 --> 00:46:39,046 I promised her I'd build her a volleyball court. 689 00:46:39,129 --> 00:46:41,924 And after Tiffany's passing, I said, 690 00:46:42,007 --> 00:46:44,301 "Well, I promised it." So I built it. 691 00:46:47,721 --> 00:46:51,391 Tiffany just couldn't wait to go to college and have fun at volleyball. 692 00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:57,105 But somebody took that away from her, and it ain't fair. 693 00:46:58,315 --> 00:46:59,441 We need justice. 694 00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:12,079 [Stephen] Is it rough every day? Sure. 695 00:47:12,162 --> 00:47:13,914 Every day, it's a job to wake up. 696 00:47:13,997 --> 00:47:15,624 Every day, to go to sleep. 697 00:47:15,707 --> 00:47:19,419 But it's what I have to do until I find out who did this to our baby. 698 00:47:22,589 --> 00:47:27,094 [Dianne] This here is a cabinet of nothing but beautiful memories of Tiffany. 699 00:47:27,177 --> 00:47:28,053 And… 700 00:47:29,596 --> 00:47:32,558 friends and relatives have brought things here 701 00:47:32,641 --> 00:47:35,435 in memory of Tiffany to put in her cabinet. 702 00:47:35,519 --> 00:47:37,646 Tiffany's bracelet here. 703 00:47:38,522 --> 00:47:41,900 This was on her the night she died. 704 00:47:42,860 --> 00:47:45,153 So I wore it for a long time. 705 00:47:45,904 --> 00:47:50,868 This is Tiffany here in the solid wood urn. 706 00:47:51,660 --> 00:47:53,912 It's a prayer box. I pray every night. 707 00:47:56,164 --> 00:47:58,000 Then I put a message in there. 708 00:48:01,211 --> 00:48:03,171 "For justice for Tiffany 709 00:48:03,255 --> 00:48:06,675 and hope that the people that did this to her will come forward." 710 00:48:13,724 --> 00:48:14,725 [kisses] 711 00:48:20,939 --> 00:48:22,316 I love you, Tiffy. 712 00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:40,083 [dramatic music playing]