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Wndyri Plus subscribers can listen to Morbid early and ad-free. Join WNDYRI Plus in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcasts. You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.

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From WNDYRI comes a news series about a lawyer who broke all the rules.

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Need to launder some money?

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Broker a deal with a drug cartel? Take out a witness? Paul can do it. I'm your host, Brandon James-Jinkins.

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Follow Criminal Attorney on the WNDYRI app or wherever you get your podcast.

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Hey, you weirdos.

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I'm Ash. You're Elaina.

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And I'm Elaina.

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And this is Morbid.

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This is Morbid.

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Why are you laughing at?

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Because it was too... We paused before recording this because Like, he was leaving the room. And when he said, It's recording, she said, I'm waiting for you to leave.

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I said, I'm waiting. Didn't I say, I'm waiting for you to close the door?

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Something like that. It was nicer. We were like, waiting for you to get the fuck out of here.

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I'm waiting for you to be out of my fucking presence for me to start my show.

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I don't know. Whoa. We're in a place called space.

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I had a Diet Coke, different from a Baha Blast, but same in its results where I just get coo-coo crazy.

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Yeah, I mean, it was a busy weekend.

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It It was a busy weekend.

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And there's a busy couple of weeks ahead of us. I have, like always, like has been the case the last couple of years, I don't know when this comes out. So I don't know if you're going to get this. Two weeks. And I will have I think I'm already at Book Things.

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I think you've finished them.

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Okay. Either it's going great or it was great.

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So if you're listening early and ad-free, then We're at Book Things right now. Oh, it's so much fun. And if you don't, we have already been at Book Things.

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It is, Hey, everybody who's listening to it as it's happening. It's going great. It's awesome. We're having a lot of fun. You guys rule who are there.

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Our outfits are phenomenal.

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Hey, everybody. That it's already happened last week. It went so well. And thank you for being there.

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Our outfits were phenomenal. It's true. And you've seen them by now. I'm really just in it for the cute fits.

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Yeah. Time and space don't mean anything.

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They mean everything. Whoa.

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Contradiction.

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Quite the contrary.

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Yeah, you can still buy the book, though. Buy it. Regardless of when you're listening to this. You should buy the Butcher Game. You can get it at thebutchergame. Com. You can get it anywhere you get books. By the time this is out, it's probably going to be on a somewhere, and that's fun. Go grab it.

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That's really cool.

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I'm also going to sign a bunch, randomly.

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Just going to go around to different places.

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So I'll let you know when I do.

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In different states, even. Yeah, it's going to be crazy. Yeah, it's going to be this. I can't believe you're going on a literal book tour.

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Yeah, I mean, it's a little teeny tiny one, but... It's still a tour. Yeah. It's a tour for me. I can tell you that much. But I'm excited. I'm excited. Or I was excited. Whenever you're listening, who knows? Yeah. But you know what? I am eager to tell this story of this case because this case isn't solved, really. Oh. It has a determination to it, but it is controversial, the determination. And I'd like to give you all the information or as much information as I could find, and that Dave could find. And then you guys can make your own determinations. But this family really, really would like this to be out there, and they're really trying to get attention on it still, and they have been for a long time. They've been fighting the good fight. So it's important that after Do you listen to this, have your theories. Yeah. But just remember that none of us know what happened here. And there's real people. And that there's truly evidence and lack of evidence for both theories. So it's not cut and dry. In my opinion, it is not cut and dry either way. Okay.

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So it's just important to remember that none of us have the evidence to say either way. So hopefully we will have it at some point. That'd be great. That's the whole thing, is I hope that they to reopen this whole thing and they actually get evidence that they've been looking for either way, just so this family can know what happened. Have answers. Yeah. Because it really is one of those things where they just don't know what happened. And that's horrific. And that's got to be really shitty.

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I feel like a lot of people say that's even worse than knowing, is not knowing.

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That's the thing. I feel like... Because then, I don't know. I don't even close your... I always say, I don't know if that's the word. Yeah. But just, I don't know. You just want to know. You know when it's your loved one. So this is the mysterious death of Tiffany Valiante. Okay. It's definitely a mysterious death. I think everybody's going to be scratching their heads at the end of this.

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Her name sounds familiar. Yeah.

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So Tiffany Valiante was born March third 1997. She was the youngest child born to Stephen and Diane Valiante. From a pretty early age, Tiffany showed that she was a true athlete, like really athletic. She showed a real aptitude with softball in junior high, and then she ended up playing volleyball in high school. Nice. And she was so good. Like, so good. Volleyball is hard. Yeah. And it's so taxing on your body. Yeah, it is. Like, crazy. She went to Oakcrest High School, and she was one of their star athletes. Wow. Like, truly made an impression. And it was actually for that reason, for her skill and leadership abilities in volleyball in high school, that she ended up earning a sports scholarship to attend Mercy College in New York in the fall of 2015. Wow. Good for her. That's a big deal. That's huge. They don't just hand those out. No. When she went there, she was planning to study criminal justice. Hey. But unfortunately, while she was so excited about her college career to begin, her life was tragically cut short before she even made it to New York. Oh, no. She was never able to make it to college, which is so sad.

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On the afternoon of July 12th, 2015, Tiffany went to a graduation party at the home of her cousin, and this home was right across the street from her own family house. Oh, wow. She spent the day hanging out. She was swimming, hanging out with family around the pool. And the party started to wind down in the early evening. So she went back home across the street. She showered, she changed, and she had plans for later in the night. So she was going to be doing that. Now, as the graduation party was wrapping up, Diane Valiante, who is Tiffany's mother, got a phone call from one of Tiffany's friends. And this phone call, this friend said, I have to speak to you right away. So they were like, okay. So they were like, she was like, meet me at the house. So Diane and her husband, Tiffany's dad, said their goodbye to everybody at the party, and they left and went home. When they got there, they saw that Tiffany's friend and her mother were pulled into the driveway, and they both jumped out of the car and apparently immediately started getting upset. They were accusing Tiffany of taking her friend's debit card and using it without her permission.

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Okay.

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So they were basically She was basically coming to tell Tiffany's mother, this is what happened. Diane said that she remembers there was a lot of yelling. So of course, they grabbed Tiffany. They were like, what the hell is going on? She denied it and said, I didn't do any of it. So after the friend and the mother ended up leaving because they were like, We're going to let you guys handle this. Diane was like, maybe they were in Tiffany's car together. Maybe this friend just dropped the debit card in the car or something. Let's go check your car and see if it's in some crevices or something.

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I can't even tell you how many fucking times that's happened.

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Yes. But as they were doing that, she did catch Tiffany trying to hide the girl's credit card in her pocket.

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Okay.

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So Diane was pissed because she was like, You stole a girls credit card. What the hell? Or a debit card. And you lied to me. And you lied to me. That was the big thing. You just made me look crazy here. Like, what the hell?

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Which teenagers do.

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Of course. This is really shitty teenage stuff, but she was mad. Yeah. But she lectured her, basically, You can't do this. That's horrible. And she said Tiffany seemed very remorseful and explained it was just a poor judgment, a moment of poor judgment. I don't think she really gave a good explanation. Even her mom was like, that explanation seemed very half-hearted.

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Maybe there just wasn't one. I feel like sometimes you do things when you're a teenager.

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You don't even know why. It's complete impulsivity. Yeah. It's like, who knows? Who knows if the friend and her got into a little spat Argument. I'm not saying it's okay that she took her credit card. No, obviously not. I'm just saying teenage stuff sometimes doesn't make any rational sense whatsoever. Exactly. So Diane went back inside to get her husband because she was going to explain what had just happened. Yeah. And they both went back outside to talk to Tiffany, and Tiffany was gone. She was just in the driveway, and now she's not. Diane said, She was out by the car. I walked inside to get my husband. I only left her for one minute. I walked back out and she wasn't there. What? Yeah. So this was strange to her parents, Diane and Steve. They were like, What? They were like, She wouldn't have just left. She's not a kid who stomps off in the night and goes and leaves. That's just not what happened. She was like, And this argument wasn't like, explosive. It's not like they were like, She's screaming and yelling and all that. They were just, she was like, What the hell?

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Like, what's going on? She's giving the explanation. Like, I got to talk to your dad. She's like, I don't know if I buy that. I'm going to talk to your dad. Yeah. It wasn't anything crazy that she would go running off into the wild blue yonder.

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And even you think like, she went to get, the mother went to get the father and then they go back outside and she's gone. I just picture them walking to the end of the driveway and looking down the street and not seeing her anywhere.

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She literally, she was like, not only would she not have done that, but I don't think she could have done that. She was like, I don't know how she would have left the property in the time it took me to get in and out. It was shocking. She was like, I didn't stay in there for a while. I got her father and brought him outside. She would have had to run, essentially. And again, it was like an argument, but it wasn't like this crazy heated argument. And Tiffany had a phobia of the dark. She was literally had that phobia. She couldn't handle the dark. And by the time they had returned from the party, the sun had gone down completely. It was dark. So she would not be walking into the darkness by herself. And we'll get more into that later because there was coaches that knew this about her. Everyone in her life knew that she could not be in the dark. Oh, wow. So they were like, all of them were like, she would not have walked out into the darkness. It just wouldn't be something she could physically do or emotionally do.

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Yeah. So Diane and Steven went back across the street to see if maybe she returned to the graduation party, went there.

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Yeah, I could see them thinking that.

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No one at her cousin's house had seen Tiffany since she left the party earlier.

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And then you just think that there's so much family and friends in this one consolidated area, and she just fucking banished.

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Well, and so they called her phone a bunch of times, and nobody answered. So they were like, All right, the only thing I can think of is that she left out of anger. But even though that doesn't make sense, that's literally the only thing I can think of. So they called her sister's Jessie and Crystal, and her uncle, Michael Veliante, who was a former New Jersey straight trooper, to help find her. They all split up. They drove all around the neighborhood looking for her. They didn't see at all, nowhere.

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That doesn't make any sense. Yeah.

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And after two hours, no sign of Tiffany.

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So she had to have gotten in a car, like very quickly. It's like, possibly abducted.

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That's literally. So a little after 11:00 PM, Steven, her father, went back to the house and was walking up the driveway, and he spotted something in a pile of leaves at the edge of the Veliante's property. Then he leaned down to look, and it was Tiffany's cell phone.

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Oh, my stomach just flipped Yeah.

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Oh, God. Tiffany's cell phone in a pile of leaves at their home, like right on the edge of their property.

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Yeah.

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And he said he panicked immediately. Like an alarm right away. He said Tiffany never went anywhere without her cell phone. No one does. And Diane said she even bought a waterproof case so she could bring it into the shower. Wow. So when they found that, they were like, Fuck. What does that mean? What is going on? Within the half hour finding that, they reported her missing to the police. Now, the family continued searching for Tiffany for several more hours, but they found no sign of her besides that cell phone. As this is going on, about four miles from their home, officials from the New Jersey transit police had started gathering to investigate an accident on the Atlantic City rail line. According to the student engineer who was driving, the train had been traveling to Atlantic City from Philadelphia at 80 miles per hour and had just reached mile marker 45 when a pedestrian, quote, dove in front of the train from an east to west direction.

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Oh, wow.

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So at the time, it was impossible to identify this person. The impact The fact that the train had crushed her skull and destroyed any identifying features. And also what they could see, they were confused by because this victim was dressed only in underwear. So they didn't have any identifying documentation, like a driver's license or a student ID. It was just this person they couldn't identify in their underwear. Like, only underwear? Only underwear.

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Okay.

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Now, because of this, the individual was pronounced as a person. That's all they could pronounce them as. Oh, my God. And the remains were removed from the scene and taken to the medical examiner's office. And I say the remains because at this point, they literally didn't know who this was. They could not determine whether it was a woman, a man, a child, anything. They couldn't figure out any of this. Wow. And the accident was immediately believed to be a suicide. Okay. So at the time, the investigators didn't treat it like a crime scene. That's not good. We've seen this before. When they go in with a preconceived notion, shit goes awry. And that's when these things go on for years. Why don't you just treat it like a crime until you are 100% shown otherwise?

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Yeah, because you can't just rule that out right off that. I mean, people stage things to look like suicides all the time.

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And also, what a way to make sure this person and the marks that you inflicted upon them are not identified. Right. Throw them in front of a train. They're not going to be able to tell anything that happened to them before that. It absolutely would be a thing. So why are you not even considering that? And they're in their underwear. Which is immediately strange. That does a ring to you as a little strange.

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A big strange.

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So, again, they didn't treat it like a crime scene. So things that would have ordinarily and obviously been collected as evidence, like broken pieces of a charm bracelet that were scattered across the tracks, were just left behind. Oh, just the thought of that. Or handled carelessly.

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The thought of that is so sad. Just like a charm bracelet. Yeah.

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Oh, I hate that. Oh, it's awful.

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Now, in the early hours of the morning, as the Valiante family's concern is-growing. Slowly growing into full-blown panic, Michael Valiante, the uncle, received a call from a former coworker asking him to come down to the medical examiner's office. Oh, no. When this person was discovered on the tracks, New Jersey transit officers contacted local police and they asked them, Are there any missing persons reports that have happened recently? That's when they heard that Tiffany Valiante had been reported missing. Because of that, investigators believe they were extending professional courtesy by contacting Michael first. Yeah. Instead of grabbing Diane and Steven first. Yeah, I get that. I can understand that. After speaking with Michael Veliante and having him come down, transit police, quote, determined that the remains were Tiffany.

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What?

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Yeah. So Diane said, I remember a car pulling in and my brother-in-law got out of the back seat. I heard him say Tiffany got hit by a train and my two kids were just screaming. And my husband is screaming. And I'm like, what did you just say to me? Because like, what- How could you even process that? She was in the drive. What are you talking about? She was standing next to my car one minute. She's gone and now she got hit by a train. Hit by a train? What are you talking about? Incredible shock. And again, they had just been celebrating Tiffany's graduation.

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Right.

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Like, what the fuck? What do you mean? So to make it all worse, the investigators who relayed the news were unable to give any real details about what had happened at the moment. Diane said, They just said she was hit by a train. They didn't tell us anything else. We thought she was in the car with someone, that the car got hit. They're like, They don't even know that she got physically hit by a train, just her person. Like, just her. Yeah. So the details the Valiante family were seeking finally came the next morning, but not from police or transit authority investigators, but from the local press.

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Great. Yeah.

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The article described how Tiffany was, struck by a train after refusing to move when the conductor sounded its horn. Just to tell you ahead of time, that will be disproven.

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Yeah. And also somebody said she dove in front of the train, which makes you wonder if she's thrown.

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Well, there's several stories the student engineer tells, and then eventually is found to be lying. Great. Because of the sounding the Horn thing? No. I guess we'll see about that. The authorities had labeled her death, quote, an apparent suicide. And the news shocked everybody, including the Valiantes, who couldn't understand why the fuck the press was reporting Tiffany's death as a suicide within hours of it happening. And Diane said, My husband called the paper up to tell them that was wrong. Because of course, they're like, This must be so hard to hear.

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You haven't even processed anything yet. And the press is like, Ghost what? Yeah.

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So they called the transit police and they confirmed that less than 24 hours after Tiffany had died, and without any consideration of any alternative explanations, It was just labeled a suicide. That was the end. They didn't investigate at all.

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Okay.

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So the news came to Tiffany's friends as very bewildering as well. They had never seen any indication of depression or potential self-harm, which, of course, we all know. It happens. Sometimes that happens. So that's not a total perfect indication of what's going on with somebody. I think we just covered one recently where somebody said they were acting totally fine the day before and why Why would they do that? Why would this happen? Why would they do that? I think it's just one of those things. But you absolutely can at least take them at their word. She didn't show any indication. Her friend said she had everything going for her, and she did because she received a volleyball scholarship to Mercy College in New York. She'd already connected with her future roommate there. They had already started bonding. She'd made a long list of summer plans with friends and family. From what could see, she didn't have a personal history that you would expect to see in a teen who has contemplated suicide. She didn't have a history of mental illness. She had a large support system of family and friends. She did have tension with her parents She was a teenager.

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Name a teenager that doesn't.

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She didn't have... It sounds like they were in a rough patch, their relationship, which, again, not an indication, not a total perfect confirmation This is why it would happen. But Diane and Steven said they couldn't think of anything that would explain a suicide either.

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No.

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Which, again, we all know. It's one of those things. Sometimes it does happen when no one can see it.

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But it does sound like in this case, there's some weird shady shit.

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But in this case, it sounds like there was definitely no indication outwardly that this was happening. Right.

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And it sounds like shady shit is coming.

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Well, that's. And also what you're going to see, too, is people had different interpretations of what went on. Okay. So it's like there's to consider as well. But again, there's really, to me, there's no concrete evidence of suicide here. Okay. There's circumstantial, for sure. Right. But there's also circumstantial evidence to at least entertain the idea that there was foul play here. Yeah. I think there's evidence to be said on both sides, and there's evidence against both sides. And that's why everything should just be investigated. That's why I think it just needs to be because it was mishandled. And you'll see how much it... Nobody can deny this was mishandled. But again, as Dr. Michelle Scott, who is a professor at Monmouth University, told reporters after the death, she was basically saying what we were saying. She said, While everything may look fine on the outside, there could be an eternal struggle going on that no one knows about. And she mentioned times of transitions, such as the end of high school or the end of the school year, can trigger depression issues, and sometimes kids can act rationally. Absolutely true. But again, she wasn't going off into the Wild Blue Yonder without a plan, without some bonds forming.

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She had a scholarship. That's a big deal. She liked playing sports, so she was going to be able to play more sports at a higher level. She was going to a university she was excited about, had plans to study criminal justice. She had already connected with that roommate. Like, she was going forth, you know? Yeah. And again, as people will mention, there was a strained relationship in the house and things were a little tense. Okay, sure. Maybe. I wasn't there. But she was going to be going to college. Yeah.

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So if there was, there was an end in sight.

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I'm going to college, you know? Yeah. But again, it's really hard to understand what people are going through when you're not in their head. Now, like I said, even though it seemed like everything was fine, she was at least dealing with a little bit of that emotional upset, like the strained relationships. Years later, in a deposition, one of Tiffany's friends said she had recently come out to her parents. Okay. And while they say they were generally supportive of her, the friend believes things may have been more strained than usual in recent weeks. Okay. Her uncle, Michael, also stated that there was at least some turmoil happening in the house or in her life leading up to that. Nothing Earth-shattering. She wasn't the happiest go luckiest in the weeks leading up to this because she had some stuff going on. Yeah. In his statement to the New Jersey State Police, which he gave in the early morning hours after her death, he told the detective that Tiffany, quote, had gotten into some trouble the day before, as well as the day of her graduation party. And her friend stated that she had, quote, cut herself and was extremely upset.

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Okay. So that is history of self-harmed.

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Yes. But he also reported that Tiffany's relationship with her parents, again, had some tension and that she, quote, was extremely distalized distraught over some of the things that had happened. I want you to take all that, but hold on to it because it's not exactly what it seems.

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Okay. Yeah.

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So four days after Tiffany's death, investigators brought in bloodhounds to track Tiffany's scent in an effort to find any additional details. I mean, again, she was found in her underwear. She didn't leave in her underwear.

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Yeah, I mean, where's her clothing?

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Exactly. So the hounds traced her path from the Veliante's driveway and Tiffany's landing along the rocky, overgrown wooded area along the train tracks, and then the trail ended in the remote area of woods where she ultimately died. And despite having walked the entire route Tiffany supposedly took that night, they were unable to locate any of her belongings, including her shoes or shorts, anything. Well, that doesn't make any sense. The investigators felt that the dogs had confirmed their belief that she had become distraught and left the house after fighting with her mother and eventually found herself standing at the tracks. That's how they took it.

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Okay.

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Again, I'm a little confused.

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Especially with the phobia. Where's her clothes? Where's her clothes in the phobia of the darkness? Like walking in the middle of the woods.

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Exactly.

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In New Jersey?

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Yeah.

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That's some densely wooded areas.

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And it's pitch black.

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Yeah.

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Now, based on the statement taken from Michael Valiante and the description of the accident provided by the student engineer driving the train, the medical examiner labeled the death of suicide and closed the case. Five days later, Diane and Steven had Tiffany's remains cremated, which Diane did later say was the, quote, worst decision of her life. But she said at the time, she, quote, just assumed the investigator's did what they were supposed to do.

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I mean, yeah, why wouldn't you assume that? Which you can't. Yeah. Or like to believe that they're supposed to do what they do.

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But my goodness, it made their lives a lot harder.

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Well, I can't imagine having to even make decision of what to do with your child's remains. You would never feel like you made the right decision.

[00:28:34]

And remains that are not in great condition. It's not like you're going to be able to have an open casket funeral. It's not like you're, I'm sure that might have played into it. I was wondering that myself. I don't want this isn't who she was thing. So the Valiante's held a memorial mass for Tiffany on July 20th, and everyone assumed that the case was closed. We grieve now. But the natural process of grieving kept getting interrupted because so many questions kept popping up and weird inconsistencies are popping up. Aside from their disbelief that Tiffany would even have contemplated much less completed suicide, there was a lot of strange aspects of the case that they just couldn't figure out. They were like, this just isn't... It's not all fitting into the pieces here.

[00:29:26]

The biggest one being, where the fuck are her clothes? Exactly. Do those get Yes.

[00:29:31]

Okay. So for one, when she disappeared from the house that night, we're talking about the clothes now, she had been wearing a shirt, shorts, nuked shoes, and a headband. But when she was struck by the train, she was only in her underwear. And investigators, eventually, after more searching, did find her shirt in the woods nearby.

[00:29:52]

But only her shirt?

[00:29:54]

They found her shirt next to, are you ready? An ax with red Oh, what the fuck? Yup. An ax with red markings on it.

[00:30:11]

I'm not kidding you. I have goosebumps all over my entire body right now. Like, my legs have goosebumps. What the fuck?

[00:30:19]

We're going to get back to that. So don't worry. Hold on to that one, too. This is why you can't just take the suicide face value.

[00:30:26]

No. And only her shirt? So where's her shoes, shorts, and the headband.

[00:30:30]

We'll find those, too. What the fuck? So it wasn't just the missing evidence and what they believed was investigators's complete unwillingness to consider alternatives that gave the Valiantes some pause here. It was also that the facts were not looking to support investigators's conclusions. It looked like the other way around.

[00:30:51]

Very much so.

[00:30:52]

Already. Yeah. According to her sister, Jessie, the family found it impossible to believe that late on a summer night, she would suddenly leave a family gathering, discard her cell phone, walk from our family's home, this is a quote, in May's landing, more than four miles to a remote, thickly wooded section of railroad tracks, and along the way, remove her jean shorts, headband, and sneakers before stepping onto the tracks and in front of a train traveling at 80 miles per hour.

[00:31:19]

That doesn't make any sense.

[00:31:21]

When you really lay it out like that, you're like- It's what?

[00:31:24]

It's the clothes for me. I just feel like, God forbid, if she was going to end her life, why would she undress first? Why would she take off all your clothes? People do- For sure. Things at the end of their life that are hard to explain.

[00:31:38]

That's why this is so confusing. Yeah. Because you can really look at either side of this and you can say, Yeah, you can't discount suicide. You can't. But you also can't discount that there was foul play here.

[00:31:54]

Because then you go to the ax with the red markings on it next to her shirt.

[00:31:58]

You have I can't see both sides of that. At least I can plainly see that there's not significant evidence to say that this is totally a suicide. Yeah, no. But there's not significant evidence to say the other side, but there's significant evidence to question both of those things. Yes. 100%, and to open again and really take a look. But as we'll see, mishandled. Now, not only was the behavior itself outside of character for Tiffany, whose toxicology report showed no signs of drug or alcohol in her system. But the time of day that she disappeared, again, made it more unbelievable. Like we've been saying, her fear of the dark. According to Diane, it was so severe that she was, quote, petrified of the dark and would normally never venture anywhere alone at night.

[00:32:46]

Especially not the middle of the fucking woods.

[00:32:48]

Exactly. And other family and friends also said that time of day was just... They were like, she had a crippling fear of the dark. It wasn't like, I don't like the dark. It was a crippling fear. Allison Walker, who coached Tiffany's junior travel volleyball team, said, It's just not the Tiffany I knew. Tiffany was deathly afraid of the dark, had to have the TV on if the room was dark. The thought of her choosing to walk through not just the dark alone, but a dark wooded area alone? Never in my wildest dreams would that happen. No, that's the thing. And in the weeks following their daughter's death, Diane started going on long walks, just trying to clear her head. Of course. Grieving, trying to grieve any way she could. It was during one of these walks through the woods.

[00:33:33]

Don't you dare even tell me that she found her daughter's clothing.

[00:33:36]

And this is the thing. It was the woods leading towards the tracks because she would go on this walk, probably just to, she's grieving.

[00:33:44]

Maybe try to get in her head space, too, in Tiffany's head space.

[00:33:47]

She spotted something under a tree, set back about a dozen feet from the tracks. When she got closer, she found Tiffany's shoes. She said they were, neatly lined up as though they'd been placed there carefully. She also found her headband, a large keychain, like those usually affixed to rental car keys, and a sweatshirt she'd never seen before.

[00:34:11]

What the fuck? And the fact that investigator searched this area? Yeah. I didn't see that, which means possibly two things. One, they didn't investigate well enough because those things were always there, or two, somebody went back and put them there.

[00:34:26]

Exactly. And either way, thought.

[00:34:28]

Fucking weird.

[00:34:30]

And the location was not along the route the bloodhounds had traced weeks earlier, and it was well over a mile from where Tiffany had been struck by the train.

[00:34:38]

So that makes no sense. Yeah.

[00:34:40]

That would mean she'd have to take her headband and shoes off. And whose keychain is that? And whose sweatshirt? And whose sweatshirt. Yeah. And so when the- I'm sorry, I'm dumbfounded.

[00:34:53]

Yeah.

[00:34:54]

And it gets wilder. How even? So when the medical examiner performed his evaluation of Tiffany's remains, There was no mention of her feet being super dirty or having sustained any injuries.

[00:35:05]

Which you would think they would if she was walking barefoot through the fucking woods.

[00:35:08]

She would have had to walk almost two miles bare feet through the woods. You're going to get cut with something. And that's over rocky, dirty terrain to get where she was at the train.

[00:35:27]

This show is sponsored by Better Health. Kids We are always learning and growing, but as adults, we sometimes lose that curiosity. What's something you want to learn? Gardening, a new language, maybe how to finally beat your best friend in bowling. Therapy can help you reconnect with your sense of wonder because your back to school era can come at any age. I am a big believer in therapy. I love therapy. I think I am a better person when I'm in therapy. I love having that one time in the week where I can talk to my therapist. I love that therapy has made me a better communicator. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give Betterhelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. And all you have to do is fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist. Switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. Rediscover your curiosity with Betterhelp. Visit betterhelp. Com/morbid today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P. Com/morbid. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you could be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking.

[00:36:35]

Find the genres you love and discover new ones along the way. Explore bestsellers, new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks and originals that members can listen to all they want with more added all the time. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your daily routine without needing to set aside extra time. There's more to imagine when you listen. I have been listening to the title, Slufo, and that narrator's voice just lulls me into a dream land I feel like I'm walking through the forest alongside her. As an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog, including the latest bestsellers and new releases. Let me tell you something, I'm keeping slew foot. New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible. Com/reliase. Com/reliase. Morbid or text morbid to 500, 500. That's audible. Com/morbid or text morbid to 500, 500 to try audible free for 30 days. Audible. Com/morbid.

[00:37:30]

So Diane called her husband, who called the state police and directed them to the location to get the evidence.

[00:37:35]

Smart of her to not even touch that.

[00:37:37]

And the couple assumed the discovery of new evidence that completely contradicted the early conclusion of suicide would finally lead to a full investigation of what happened to their daughter.

[00:37:48]

I think anyone with any gray matter between their ears would probably feel the same.

[00:37:52]

Are you ready to get really angry? Yeah. So they're like, Cool. We're going to get an investigation now because what the fuck? Whose shit is this? What's going on? Before the evidence could be analyzed, transit detectives misplaced the keychain. Oh, and they misplaced the ax. Don't know where it went. And they have never been found. That is the most negligent shit. There is a possible this young woman got hit by a train. She had her skull crushed by a train, supposedly. And there's an ax found with red markings on it. And before you can test that ax, it gets misplaced.

[00:38:37]

And then so the axe- That would have, that train would have covered up any blow from an ax. Yeah, 100 %. So the The backs went missing and the keychain went missing?

[00:38:46]

And the keychain that she didn't know where that keychain was from. What about the sweatshirt? I have no idea.

[00:38:53]

What?

[00:38:54]

Well, they also ended up finding Tiffany's shirt on one along the route, and it had just been put in a knotted plastic bag when it was collected, like when they collected it, instead of putting it in an actual evidence container. In that knotted plastic bag that the investigators just threw it into had grown mold due to improper handling and was deemed completely untestable.

[00:39:19]

What's going on here?

[00:39:21]

Yeah. I don't know how any... I understand why people have ideas about what they think happened here, because obviously. But you got at least question this stuff.

[00:39:31]

No, that's some shady shit going on.

[00:39:33]

Because even if you think it was a suicide, it's like, well, what's going on here? How?

[00:39:40]

I don't know how you misplace an ax.

[00:39:43]

That's what I don't get. That's a big problem for me. That's a big problem for me.

[00:39:46]

I've lost a lot of things in my life. Ten fingers up, everybody. Ready? Go. Never have I ever lost an ax.

[00:39:53]

Yeah, I've never done that.

[00:39:54]

I'm willing to bet not many of you put a finger down.

[00:39:57]

Well, in the poor of the Leante family, This could have been vital evidence. Of course. And what a fucking disappointment. They found it. And to hear that it was just mishandled and lost?

[00:40:09]

That would leave such a bad feeling in my gut.

[00:40:13]

And so while the evidence may have gone missing, the statements taken from the student engineer about the night of Tiffany's death remained. Oh, this motherfucker. And as far as the Valleantes were concerned, they only confirmed their suspicion that somebody was hiding something. Yeah. Because in his initial statement to the transit police, the student engineer told the detective, As he approached Mile Marker 45, the pedestrian dove in front of the train. Now, this would imply that Tiffany jumped in front of the train, which gave the train no time to stop because she had just dove in front of it. But then in later interviews, the student engineer described Tiffany as standing on the tracks. Those are two very different things. Very different things. Also, he told detectives he'd seen Tiffany, quote, jump or dive a distance of 15 to 20 feet from a standing position.

[00:41:04]

Is that possible?

[00:41:07]

Like, either way, those are three very different things.

[00:41:11]

And he said those all in one sitting or at different times?

[00:41:13]

Different times. Okay. But when investigators examine the area from which she supposedly jumped, they found it was covered with trees and a built-up stone railway grade, which would have made jumping very difficult. . Finally, the student engineer said he sounded the train's horn multiple times before the impact, but Tiffany didn't make any attempt to move. But investigators check the train's block box that it has. Uh-oh. It showed that the horn had not been used at all. Sounded. Not at all. He said several times and she didn't move. Not once.

[00:41:49]

Why would you lie about that?

[00:41:51]

It's like they didn't teach you in train school that there's a black box that if you say the horn sounded. Not train school. When you say the horn sounded, they can go check and see if the horn sounded. You're going to get caught, my dad.

[00:42:02]

I actually didn't even know that.

[00:42:03]

You should know that as a student engineer. I feel like that's like student engineer 101. It's like, here's a black box. I feel.

[00:42:11]

Train school, am I right?

[00:42:13]

Like train school. So What's that about? Did she dive in front of the train and you couldn't stop? Was she standing on the tracks and refused to move? Right. Or was she standing and then dove 15 to 20 feet? And also, did you sound the horn? No, you didn't because we've already checked. So what happened, student engineer? I don't...

[00:42:36]

What? I'm so confused. Yeah.

[00:42:38]

But the final pieces of compelling evidence collected by the Valiantes in the weeks after Tiffany died were the most haunting, I would say. Oh, no. Just moments after Diane went inside to get her husband, after she had the argument with Tiffany, a hunter's trap camera captured an image of Tiffany walking down the driveway, phone in hand. Phone in hand. And when Diane came out of the house just seconds later, her daughter was gone. And there was no sign of her in either direction. That camera caught her walking to the end of the driveway with her phone. And her mom came out a minute later and she was gone.

[00:43:17]

So she had to have gotten in a car, right?

[00:43:20]

Well, it says when they retrieved the cell phone data from the carrier, it showed that a call came into the phone about a half hour after Tiffany disappeared, and it was answered. Would she have died by that point? Well, later, the phone was discovered at the edge of the Valiante's property. So there's no- How could Tiffany have answered the phone if the phone was several miles from where she was at that point? The phone was back at the Valiante's property when she was already at the train tracks. How did someone answer the phone unless that phone was put there after?

[00:43:59]

You wish they knew who called so they could say, Was it Tiffany that? I mean, obviously, it's not Tiffany that answers. So who the... Was it a man's voice? Was it a woman's voice?

[00:44:09]

It's such a mystery. All of this, and when you look it up, the camera, the photo, is very haunting. Yeah, I bet. So because Tiffany's cause of death had been listed as a suicide, and no one had been able to provide solid evidence evidence to argue otherwise. I just looked up that picture. State and local authorities had no reason to reopen the case, according to them, and further investigate, which I don't know about that. But after a year of just frustration, grief, and unanswered questions, Diane and Steven Valiante finally decided to take action in order to compel the medical examiner's office to just change the cause of death. They just wanted it changed from suicide to undetermined. That's all they were. Because if they did that, then it would allow the case to be reopened. But because they were refusing to do anything, they couldn't reopen it. In July 2016, the Valiante's reached out to the Diamato law firm, which was a local agency who agreed to take the case pro bono, actually. In a statement to the press, Paul Diamato said, We looked at all her medical records. There wasn't any suggestion of any alcohol problems, drug problems, or depression.

[00:45:26]

He said, The state's inquiries was flawed. It was unprofessional, uninformed, and it relied on equally superficial investigative efforts by New Jersey transit. The medical examiner's finding regarding manner of death, issued only five days after the incident, should unquestionably be retracted and nullified.

[00:45:43]

I mean, yeah.

[00:45:45]

Now, usually for civil lawsuits are usually for financial compensation. That's usually the end game. But the Valiantes were not looking for a fucking dime. They just wanted this change so they could reopen the case. That's all they were looking for here. Also by filing the suit, Diamato would cause to subpoena any records and evidence related to the incident and for new interviews to be conducted for any investigators, anybody that was overlooked. This helped get it going without get it going thing. It was like, once you open the lawsuit, you have to dig into the case a little bit. He said, We believe there are people out there who know something, including several people who were not interviewed by New Jersey transit. So that's weird. So the first lawsuit, which was filed against the Medical Examiner's office, and then a few other state agencies that were first involved in the initial investigation, claimed a lot of things. But one of the things it claimed was Tiffany Valiante did not take her life, but that she was the victim of a conspiracy to inflict bodily harm, violently abducted on the night of July 12th, 2015, and subsequently murdered.

[00:46:55]

The Valiante's believe that instead of what they were, like the investigators are saying, that she jumped out in front of the train, as authorities were saying. She was kidnapped from the front yard, murdered, and her killer had hid his crime by hurling her in the path of an oncoming locomotive. You can see why people might think that. Which is, it's It's believable. It is believable. This is not out of the realm of possibility. Not at all. Again, if it's not out of the realm of possibility and there are things that you can match up with this, that's cause enough for me to open it back up. Absolutely there is. A year later, when the case still hadn't reached the court, Diamato amended the lawsuit, removing the various state agencies and instead, filing the claim against male DOES 1 to 5 and female DOES 1 to 5. Their names are erroneous here. Just a bunch of people, specific people. While the complaint itself remained pretty much intact, and it relied on the same complaints and circumstantial evidence that the family had raised previously. It also had some new statements, including testimony from Louise Hausman, who was a former medical investigator for the Atlantic County Medical Examiner's office.

[00:48:11]

Okay. Hausman was brought in to review all the information collected, and she did, and anything that the family had collected in the two years since Tiffany's death. After carefully considering the evidence, she concluded, There are enough unanswered questions, false statements, conflicting accounts regarding this fatality, and incomplete investigative information, which leads me to the conclusion that the death certificate should be amended from suicide to undetermined. Absolutely. Now, while Hausman's evaluation pointed to the evidence, the inconsistencies, other previously mentioned unusual aspects of this whole case as reason enough to reopen the investigation, she also noted that the medical examiner's assessment of the circumstances of the death included, quote, inaccurate, unsubstantiated, and false information. This false information and unsubstantiated information included various statements attributed to several of Tiffany's friends and her uncle.

[00:49:09]

I was waiting for that to come back.

[00:49:10]

Which were used to justify the determination of suicide. All those parties claimed they never made those statements or that they were- What the fuck? Or that they were taken and twisted.

[00:49:24]

What?

[00:49:26]

For example, the case file from New Jersey transit, which included several statements about Tiffany's supposedly distraught mental state by her uncle, Michael Valiante, he claims he never made them.

[00:49:39]

How are they just like...

[00:49:40]

Yeah.

[00:49:41]

I'm like, did you guys think that it wasn't going to get out what you reported and her uncle wasn't going to be like, Yeah, I didn't fucking say that?

[00:49:48]

No, they probably didn't care because look, nothing's happened.

[00:49:52]

I don't know how people can be such shit. I really don't, especially when it comes to like, somebody's life and like this family losing their young teenage daughter.

[00:50:02]

Just going off to college.

[00:50:03]

At the prime of her entire life.

[00:50:04]

Well, in those statements about her self-harming, that you were like, That's the history of... Nope. He never said that. They also weren't supported by any physical evidence on her body.

[00:50:17]

Are you kidding me? That's a fucked up thing to lie about. Yeah.

[00:50:22]

In a statement to the press, Hausman told a reporter, Within 36 hours, the medical examiner determined this to be a suicide without any information on her medical history, without anybody talking to the family. There was no investigative done to this. In most cases or in many cases, when somebody takes their own life, investigators will conduct what's called a psychological autopsy. They work with the family, the individual's medical team, mental health providers to determine what could have been the circumstances or reasons. That makes sense. It's just part of the process.

[00:50:55]

Yeah, and that did not happen here.

[00:50:57]

The medical examiner totally skipped this step and instead just relied on his misunderstanding of statements from Tiffany's uncle and friends, all of whom at the time were in a state of shock at this moment, had no idea what was going on. And just didn't even say the things that people said they said. In some cases, are claiming that they didn't even say these things. There should have been some deeper digging at the very least.

[00:51:20]

This is so fucking shady. Yeah.

[00:51:23]

In December, news of the lawsuit had reached beyond the local press, and this case was featured in a massive exposé on the state's medical examiner system. In the article, which included a lot of cases because they were really digging in for this, the reporters point to a long list of really shocking shortcomings and flat-out failures on the part of the New Jersey Medical Examiner's office. Oh, no. Body parts going missing.

[00:51:50]

I'm sorry, what?

[00:51:51]

Decomposing bodies stacked two to a girney. And countless unanswered questions that make it so family members don't have any fucking clue how their family member died.

[00:52:03]

So has this office been shut down?

[00:52:08]

Also, just as a quick side note, because it's just reminding me of it. If you guys aren't listening to Noble, this podcast.

[00:52:14]

She just recommended it to me today. I'm going to start it on my way home.

[00:52:17]

It's called Noble. Go listen to it. It's fascinating. It's shocking. It's horrifying. And really well done. It immediately reminded me of the same thing. Yeah, it made me think of it. So the report on the medical examiner's office supported what Dumato and the Valientes had come to believe, that even if this is limited resources or overworked staff, the state was really lax on their investigating of Tiffany's death. In this situation, they probably rushed to the conclusion just to move the case from open to closed, get it off their things. I mean, if they've got decomposing bodies in a room and decomposing bodies, stacked two to a girney missing body parts, yeah, someone being found on a train track and a student engineer claiming that they dove in front of it. Get it off our desk. They probably just, get that one out.

[00:53:07]

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[00:54:14]

When you sign up for Fast Protect Monitoring, just visit simplisafe. Com/morbid. That's simplisafe. Com/morbid. There's no safe like Simply Safe.

[00:54:28]

A few months after filing their amended case with the superior court, Diamato added additional supporting documentation, including a statement from Dr. Donald Jason. Dr. Donald Jason was an independent forensic pathologist hired by the Valiantes to review the case. Okay. Dr. Jason reviewed the material related to the death, and he said, Yeah, he said, The bias towards suicide negatively affected the way in which the scene was processed by all members of the team, both responding police and medical examiner staff. He said this was contrary to the standard approach to investigation that dictates investigators treat the location as a crime scene until it's determined to be otherwise. Totally contradictory to that. After reviewing the information, Dr. Jason concluded, The story that the victim jumped onto the tracks is suspicious. The victim may have been sleeping or already dead when struck by the train.

[00:55:24]

Why did they say that?

[00:55:26]

Because they were saying that's a possibility. Oh, okay. Simply put, as As far as Dr. Jason could tell, the medical examiner was way too quick to label this death a suicide without first ruling out other possibilities, which they did not do. They didn't rule out anything else. He actually said, I've never seen another case mishandled like this. Wow. Which is something.

[00:55:49]

It's literally like a young girl.

[00:55:53]

This story going public and the Valiante's putting pressure on this case, it put a lot of pressure on the medical examiner's office, and they finally agreed to reevaluate the case. Good.

[00:56:06]

But what are they going to do?

[00:56:08]

And it's the same office. One, it's the same office. I think they're going to admit their shortcoming.

[00:56:13]

Two, unfortunately, her body's been cremated, so it's not like you can even exhume the body.

[00:56:17]

No, but they can look back at all the reports that they have and the pictures and everything. But it's the same office. You think they're going to come back and be like, Wow, we really did fuck this up. We fucked up. But I hate when they do that. I'm like, Bring it somewhere else.

[00:56:32]

Can another office take it over?

[00:56:34]

But you're right. The cremation makes it so difficult. It does, yeah. Unfortunately. Because it's like, you have to rely now on what this office documented. Right. And of course, they found that the initial finding of suicide was appropriate, and they were not going to change it. Fuck that. Incorrect. Yeah. So the problem with the civil suit that the Valiantes had against the state in the amended suit is that... They're alleging that crimes have been committed, kidnapping and murder, which we know it could possibly be that. It's possible, yeah. But there's no solid evidence to support that. The theory wasn't really expanded upon in these suits in a good way.

[00:57:19]

There is some evidence to support that, like the phone being answered.

[00:57:23]

Oh, no, there's evidence. That's the thing. There is evidence. But it's circumstantial. It's like they can't pinpoint it to any person or any theory of who this is or why this happened.

[00:57:38]

I'm so fucking angry that they lost, quote, unquote, lost that ax.

[00:57:42]

Well, and that's the thing. I'm not saying they don't have compelling evidence. I'm saying the suit did not argue the evidence enough to make a compelling argument for it. And it's like, that's frustrating because they do. There could be a compelling narrative here. The biggest one for me is she's found in only her underwear. To me, that looks like there was sexual assault here or something awful.

[00:58:12]

And especially with her clothes being scattered in different areas.

[00:58:14]

Within a mile of the site all over the place. Yeah. But the impact of the train had caused considerable damage, which hid any pre-mortem trauma. So it's like, You don't have that to go on either. And it's like, if they still had the ax, they could have tested the ax. They could have looked at pictures and matched it up with pictures, seeing what- Yeah.

[00:58:39]

I'm wondering, too, about that sweatshirt. I'm like, was DNA testing done on that sweatshirt at all to see if any of Tiffany's DNA was on that? No, nothing was done. Or maybe somebody in the system is fucking DNA.

[00:58:49]

Also, what's even more frustrating, because again, found in her underwear, where's the rape kit?

[00:58:54]

Yeah.

[00:58:55]

Never conducted a rape kit or even considered conducting a rape kit.

[00:58:59]

Could they have in the condition that her body was found? Absolutely.

[00:59:01]

They could have? Absolutely.

[00:59:03]

Why didn't... And now they can't ever do that.

[00:59:05]

Now they can't. But the best Diamato and the Valiantes could argue was that the location that the investigators discovered some of Tiffany's belongings in, along with the ax, was also a known party spot with a local fraternity house. That itself does not tell you anything because I'm not labeling fraternities as like, They're the problem. But this particular one was under investigation for past sexual assaults.

[00:59:31]

Dude.

[00:59:32]

So that is suspicious. And also, after Tiffany's death, a local Wawa employee told investigators he, Overheard a group of teenage boys talking about Tiffany having been kidnapped at gunpoint, humiliated, forced to strip down to her underwear, and driven to the train station by her abductors. Oh. But they said it was circumstantial and unsubstantiated.

[01:00:04]

Can you try to substantiate it? But not worth looking into? That's the thing. Can you go fucking interview some people?

[01:00:09]

That's pretty on the nose.

[01:00:11]

Go start asking people in that area. I mean, somebody must have seen something and somebody- It drives me nuts. Oh, if that's true, somebody out there has a guilty conscience, and they better come forward and say some shit. Because if that actually happened, somebody there felt like that was wrong. Exactly. You can't tell me that everybody in that was okay with that if that did happen. So come on forward. Let's go. It's your time to shine.

[01:00:35]

We said, the suicide theory is supported by equally circumstantial evidence. It's not like the suicide theory has the solid evidence and the other theory doesn't have any. No.

[01:00:48]

There's evidence on both sides.

[01:00:49]

It's equally as... It's just...

[01:00:52]

I don't even know. I feel like for me at least.

[01:00:53]

I feel like the other side, the foul play side has more. Foul play is way more.

[01:00:56]

It really does.

[01:00:57]

I agree.

[01:00:58]

Because really, The only evidence for suicide in my mind is she was in a little bit of trouble, and perhaps there was turmoil at home, but nobody even really knows if there was turmoil at home because it sounds like people's statements were taken out of context.

[01:01:15]

There was some stuff at home. The mother, Diane and Tiffany, had to be ordered to go to therapy together at one point. So there definitely was not like- So there's turmoil at home. It wasn't rainbows and butterflies, but like, whose house is? Yeah.

[01:01:31]

So there's turmoil at home. She just got in trouble. You know, like just finished high school, I guess.

[01:01:37]

So that is like, that's the thing. There's like, there is that. That was it's not like everything was hunky dory. Hunky dory. Different places.

[01:01:45]

But I feel like there's a way longer list on the side of foul play.

[01:01:49]

And that's why it's so hard.

[01:01:52]

And who knows? I mean, like you hope that that walla on play didn't make that up. But like, that's a crazy fucking statement.

[01:01:58]

It's wild.

[01:02:00]

And it fits perfectly. But who knows? You never know when certain details about the case came out.

[01:02:04]

When they leaked all that. That's the thing. You can go back and forth on this. But that is weird. Yeah. And I feel like we've given you two of these in a row, actually. I just thought of that where it's like you can go on either side and at least put some evidence on either side.

[01:02:19]

I feel like with this one, honestly, there's more.

[01:02:22]

Well, that's the thing. I feel like with both of them, I lean more to one side, but I can't.

[01:02:27]

Can't completely decide.

[01:02:29]

Conclusively say what way I lean completely.

[01:02:32]

I really hope both of these cases get solved. Now I'm like, these parents, it's been almost 10 years and they don't have any answers.

[01:02:39]

It just doesn't feel like suicide to me. It really doesn't. It doesn't feel like suicide to me. No. And if it is, prove it. That's the thing. Like, prove it. You're not proving it.

[01:02:51]

You're not proving it. I just feel like people- And that's the problem. It doesn't sound like anyone was interviewed ever. Was anyone spoken to other a couple of friends and her uncle whose statements were taken out of context or just completely fabricated?

[01:03:05]

Yeah. It just doesn't... They talked to the coaches and stuff and people who knew her who all agreed she wouldn't have gone wandering into the dark? That was one of the biggest things. That's the thing.

[01:03:15]

And then why didn't anybody... Who's to say maybe they did or maybe they didn't, but did anybody go to that frat house and interview some frat brothers? No. I mean, not because it's a frat house, but because it was under investigation. But because they had already been under investigation. And then that Wawa employees' statement.

[01:03:33]

Well, and the problem was, too, that investigators mishandled this case so badly. From the start. That evidence was destroyed. Yeah. And completely gone. And just completely fucking lost. Yeah.

[01:03:45]

I don't know how you lose an ax. I really don't know how you lose an ax.

[01:03:48]

I don't either. But we see that all the time that they'll be like, Oh, yeah, we lost it. And it's always shady. And it's like, How the fuck does that happen?

[01:03:53]

Because it's always something that would probably conclusively.

[01:03:55]

That would prove one way or another. And it's like, huh? Well, unfortunately, Unfortunately, the lawsuits were pretty unsuccessful in getting the death certificates changed. But in the years since Tiffany's death, Diane and Steve Invaliente have pressed on. They want to find out the truth. In 2019, Diamato filed another lawsuit. So he's still on it. Good. This time against New Jersey transit and demanded that they share any physical evidence that they could that would help determine what happened on the night of Tiffany's death.

[01:04:26]

I wonder if there still is any.

[01:04:27]

The process was super slow, but eventually they did get access to the physical evidence, including- So there is. Which I didn't even know about this until the end of this case, including a blood stained towel and a T-shirt. So you would go, wow, I wonder what's going to happen when they test that? Well, they sent it to an independent lab for testing, and the lab determined that the items had been so mishandled that they were of no scientific probative value.

[01:05:00]

No, I'm so mad right now.

[01:05:01]

According to the lab, the items had been improperly stored in plastic containers, which allowed for moisture-inducing bacterial contamination that made the evidence of no investigatory value.

[01:05:15]

Who the fuck is part of this chain of custody? You got to be. Who the fuck? Because this happens twice.

[01:05:21]

You got to be a big dingbat. Full of stupid dingbat. To be part of an investigatory team at a fucking scene of a death and not know how to properly store evidence. Where the fuck were you on that day in the academy? Because that's insane. To not know how to store evidence so that it doesn't get eaten up by bacteria. How the fuck do you not know that?

[01:05:45]

And also it already fucking happened once. So you would think that you would literally... Especially on the same fucking case, you wouldn't make that mistake again.

[01:05:53]

All of the evidence for this case was completely unusable.

[01:05:56]

And that's weird. And that doesn't happen.

[01:05:58]

It's at least at the very least, it's fucking suspect. You should look back into this at the very fucking least.

[01:06:06]

But then it's like, what do you do? Because there's no evidence. I know. Like all of it's contaminated or fucking lost.

[01:06:12]

Well, and in 2022, Tiffani Annie's case appeared on Netflix's Unsolved Mistries. I saw that. Yeah. Diane restated her belief that there was foul play here. I think there was. And the family also increased the reward for information leading prosecution to $40,000. Wow. It still uncollected to this day. And the episode of Unsolved Mistries didn't really bring in any new information, but it did raise awareness of this case. Which is important. And Stephen, her father said, It opened a lot of people's eyes. Everybody heard this nitbit, little piece here, little piece there, but they never knew the whole story until they watched it. Meanwhile, the Vellante's are continuing to work with Paul Diamato, which I was like, this guy. That guy. In the hopes of finding new information that's lead to any answer. They just want a definitive answer.

[01:07:04]

I hope he helps them get it because he seems determined as fuck.

[01:07:07]

Diamato said, I have a strong belief that something is going to break this year. I truly do. That's what he told in 2023. But as of yet, it has not broken. But we are only in 2024. You never know. Guys, if you know fucking anything, I mean... And again, they just want to know. They just want to know. They believe If she was met with foul play. There's evidence to believe that. There is circumstantial evidence for suicide. I can understand that. They just want to know. And if there's evidence for foul play, which to me, there's plenty, why are we not investigating this further? We just want to... You just got to know because if this is foul play, somebody got away with it or some buddies got away with it. And why are we just letting that happen?

[01:07:58]

And that's just going to them more bold. Bold to do this again. Yeah. Wow, this stressed me out.

[01:08:07]

I feel for this family. I feel so mad for this family. I feel for it all.

[01:08:11]

And it's like- Because also, that's the community that you're living in. And you put your faith and you put your trust in law enforcement in the community that you're in.

[01:08:20]

So mishandled. It was complete...

[01:08:22]

I'd be so angry. I'm sure I can't imagine how angry they are.

[01:08:26]

I hope a lot of people got slapped with a lot of demotions and firings after this because it's like- Probably not. How do you mishandle evidence like that? How do you lose an ax? How do you mishandle every bit of evidence like that? That's what I don't get.

[01:08:42]

Something's got to give here. I hope that he was on to something when he said he thinks something was going to break in 2023, and it's just taken a little longer.

[01:08:50]

Let's put it out there because, you know.

[01:08:52]

Guys, sometimes we'll cover a case and something will happen. It's this weird thing that we're talking I was talking about it recently. Universe, let's get it solved.

[01:09:02]

Yeah, Universe, let's go. And we're not taking credit for any of those anybody. No, obviously not. If you think that, go away. It's just sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways. Yeah. The vibes are out there. I want this family to know what the fuck happened. Yes. I just want that for them. So hopefully more knowledge of this case is what it takes. Tell your friends about the case.

[01:09:26]

Yeah, exactly. Share this, share that episode. Who knows who knows something.

[01:09:29]

Watch the Netflix. Someone in New Jersey, talk to them. See what they know. This is weird. Yeah. So that's the mysterious death of Tiffany Valiante. And it's a sad one.

[01:09:40]

Yeah, I had heard of that, but I did not know all of the details. And I'm shocked. I'm in a state of absolute shock right now.

[01:09:46]

I just really, I just want answers, man. I really do. Yeah.

[01:09:51]

And her family deserves them.

[01:09:52]

I just want it.

[01:09:53]

So with that being said, we hope you keep listening.

[01:09:56]

And we hope you keep it weird.

[01:09:59]

But And that's so weird that if you have information about this case, you don't come forward because guess what? That's wrong. And karma's going to get you. So if you have information about the case, you better come forward, you little poop.

[01:10:09]

Hell, yeah.

[01:10:10]

I just spit across the room. It was gross.

[01:10:59]

If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDYRI Plus in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery. Com/survey. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harbored a deep, dark scandal.

[01:11:42]

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitkent once they reach the age of 10, that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of them.

[01:11:50]

I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn.

[01:11:59]

When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with.

[01:12:06]

In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific Island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn trials exclusively on WNDYRI Plus. Join WNDYRI Plus in the WNDYRI app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.