Rule Out Homicide | Chapter 5

Cruel Summer: The Violent Death of Tiffany Valiante

This episode investigates the controversial death of 18-year-old Tiffany Volante, which was officially ruled a suicide by the New Jersey Tra

Key takeaways

• New Jersey Transit Police concluded the death was a suicide within 3ly hours of the incident.
• Forensic pathologist Dr. Wayne Ross points out that critical evidence, such as DNA swabs and rape kits, was not collected.

Main topics

• Flawed police investigation
• Forensic pathology discrepancies

Notable quotes

Rule out homicide, rule out homicide, rule out homicide.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a powerful critique of investigative confirmatio

Transcript preview

Speaker 8 (0:12) This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Speaker 4 (0:20) New Jersey 101 Speaker 1 (0:21) .5. You're on this case for two minutes, and I've been on it for 10 years. And my favorite comment about this, and Amy, the detective, like me, says, how did not one person, a six-foot girl, or six-foot two, I think, this end of the doc, walking three miles, not one person see her? Speaker 3 (0:42) The shockwaves surrounding the death of Tiffany Volante spread far beyond the small town of Mays Landing in South Jersey. Speaker 1 (0:50) I'm Judy Franco, and for 28 years, I have been the host of the midday show on New Jersey 101.5 FM radio. Speaker 3 (0:58) Like many others, Judy Franco, one of the biggest radio personalities in New Jersey, has been following Tiffany's case. Speaker 1 (1:06) It's going to sound like a cliche to say this, but Tiffany is... My daughter, she's your daughter. She's everybody's daughter. She's the Jersey girl, the quintessential Jersey girl. You can't look at her family and say, oh, that would never happen to me because it could definitely, God forbid, happen to any of us. Speaker 3 (1:25) Like many people I've spoken to, Judy is frustrated by the lack of answers. Speaker 1 (1:33) I've seen this so many times and even I can get answers from the government or from important people and people say, oh, that's a great perk for you or that's a great privilege for you. No, all I think of is, but what about the people that have no connections? Who speaks for them? Speaker 3 (1:51) Shining a harsh light on the case is perhaps the only way the truth will come out. That an 18-year-old woman was excitedly talking about the next chapter of her life just hours before she was hit by a train is baffling. There are many who believe that leaving the case in the hands of the New Jersey Transit Police was the first mistake. Speaker 1 (2:16) Because unfortunately, the people who investigated this were the freaking New Jersey Transit Police. If God forbid, at any time, it's my family member or yours, you're going to trust the New Jersey Transit Police to investigate this? Speaker 3 (2:31) Within hours, their minds had clearly been made up. At 8 o'clock the next morning, Tiffany's distraught parents, still reeling from the news that their daughter was dead, read a story online in a local newspaper. One particular sentence devastated them. It was a statement from a New Jersey transit spokesperson reading in part, quote, Tiffany was standing on the tracks, but did not move when the train's engineer sounded the horn. Those words, that Tiffany was standing on the tracks, left her distraught parents in no doubt what the transit police believed happened, that she took her own life. Speaker 4 (3:17) We were like in shock. Everybody that read the paper, they think it's suicides. Speaker 3 (3:23) Steph Rosenfeld served as head of communications for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. He Speaker 8 (3:30) now runs Identity Advisors, handling press and communications for law firms, and has been working pro bono on this case almost since the beginning. Speaker 4 (3:41) I was absolutely stunned that the spokesperson for the agency simply did not say, this matter is under investigation. We will have more information as it becomes available. I know a lot of railroad professionals who, when they saw this case, were shocked. They were shocked that so quickly after... the train strike, New Jersey Transit said what it said. I mean, it's common sense. It's beyond Railroad Communications 101 that if you do not know something, don't say anything. And that rule was totally violated. Speaker 1 (4:31) From the beginning, well, we weren't even told that Tiffany committed suicide. We were told that she was hit by a train. And our first thoughts were, who was in the vehicle? Who was she with? You know, like, because we weren't told anything. You know, when we found out that Monday morning that the Atlantic City Press and Nancy Snyder put it on Transit's website that my daughter stood in front of the train and just waited for the train to hit her, we were like in shock. What right does she have to say all this stuff, you know? And my husband's on the phone with the Atlantic City Press screaming at him. What are you saying? My daughter committed suicide. You have no right to say that. Speaker 4 (5:17) And everybody believed the paper. Less than 12 hours, they already committed a suicide. There was no reason for that. None. They never did an investigation on Tiff. Nothing. They just did what they wanted to do, and they just wanted to wash her under the rug. Automatically, it was suicide, and they walked away. Speaker 3 (5:35) Shouldn't the death of a young woman in a remote area who wasn't wearing shorts or shoes raise red flags? It was after 11 p.m. when Tiffany was struck. Yet Speaker 8 (5:47) by 3 a.m., just four hours later, Tiffany had been identified. New Jersey Transit Police had settled on suicide as the working theory. And according to their report, Detective Acevedo cleared the scene and reopened the tracks for train traffic all before the Speaker 3 (6:07) sun came up. But as you're about to learn, they were working on the suicide theory much earlier than that. My name is Marie McGovern, and this is Cruel Summer, the violent death of Tiffany Volante. Chapter 5, Rule Out Speaker 8 (6:27) Homicide. Speaker 3 (6:31) During the four years I've looked into this story, Tiffany's parents, Stephen and Diane, and their attorney have been consistent in their criticism in the manner of which New Jersey Transit handled her death. Speaker 5 (6:43) Their original conclusion that it was suicide was based by a flawed investigation. Speaker 1 (6:51) That's attorney Paul D'Amato. They didn't properly investigate this. Nobody's been Speaker 8 (6:57) held accountable. After talking to leading forensic and investigative experts, it's hard not to agree. Speaker 3 (7:05) Let's go back to July 12, 2015. It's almost 11 p.m., and New Jersey Transit train number 4693 is on a long, straight stretch of track approaching Egg Harbor City. It was three cars long, the engine at the rear. With 60 passengers, the train was headed to Atlantic City from Philadelphia. This train had left Egg Speaker 8 (7:32) Harbor City but was instructed to make a stop just before Absecon, the next station, to pick up passengers from a broken-down train. A student engineer was at the controls, a senior engineer in the cab with him. The student engineer had 18 months on the job. It was his 10th day on this route and his second round trip of the day. He was interviewed by two detectives from New Jersey Transit Police on July 22, 2015, 10 days after Tiffany's death. In light of the traumatic event of that night, we've chosen not to use his name, but this is taken from the recording of his statement. Speaker 7 (8:16) I am Detective Acevedo in the New Jersey Transit Police Department. With me is Detective Sweeney. I'm investigating a fatal train strike, New Jersey Transit Police Case Number 15-5939. We have requested you to come here today for the purpose of soliciting a statement from you relating to the incident. Speaker 3 (8:33) Once the legalities are on record, Detective Sweeney gets into the specifics of the night of July 12th. Speaker 4 (8:40) Just tell me from Cologne Avenue what happened and what you observed. Speaker 7 (8:48) I passed Cologne Avenue and we're supposed to turn on our engine belt and have our auxiliary lights on and blow our horn while passing through the crossing. It was limited visibility. It was nighttime, approximately 11 p.m. And I remember passing milepost 44. and I ended up seeing something off on the east side in the distance, half a mile to a quarter mile away. I had all of my lights on. I had my headlights on bright and my auxiliary lights on bright as well. And I blew my horn. Speaker 3 (9:23) In the interview, he says the 300-ton train