Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 7 - Last Dance - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] up next a beautiful young woman is found dead under a bridge did she jump from that bridge or did
somebody push her and police learn she had a secret life she was dancing under the name roxanne
and they were calling her foxy roxy police find a surveillance image of a truck near the bridge
on the night she disappeared you can see an apparent body in the back of the pickup truck but who
is driving the truck and what is the motive there was something more going on than just a woman leaping from a bridge
for no apparent reason it was early on a saturday morning underneath a bridge in burlington township new jersey when
an atv writer found the body of a young woman he assumed she'd taken her own life
we just see a young girl she looks like she's about 20 to 30 years old about 100
pounds she had no id on her the damage to her body was consistent with a drop of about 12 to 14 stories
insect activity indicated she'd been dead several days but who was this woman police released a description to the
media her manager from work called in an ex-boyfriend called in saying that they recognized
the description of the jewelry that she was wearing from the victim's butterfly pendant she was identified as 21
year old rachel siani i kept telling myself that it wasn't true and i told myself that all the way up
until her funeral until i actually went up and looked at her nancy knew something about her
cousin rachel cianni that few other people knew rachel was a college student by day
and an exotic dancer by night she was only doing it just to pay her way through college and the way
she described it to me was that she was dancing in an extremely skimpy bikini rachel worked at a place called davis
international gentlemen's club across the bridge in pennsylvania just three miles
from where her body was found her stage name was roxanne davis is your your typical gentleman's club where guys
go in mostly guys and you know sit down and have some drinks and watch the girls
rachel's friends and relatives could not believe she committed suicide they said she exhibited none of the
typical signs of depression instead she was focused on a career she was studying psychology because she
said she really wanted to focus on that and help people and rachel had a good relationship with
her family despite some disagreements about her employment her father absolutely did not approve of
it they obviously loved her very much as a daughter but i think that they had resolved themselves that rachel had
to find her own way through life and figure out what was going to be best for rachel
but was this a suicide evidence on the bridge revealed a disturbing clue there were some fibers
that were consistent with the sweater that she had on but there was also some blood stains on the outside wall of the
bridge if the blood on the bridge was rachel's then this might have been murder [Music]
in a small town on the outskirts of philadelphia a young exotic dancer found dead beneath
the bridge was front page news i mean if she worked at an ice cream stand it wouldn't have
said ice cream girl you know murdered it was unsettling because everything was exotic dancer murdered or stripper
thrown off bridge it was never her name or that she was a bucks county community college student
since rachel was found at the bottom of the bridge without shoes wearing clean socks
investigators suspected she had been carried to the bridge and thrown over the side
they were very clean up on top of the bridge there were no shoes there was no car
there was a lot of road debris and other dirt that would have become embedded in her socks if she was walking
around up there fibers from her sweater wedged in the concrete of the bridge also made it clear she didn't jump her
body scraped along the side of the bridge dna testing on blood found near those fibers confirmed
it was rachel's blood and that she was bleeding before she hit the ground so the police
had to work backwards they had to find out you know how did that blood and how did that fiber get on
the pennsylvania turnpike bridge rail there were no marks on rachel's neck so investigators didn't believe a ligature
or even the killer's hands were used to strangle her if it's a large surface like a forearm
pressing against the neck or a large just flat of the hand pressing against the neck you don't get bruising
significant internal bleeding told medical examiners rachel was still alive when she was
thrown from the bridge the victim had blood spatters on the side of her face and it wasn't consistent with a fall
from the bridge two broken fingernails made it clear she tried to defend herself
the cause of death was blunt force trauma a skull fracture the fracture extends from one ear canal to the
other here can help rachel's carr a battered old lincoln was in the parking lot of divas
the gentleman's club where she worked there was food and money strewn about in the car
which led us to believe that her demise was not a result of a robbery fellow dancers told police
that a former cook 26 year old jason woods had been bothering her he seemed to have somewhat of a fixation
or obsession towards rachel where he actually told people that rachel was his girlfriend
wasn't true but he told people that in fact jason had been fired just a month earlier
and when police found out why they knew they had a solid suspect he was infatuated with her and he was
subsequently terminated because of his infatuation with rachel cione when questioned by police jason denied
any involvement in rachel's murder he was believable but we still couldn't rule him out
we always have to keep that that individual in mind he can be a good actor then homicide
investigators got a break on the last night rachel worked at divas she was in the parking lot talking with
a friend after the club closed and the man obviously drunk started banging on the door of the club
a local police officer witnessed the incident the policeman offered to help one of the owners or managers came out
said that it was okay they knew jack he was a regular customer jack was john danafa a 35 year old
businessman who had been in the club earlier that night according to diva's manager rachel
offered to walk danafa to the motel located right next door to the club maybe she thought he'd had too much to
drink and she wanted to take care of him help him perhaps get to his room her friend had actually asked rachel she
was okay and rachel indicated to her no it's just jack i'm fine i'm okay motel records indicate danafa checked
into room 223. the hotel clerk remembered that rachel helped danafa up to his room
but he didn't recall seeing her leave danafa contradicted that he claimed rachel left and that he went up to his
room alone he said that he was with her and she just went her way and he went his way
and that was it he said he had absolutely nothing to do with her demise whatsoever but to investigators
something just didn't seem right i didn't like the guy the prime suspect in rachel cianni's
murder was the last known person to see her alive jack danatha he was married with no
children and owned a sign company employees say like clockwork dunapha visited divas
every tuesday night rachel was his favorite dancer she had mentioned jack and she said that you know she wouldn't
even have to work that night if she didn't want to because he would just give her money to sit
there and talk to him and she said that you know he seemed like a just like a lonely
guy and that he was basically paying for her friendship we had never discovered any evidence of
any kind of sexual relationships we asked the girls that and we have no evidence at all that
rachel ever engaged in any kind of activity like that with him or anyone else for that matter
jack had a previous drunk driving arrest so it wasn't unusual for him to stay at
the motel connected to the dance club he would rent a motel room himself and if he was too drunk to drive sometimes
the divas management would comp him a room the weird thing about that was his wife was cool with it and she would
actually drive him to divas and drop him off jack danafa had no criminal past and was
well liked if you could pick your neighbors you'd pick jack dinoff because there
wasn't anything you wouldn't do for you came from a good family was a workaholic ace pool player
backslapping guy you know chairman of his high school alumni association great guy on the night of rachel's
murder witnesses saw rachel accompany an inebriated danafa to the motel next door
to the club jack danafa didn't deny that he simply said she left without going to his room
we knew jack denofa was in there but we wanted to find out we want to place rachel
in that room four days had passed since danafa stayed in the motel room and it had been cleaned repeatedly but
analysts got a break on the outside windowsill they found white fibers and there was a tiny spot
of blood in the shower stall andrew nardelli compared those fibers to fibers from rachel's sweater
one of the main types of characteristics that we would look for first off would be color and a number of
the fibers from the window were a different color than the types of fibers that were from the
sweater though superficially similar the fibers did not match investigators now compared the blood
sample from the shower stall to rachel's dna and got another setback with the swab from the shower stall
there was no dna detected i ran the sample twice i tried to concentrate the sample
however it was a small very weak blood swab so no dna was detected from that swab on dinafa's
hotel registration he said he was driving a 1996 red dodge pickup truck that was parked in the hotel parking lot
if he did cross the bridge that night surveillance cameras would show it they show clearly a 1996
red dodge ram pickup truck with a motionless body in the open bed with clothes similar to
rachel ciani's going through the toll booth at 13 minutes after three on march 29th
25 minutes later the truck returned with nothing in the back what the tapes don't show
clearly anyway is who's behind the wheel of that truck the license plate was impossible to read
but police now had probable cause to search danafa's truck they discovered it had been thoroughly
cleaned we thought we possibly lost any trace evidence of rachel being in that in that truck the first search
didn't turn up any fibers fingerprints or blood from rachel but part of the truck
might have withstood multiple washings a plastic bed liner in the same area where this surveillance image showed
what looked like rachel's body what had happened was the black bed liner was not
connected properly to the bed when the bed liner was removed analysts found what looked like blood
dna showed it was rachel cianni's i couldn't wait to hear how he would ever try to explain that rachel siani's
blood was in the back of his pickup truck when questioned by police danafa had an
incredible explanation he said someone else must have driven his truck what am i missing here
am i the dumbest prosecutor on earth that this guy really thinks he can win this thing
this is the last known picture of rachel siani taken by a girlfriend just hours before
her murder for some crazy reason she had a camera in the car i guess this girl young girls
will do she pulled out the camera and snapped a picture of her right opposite her in the car
surveillance photograph showed what appeared to be rachel's body injecting off his red
pickup truck as he drove over the bridge into new jersey on the night of the murder according to
friends rachel was dinoff's favorite dancer at divas gentlemen's club rachel knew him pretty well and she told
people that she thought he was a loser a sucker is what she called him he would give her a hundred
two hundred sometimes three hundred dollars just for sitting next to him at divas
and so his money did not buy her heart but it did buy her trust and that would prove fatal to rachel
she thought he was harmless on the night of rachel's murder dinafa stayed in room 223 of the motel
next door to the club but investigators found no forensic evidence in the room so they tracked down the guest who
stayed in the room directly below danafa's room that night there was a man staying in the room
about 3 a.m he reported hearing uh a noise outside his room a thud or a thunk whatever it was it was
odd but he did not get up to check it out their rooms faced the back of the hotel where there was
little traffic late at night on the sidewalk below room 223 investigators noticed a dark stain
we thought that it could be oil we thought that it was odd that someone was changing oil or that their oil
leaked up on the sidewalk because it was the sidewalk was very close to the building
i took a white piece of paper and rubbed the stain and when i looked at it it was red a
presumptive test showed this was human blood a dna test showed it was rachel cialdi's something went
south in that room that night so what happened to rachel cianni on the night of her
murder prosecutors say that tuesday night was like any other the regulars were at the gentleman's
club including jack danafa rachel cianni was the girl that jack dinosaur always wanted
but couldn't get and you know if he couldn't win her affections with his uh pudgy good looks and oily charm he would
ply her with money and gifts and buy it that way but it didn't work after the club
closed for the night while rachel and her friend were talking outside jack returned
obviously drunk and knocked wildly on the door rachel offered to walk jack to the motel
next door where he usually stayed after a night out drinking the evidence shows she walked him to
room [Music] 223. prosecutors believe jack may have made some type of advance towards her one that was rejected
[Music] enraged he choked rachel until she lost consciousness [Music] danafa may have thought she was dead and
tried to get rid of her body by putting her on the awning below his window this way he could lower her into his
truck but investigators believe rachel slipped from his grasp and fell to the sidewalk leaving the
bloodstain later found by police dinafa threw rachel's body in the truck and her blood seeped underneath the
plastic lining of the truck bed he drove over the bridge into new jersey where he was photographed with what
looked like rachel's body in the back with little traffic on the bridge that time of night
he threw rachel's body over the side thinking her death would be ruled a suicide
but her blood and the fibers from her sweater were found on the side of the bridge proof she was
injured before she was thrown over proof that it wasn't suicide he was buying her
drinks tipping her and obviously trying to get something out of her that she didn't want to give
him whether it was money sex or drugs and when she didn't give it to him he got angry and he hurt her and the
total lack of respect that he had for her he just dumps her body like she's like she's
garbage you know we can only assume how it actually started but at least we know
what happened after it started in november of 2002 jack dinoffa was found guilty of first degree murder
and given a sentence of 30 years to life in prison it was a bizarre murder two crime scenes
were extensively cleaned but a few spots of blood survived and pointed directly to jack dinaffa
they didn't have much to work with in their defense they produced no experts because i'm
sure they couldn't find any that could attack the validity of the dna or any of the other evidence the
evidence in the eyewitness accounts kept pointing back the jack dinova but it would have been criminal for us to
not look at him jack didn't offer certainly wasn't the big shot he pretended to be
he wanted to be a big shot in the worst way you know he wanted to own dudes when
he walked in there and he was just a small little man and perhaps the most incompetent killer that
bucks county's ever seen

In 2000, the body of exotic dancer Rachel Siani was found beneath a New Jersey bridge. Investigators wondered if she had committed suicide. They discovered that Rachel offered to assist a drunk customer named John "Jack" Denofa to his motel room.

Brief Summary

Rachel Cianni, an exotic dancer, was murdered; Jack Dinafa, a suspect, was convicted after DNA evidence linked him to the crime.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of Rachel Siani. A young woman is found dead under a bridge, raising questions about her death.
Rachel's Secret Life. Police discover Rachel was an exotic dancer, complicating the investigation into her death.
The Prime Suspect. Jack Danafa, the last person seen with Rachel, becomes the prime suspect in her murder.
Evidence Points to Murder. Fibers and blood found at the scene suggest Rachel's death was not a suicide.
Justice Served. Jack Danafa is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years to life.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I kept telling myself that it wasn't true.

1:40WatchMar 5, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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