Mystery at Mile Marker 45 /// Part 2 /// 705 | Forensic Files

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[Music] for every mystery there is some somewhere who knows the truth perhaps that someone was watching
perhaps as you join watch closely perhaps you may be able to help all the Mysteries
thank you Paul diamano attorney was hired by the Valente family to represent them in
hopes of getting a verdict that would change the manner of death ruling in the death of their daughter 18 year old
Tiffany Valente and this is straight from the diamato law firm.com website right underneath the hashtag Justice for
Tiffany it reads it has been more than seven years since Diane and Steven Valente were told by authorities that
their 18 year old daughter Tiffany had taken her own life struck and killed by a New Jersey Transit Atlantic City rail
line train close to midnight on July 12 2015 near mile marker 45. five miles from their maze Landing home law
enforcement officials believe Tiffany walked the five miles over roadways they had no street lights and for most of it
in her bare feet Tiffany suffered from nectophobia a fear of the dark the parents along with numerous forensic
experts have consistently labeled the suicide determination the product of an investigatory rush to judgment and
they've appealed through their attorney Paul R D'Amato and his Law Firm to have the case reopen to no avail but the
valente's attorney D'Amato and many others in and Beyond New Jersey believe there's still hope for hashtag Justice
for Tiffany and that the new Unsolved Mysteries Netflix episode mystery at mile marker 45 will be the Catalyst for
new information leading to answers in the lingering troubling question about Tiffany's death was she the victim of
murder was her death an accident the victim of a prank that got fatally out of hand why
was her death so quickly ruled a suicide without first conducting a full-scale autopsy
there is reward information available in this case and last I saw Captain we were
talking forty thousand dollar reward to help solve the 2015 suspicious death of Tiffany Valente and if you have
information they want you to reach out to the family's attorney again that's diamato
law firm.com and there's also reward at Justice for Tiff tiff.com like I said last time I saw the
reward was up to forty thousand dollars now we give that brief description there to
one bring you up to speed and two because the family thinks that something happened to their daughter
between the time she left their home and when she was found and they were notified of her death well we have her
cell phone so don't we have like a cell phone record of who she spoke with we do
and that's where things get very interesting her family is of the belief of a there's
a few different theories that they're working with that maybe she went to the end of their
driveway remember she's afraid of the dark they don't think that she would have went off walking on her own not for
any great distance anyway in the middle of the night so they think that maybe she went out to
the end of their driveway down the street a little bit on foot and was going to meet a friend there and then
got picked up by a friend now some have suggested maybe she gets into a vehicle with someone she thought she could trust
and then things got bad quickly and they tossed whoever she got the ride with tossed the
phone out of the vehicle and took Tiffany away now if you want to go to the ruling side
of it the suicide ruling I guess the belief would be that she decided to toss her phone and just keep on walking that
night there are other people that suggest something that's even it's to me it's a little more
information and it might be a better Theory there are some that have suggested maybe the cell phone was later
dropped near the family's property and strategically placed there to throw people off well because think
about this she gets into a vehicle with somebody they're driving her around maybe they get out of the vehicle with
her or she just gets out of the vehicle she gets out of the vehicle you still have her items so then you go drop off
all of our items in a location so at least those items aren't in your car anymore
exactly and the situation here being that something happens to Tiffany and they want to discard these items we
talked yesterday about the shoes and the headband being found this would be about
a mile from the family's home and there's no way that those items were at the scene where her body was found when
the incident took place and so we know that for a fact which is which is so bizarre because again you
got to go to the fact that her feet do not show signs of her traveling that Terrain
for that distance before she was later found yeah I know a lot of people seem to put a lot of
weight to that to me I'm not a foot expert so some people walk around in their bare
feet all the time so they would have tougher feet I can't walk that much you know on on a
concrete or gravel or anything I always have to have shoes on so I wouldn't be uh you want to catch me without shoes
outside and this area is described as sharp rocks broken glass rough wood now I don't know if they're embellishing a
little bit to push forward their case I've not traveled that this this made that Trek uh on foot or otherwise so I
cannot tell you exactly what that terrain would be like now we do have a situation where we talked about
possible evidence that may have been not collected at the scene right and one thing we do know for a fact is that
shortly after her death we have one of her uncles one of Tiffany's uncles along with what would be her cousin
go out there and they are looking and retrieving items that were not collected or maybe just not found or located by
the authorities when they had the scene roped off and these items include a bracelet that
was returned to Tiffany's mother Diane but also included things like pieces of her skull and Jawbone
so I would suggest that I mean those are significant items that should have been collected at the scene again
it's either not collected or not located by authorities to collect them it's not
an easy scene I I do want to remind everybody about that it's this is not an easy situation
just the destructive incredibly destructive nature of this incident an accident Foul Play
homicide suicide whatever you want to label it the destruction of any of that taking
place here by train is going to make it very difficult for those to locate certain items especially out in the dark
now maybe they should have roped off this scene longer and again that's what the family's argument is
that this was a quick rush to judgment and they don't like the ruling but just because the family doesn't like the
ruling doesn't mean that it's not true and I I think with like you said a very difficult situation because you have the
destruction you also have you know this is basically train tracks in the middle of the woods so you have a you know very
odd terrain and then on top of that you know this is happening at night again they probably should have came
back several times during the day and I think they should have done several steps
because we've seen this in other cases and they might have been suicides but if you don't cross your t's and Dot your
eyes and do your due diligence it's almost like you're not giving you need to do that you need to be extra
careful with this because this is a hard this is going to be a hard ruling for the family to accept
well it's not just that if there was Foul Play involved in this young woman's death there's nobody investigating it
because of the ruling as a manner of death so when it's ruled a suicide there they will never investigate this as a
homicide now one thing we have pointed out there are many jurisdictions out there that when they respond to a death
that it regardless of what it ends up their findings end up being many jurisdictions work under the
protocol that until we find evidence that it is that suggests otherwise this is a homicide right
and I wish that that would have taken place here because now with this ruling nobody's
ever going to investigate this as a homicide so you may have a killer or people that were involved in the demise
of this young woman out there that will never be caught they will never be identified because
there's nobody working it now some people are probably saying well maybe I don't see a crime here that's fine
that's what we're trying to do lay out the information and let you form an opinion but I will remind you all of
this last year we covered the Boardman murders the murders of three young males in Boardman Ohio that took place in the
70s the third death was ruled by the I believe he was not just Pathologists he was an actual doctor
was ruled to be natural causes the victim had diabetes and and slipped into a diabetic coma
okay now that case would have never been investigated as a murder or a homicide but the police the Boardman police said
you know what we don't like your ruling doctor we see obvious evidence that there is Foul Play and that somebody is
responsible for this boy's death that boy is David Evans 12 years old David Evans
he's he's abducted and killed is what we later learned the person responsible was
a man named Joseph Hill they connected this serial killer to that young boy's death
with Joseph Hill's DNA this year this year 2023 so almost 50 years later we had a bad ruling by a medical
examiner a police department that refused to believe it and continue to work it as a homicide and they solved it
almost 50 years later so these things do exist yeah and I don't understand it seems
like in our society and also in the True Crime world and correct me if I'm wrong
here is that everybody who just wants to be right like they I you know whether it's the
Delphi investigation whether it's JonBenet Ramsey whether it's Mara Murray whether it's Brian Shaffer people come
to me with opinions and they're willing to die on that sword and not listen to anybody on anything
what's so wrong with law enforcement going hey our initial findings you you discussed this only with the family our
initial findings is that we believe that this is suicide now we're going to take
some time to try to prove ourselves wrong do the work well and that's why most jurisdictions will arrive on scene and
say until we have evidence to suggest otherwise this is a homicide investigation right because then you
can't really go wrong it's easier to look all the families asking for here is that this be ruled a suspicious death or
an indetermined death and so let's let's get into some of this information because we got a lot to get
through here Captain this is from Louise Houseman she's a retired senior medical
investigator who was yes hired by the family and yes hired by the family's attorney so she does have a dog in the
fight we don't know her so we cannot say that she went into this impartial at all and
then made a ruling I'm hoping that that is the case that she went in there to give an expert opinion based off of the
evidence that she could review and went in there impartially and arrived at this conclusion but what
she's stating here is it since September 21 2016 she has had several opportunities to read
reports and interviews by employees of the New Jersey Transit Police Department the Atlantic County prosecutor's office
and the regional medical examiner's office she goes on to say that she's visited the scene where Tiffany Valenti
was struck by a New Jersey Transit train and has reviewed all photographs that were taken by investigators regarding
Tiffany's death and she goes on to say all these items that she's reviewed and the the long she
went on a very long process of reviewing this case much longer than the medical examiner did and
what we have here is she's stating that it is her opinion that the medical examiner arrived at the conclusion of
suicide manner of death is suicide simply based off of verbal and writings by the engineer the train engineer so
making this determination based off of nothing other than the engineer statement the engineer doesn't know
the person that's dead on the tracks does it know anything going on in their life prior to doesn't know anything
about the evidence doesn't know about the missing shoes and headband you gotta make your ruling off of a
totality of the evidence and I'm not saying that the medical did not I'm saying it is this
medical examiner retired medical examiner's opinion that the medical examiner made that determination simply
off of that engineer statement now this senior medical investigator retired houseman
is reviewing the case and arrived at the conclusion that this should be up for review that they should take into
consideration and label this a suspicious death or manner of death indetermined because I think most will agree
especially once we get through this that there are reasons there are things that
a logical individual could arrive at the conclusion of suicide but there's other
reasons to suggest other that something more Sinister may be at play here she goes on to state that it is highly
unlikely that Tiffany Valente a very accomplished 18 year old female athlete walked Barefoot from her home on Tilton
Road along Poma Road to the railroad tracks and then walked over a mile alongside the tracks to
where Tiffany's body came in contact with the train so that's we get a distance there Captain it's a mile from
the time that she would have been on a road she would have been walking along the train tracks for a mile before she
arrived at the location where her body came in contact with the train like we said there's no evidence
that she was impaired but it makes you wonder like is is there a possibility that she just passed out
on the the tracks I don't know why somebody would do that but I I I've well that she cites that so
here we go death by train is extremely unusual method of suicide to be contemplated by anyone especially a
female teenager with no history of emotional instability the loud sound of an approaching train is much more likely
to invoke a flight response in a sober individual which we know toxicology says she was in fact sober
had Tiffany wanted to commit suicide she could have walked in front of a car on a
heavily traveled highways of Tilton Road or route 30. the toxicology report from
the medical examiner's office was negative for drugs and alcohol and I agree completely with that
statement she's the expert so you don't need me to agree one thing we need to point out here Captain is the engineers
both engineer statements have changed okay and I love it when people's stories change well
I'm going to give them a little I'm going to show them a little mercy no no mercy well not in this Dojo if you hit
somebody with your car I would it would be logical to think that you might be experiencing some
trauma and some Shock of your own yes and in the moment maybe not be able to give a clear
statement and maybe you filled in some of the blanks because you felt that you that you had to give a statement at that
time right and then later your statement changed and so the the senior engineer who is
teaching the student engineer the short we can give the short version of of how his statement changed
originally this the student engineer says that he saw the trespasser which is what they labeled Tiffany as
trespasser who Dove right in front of the train as the train approached the senior engineer backs up that
statement then later the senior engineer changes his statement to saying that his back
was turned before impact meaning that he did not see the trespasser dive in front of the
train but he saw impact no he didn't see anything he didn't see well I mean we're talking
not not even a second man like it's uh not even a split second but between the time of the the person diving in front
of the train to impact it would be so incredibly quick lightning fast the Train's traveling 80 mile an hour
this guy's saying when this happened my back was turned initially backed up the student engineer
later changes it to my back was turned and these employees probably feel completely awful
and just a side note yes there was I believe a little over 60 passengers they weren't in a position that that they
were able to be eyewitnesses to this event that's correct the only Witnesses believed to be and this is based off of
the Transit Police interviews with everybody on that train is there were so there were three
trained Personnel that were interviewed of the three we have two Engineers are the only listed as the only Witnesses
and we as we just pointed out one of those Engineers statement changed and our medical examiner Houseman she's
going to say Tiffany was struck by the train at 20 23 10 hours so that's 11 10 at night on July 12th the medical
examiner arrived on the scene about about two hours a little less than two hours later according to the medical
examiner's report it says that the statements differ greatly by these Engineers that were later made
by the transit Personnel charged with the operation of the train that night so that's not in question we we have the
original medical examiner and this individual who's reviewing everything both agree that the statements changed
greatly is the word that's used here and these are the reasons why the family questioning this outcome is makes a lot
of sense there's so many red flags she's afraid of the dark to she get picked up
by somebody well why was her phone in this location why were her shoes in this other location what would she be doing
walking along the train tracks then you find out that there's items left by law enforcement why are they so quick to
rush to judgment now we have two Engineers one of them is changing their story completely
hey it's enough of a reason to if you're law enforcement to go hey well we we understand where you're
coming from we're going to leave this open we're not going to make a ruling on it until we feel like we're 100 sure of
what happened right so here's the short of how these statements by the student engineer
change okay so initially what is told is that the trespasser darted out or dove in front of the train
and then it was struck by the head of the train and this will change to a statement that
goes like this as I come closer approximately a quarter of a mile away or a little closer than that I noticed
that it was in fact a human being he's talking about he had the headlights on on Bright and auxiliary lights on as
well and could see something up ahead so he's already blowing the horn and he says as he got closer I could in fact
see that it was a human being in a crouched position in dark clothing well that's not the description of what
she was wearing at all and the engineer goes on to say a I'm blowing the horn a really long horn just to get their
attention you know just to let them know hey I'm traveling pretty fast I was traveling approximately 80 miles an hour
maximum authorized speed 79 perhaps and as I'm getting closer the individual in the black clothing stands up and I
immediately recognize that it's a female I keep blowing my horn as I'm as I'm approaching closer the individual stands
up faces toward the gouge of the track or towards the track and as I'm approaching closer
probably within like five seconds of passing her she jumps she Dives in front of the train to the
lower portion of the cab car I was operating from the cab car and I noticed and I'm still blowing my horn I shout
immediately because you know it was a first experience for me we hit her I see matter go everywhere and then I
placed the track the train immediately into emergency brake application the reason why we need to have this
statement underline and make mental note of the the statement of I see matter go everywhere we talked
about without getting too much into the weeds in too much detail here we talked about the trauma and the destruction to
the body right limbs severed cut or ripped different descriptions but those are the descriptions of the limbs there
was severe trauma and damage to the skull area we already talked about the uncle and the cousin collecting pieces
of that part of her body later after the police had left the scene if somebody were to do something to this young woman
you could kill her with a gun an ax a knife strangulation and after being run over by this train Place her body on
those tracks and it would show you would see no sign of that that that would be complete a complete mystery to the
medical examiner and that's why it's called a mystery at mile marker 45 let's take a quick beer break
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garage today [Music] all right we are back cheers mates onward and upwards cheers to you Colonel cheers to you
Captain we need to Circle back into something that we left off with on yesterday's show and that was the bruise
on the arm that sparked the visit of child protective services to the Valente home so Tiffany has this bruise on her
arm and after talking to Child Protective Services her mother Diane admits look we had an argument things
got a little rough had a bit of a dust up here and I punched her in the arm and that's why my daughter had a bruise okay
nobody wants to hear that in a report nobody wants to hear uh an adult punching a child now keep in mind
Tiffany is six foot two or six foot three by every report out there and she would have been 17 years old at the time
of the incident I'm not excusing that type of behavior I don't think anybody should ever do
physical harm to one another but I will tell you something that that we've that I told you before on this show I had
several long conversations with some Suburban police officers a couple years ago
and one thing that I found fascinating was I was talking about domestic violence or house calls and I wanted to
know you know how how many house calls do you get in relation to obvious violence or theft or robbery or
something on the streets or out of business and the officers told me that the overwhelming majority of their calls are
domestic calls and of course immediately I picture some drunk husband slapping his wife
and they said no most of our calls are domestic calls and most of them are mothers and teenage
daughters who are in a rather heated argument and either somebody else in the family
calls the police because things are getting crazy or the daughter calls to the police or the mother calls the
police they said that is the majority of our calls again I'm not explaining I'm not trying to excuse any of this type of
behavior I'm just saying that what is being presented as a huge red flag doesn't seem so big
in retrospect when you cross-reference that with what we know now so we do know in that
situation look we can get let's get very detailed here so this medical examiner is doing a review and says that no one
from the medical examiner's office because we need to call into question the mental and emotional state of the
decedent and this medical examiner is saying no one from the medical examiner's office
has ever interviewed Tiffany's parents or sisters ever not not the day of the day after the week
after according to this report ever and they go on to say that when she worked at the Atlantic County medical
examiner's office it was mandatory under their policy and procedures to interview
the decedent's family as part of the investigation well let's dive more into this uh basically it's an abuse
allegation with the bruise on Tiffany's arm right and let's keep in mind that the mother does admit to punching
Tiffany in the arm so it's not like we're trying to cover anything up here and so in that report what we have is
this it states Tiffany's relationship with her mother in 2014 was strained Diane Valenti the mother admitted she
had become short-tempered but attributed this to menopausal changes remember the
this accusation of abuse or or sending the services out there took place in 2014. it says in 2014 one of Tiffany's
teachers saw Bruce on her arm and contacted d-y-f-s the case was investigated who visited
the home three times and spoke to all family members and even speaking to the sisters the caseworker suggested Diane
and Tiffany undergo counseling because they were having communication problems at the time
not that uncommon for teenagers to not be communicating well with their parents you mean you mean that you mean that
teenagers don't get along with their parents well look we've all been there you you turned 17 18 you start thinking
you know everything and really you're just probably a do Mass you know this is straight from the
Atlantic care summary report mother admits to punching her in the arm after an argument client
that is Tiffany is referred to as the client client has been making poor decisions lately smoking cannabis with
friends skipping class after her grandfather's death and taking money from mother's bank account and they do
clearly State here granted access by mother so she already she had access to the bank account just using it
improperly client Tiffany is a good student athlete and has clear future goals client reports she is aware of the
poor judgment and feels she has learned her lesson so Mom is admitting she's wrong Tiffany's
admitting that she is wrong as well that she's learned her lesson and was just being stupid and immature her own words
per the report mother and client have difficulty communicating but are otherwise a stable family client denies
Suicidal Tendencies homicidal Tendencies denies anxiety and denies depression mother acknowledged not being able to
move on from the incidents due to her anxiety family accepted the suggestion to work on communication in the home
mother will seek independent support if needed return to care if needed as there
is no evidence of psychiatric disorder as such case was not accepted so this was reviewed
investigated they found no trouble in the home they found no signs of abuse and they they found what is described as
stable family so it wasn't like this wasn't looked into and then we have more information about
this relationship remember we said yesterday that a relationship had ended well everything that's in this report
suggests that it was a mutual ending of that relationship and that Not only was it Mutual but
Tiffany had started to move on she was already talking to another interest talking to somebody that she was about
having a relationship with this other person and just again to go back to the abuse claims
these organizations that look into these they're going to do their due diligence
they're going to make sure that they feel confident that when they walk away that child is going to be safe yes there
were three visits there were multiple interviews with family members something that the medical examiner that ruled it
to suicide did not do and on top of that there was a counseling session attended
by mother and daughter well let's dive back into the information we know of the cell phone
yes and I think this is incredibly interesting to me here because let's go into this with with knowing a
couple facts here no one has ever come forward saying that they offered Tiffany a ride that they saw her walking that
night there was no ring doorbell camera footage Simply Safe camera footage ADT residential cons camera footage showing
her walking so however she got there the authorities say she walked there the family says
maybe something else happened now this cell phone is very interesting remember she goes she walks away storms
off at approximately 9 30. her father finds the cell phone at 11 approximately 11 o'clock so an hour and a half later
those times are key before we get into this information so this is what Louise Houseman found
and her statement is if there is one thing a teenager tends to cling to it's their cell phone anyone
with a teenager knows their cell phone becomes an appendage it is highly suspicious Tiffany did not
retain her cell phone after she left her residence it is much more likely she would have blocked her mother's text or
silenced the phone rather than willingly dispose of the cell phone in the brush by the end of her driveway many people
were searching for Tiffany on foot and in open Vehicles so note that the family is texting and calling her at some point
that night trying to figure out where she is phone records reveal many tried calling her cell phone continually to
the point where her phone received a call almost every minute or two from various friends and family yet no one
heard her cell phone ring despite the fact it was found by her father only a few yards from the family driveway
that's that's quite interesting now it could have been in vibrate mode or silent mode
was it purposely placed in the location by someone later in the night or was this where Tiffany
dropped it as she walked away at 9 28 p.m that night the phone was turned over to the Atlantic County prosecutor's
office Major Crimes unit on July 29th by a detective the following is a statement
provided to this medical examiner by Crystal who is Tiffany's one of Tiffany's sisters
so the sister said she examined did an examination of the downloaded data from Tiffany's cell phone
and this statement is it is Crystal's belief that the data shows the cell phone was in use after Tiffany walked
away from the home and before the cell phone was found by her father here we go quote there's some evidence
that I have found in Tiffany's phone that raises a question of how and who there was a call from
I will I'll change the name to JH to Tiffany note the time here captain and everybody out there in listenerland 10
39 PM this is on the night that she died phone is found at approximately 11 she left at approximately 9 30.
this call comes in at 10 39 pm on July 12 2015. it was answered for 24 seconds nobody says they were with Tiffany that
night nobody says they gave her a ride nobody admits to seeing her walking that night yet this information says
that at 10 39 PM that night Tiffany or someone else answered that phone and there was a call for 24 seconds 24
seconds not a lot of time but enough time to tell somebody where you're at to have them pick you up
it certainly raises some questions again if Tiffany didn't answer that phone who
did right so who had Tiffany's phone yeah so many things don't make sense and again it's found by her father just a
few yards from their driveway from the driveway of Tiffany's home home now listen to this it doesn't stop there
there it was also data usage in Tiffany's phone that shows someone was on her phone in an app that uses a large
amount of data at 10 42 pm on the same night there is another time before that at 10
23 PM that shows data usage as well but not as much this is Tiffany's sister saying that
this indicated to me that Tiffany would not have had her phone being she was Miles Away
and it being close to the time of her death okay so what cannot happen What cannot scientifically happen unless she
had a jet pack strapped to her back and managed to discard and hide that before death too she did not answer that phone
where it was found and then end up just minutes later being struck by the train miles away so that's some
more information on the cell phone but we also have the headband and the sneakers that were
found in a different location than the phone right that's correct so this expert is saying that
based off of the the totality of the evidence she is saying the possibility that
Tiffany was abducted at some point and driven to the location where she was later found dead cannot be ruled out due
to the remoteness of the scene vehicles used by First Responders to access the scene most likely destroyed any evidence
of a vehicle having recently been in this location or any Footprints left by anyone prior to the first responder's
arrival and then to your point Captain going on to say on August 3rd she was killed July 12th on August 3rd
at three 19 in the afternoon Tiffany's mother who never gave up searching for evidence in
her daughter's death found Tiffany's headband in sneakers in a leafy area approximately 15 feet off of a heavily
traveled old Tilton Road Mike Valenti called so this is one of uh Tiffany's father's
brothers so her uncle called the police who then contacted the detective in charge who proceeded to photograph the
area and secured these items a sweatshirt was also found on the shoulder of the roadway approximately 15
feet from the sneakers photographs of the sweatshirt suggest it was not weathered and may have been recently
discarded in the location where it was found what they're pointing out here is the
shoes in the headband being found more than half a month later about three weeks later yeah very
bizarre they're saying they may not have been there since the night of the death
that they may have been placed there at another time much closer to the time that they were found
yeah which would be direct evidence that somebody had them somewhere else AKA a vehicle yes and so what we have
here is that sweatshirt that we're talking about we have Diane her mother who's saying that no that sweatshirt did
not belong to Tiffany and Diane's also telling this expert that she found a car key tag on the ground near the sneakers
a tag that would commonly be placed on a key when a car is being serviced at a dealership Diane advised this
investigator that the detective in charge detective Sweeney secured the key tag and all items found at this location
so they did the right thing these items are recovered some of them belong to Tiffany some of them do not but they're
all collected by the authorities bagged and tagged and again I just don't understand law enforcement's
position because as new evidence comes out these missing items that you didn't recover
that were were recovered by the family or somebody else yes you made a ruling but
there's not nothing that says that you can't say hey we got some new information and we want to reopen this
investigation well and I want to sum up what this expert's opinion is in their report because the report itself is
about 20 depending on how you want to look at it it's it's every bit of 29 pages but written by the senior medical
exam investigator who's retired Louise Houseman her written portion is 19 pages long so I'll sum it up for you her
conclusion and it's this it's stating that multiple inaccurate apparently self-serving conflicting statements made
to investigators by the engineer and his student who turns out was unsupervised at the
time of the incident remember he later says his back was turned so the only eyewitness to this event
this is not in question this is based off of their statements the only eyewitness to this event is the student
engineer who this expert says their account factually contradicts the m-i-e-r Black Box on the train that's
recording everything that's going on with the train right this expert goes on to say that no drug or alcohol test of
the student engineer was ever conducted a sworn statement was not taken from this person until 10 days after the
death well this is a big problem because we know that eyewitness statements are not always that accurate so you want to
get a count of the events as quickly as you can and their findings this expert's
findings was that it was improbable that Tiffany would have been able to jump or
dive in front of the train they give a good description here Captain it's a distance
of 15 to 20 feet into a built up Stone railwood railroad grade from a standing position so based off of
his statement he says that it's from a standing position darted or dove in front of the train
the other one was it stood up in front of the train but this expert saying that it would be scientifically incorrect for
someone to in a standing position make that leap of 15 to 20 feet given the built up Stone railroad grade
yeah it's very strange this this is some other things that we kind of talked about a little bit but this is
confirmation from an actual expert that states the head was crushed brain obliterated
the skull severely fragmented obscuring evidence of possible anti-mortem injury such as from a gunshot wound no Footwear
found at the scene there is no indication Tiffany suffered from CTE investigators failed to interview family
in a timely manner popular with a close circle of friends admired by her teachers coaches employers and neighbors
raised as if she were a single child for the past 10 years by Two Loving parents
and indulged by two devoted sisters two grandmothers and many relatives received five scholarships for sports
and academics preparing and looking forward to going away to Mercy College in four weeks to play on a Collegiate
volleyball team and to major in criminal justice so this expert is reviewing it and says that
and I'll read exactly that therefore it is my professional opinion the death of Tiffany Valente warrants further
investigation and the manner of death should be amended by the medical examiner from suicide to undetermined
both of us being huge fans of Unsolved Mysteries this is how we came across this case I remember watching the
episode and texting you about it and saying this is definitely one that you're going to want to watch
it's confusing and I don't know which way Eileen some of the times but I definitely lean towards the idea
that if we don't have all the information if we're finding new evidence after the ruling that the
ruling should just you know just dismiss the ruling and continue the investigation
yeah this one's really hard to put an opinion on and so I'll leave my opinion here with this because
the way that I see it Captain if we're going to apply science and logic to making our determination
is that if that cell phone data if Tiffany's cell phone data is correct then there's Foul Play involved
I I can't stand here and put my hand on a stack of Bibles and tell you that it's
correct I can only tell you what I've reviewed in the information coming out from others who say that they've
reviewed that information right if that cell phone data is correct about that incoming 24 second received call
and the data being used on her cell phone by apps after the time that she leaves her home prior to that phone
being found there's no way that she was using her phone at that location [Music]
and then ended up dead on the tracks four miles away and walked there it just you it cannot
be done it physically cannot be done unless she's like a like a cheetah or something
it just I mean Tyrique Hill could not make that Trek that fast right so if that information is correct then I
suspect strongly that there's Foul Play here there was some local rumors that maybe
Two Three or upward of six people may know what happened that night the one of the local rumors that was that she was
picked up by a a male and two females and uh made to remove some of her clothing
maybe in a vehicle maybe they got rid of her phone maybe they dumped her phone after the fact but that she was taken to
the railroad tracks and humiliated before she was either killed or pushed in front of the train again those are
simply rumors but my opinion is as said if if that information on that phone is as reported
by her sister and as is in that report of the retired medical examiner then Foul Play has to be involved now there
was an update good good news like the family kept pushing and the authorities did agree to re-examine or at least test
some of the air quotes evidence I wish I had the unsolved mystery update music I
do love the update because it always shocks you you know oh oh yeah well especially when they're airing the case
for the very first time and you're like well damn there's already an update that
was these guys were fast these guys but you're like oh no we we recorded the episode a month ago and then like a week
ago we arrested the guy we still we still had to run the the story so listen to this Captain this
if you weren't angry it now is the time the appropriate time to get a little angry so remember they
agreed the authorities agreed to test some of the evidence that they had stored in Tiffany's case okay and here
is what they came up with closure remains elusive is what we are told because the new forensic and DNA
analysis on those items could only conclude that the New Jersey Transit Police had lost
or left to ruin key pieces of the puzzle the shirt Tiffany was wearing had been stored in a plastic bag tied into a knot
where it became covered with mold and scientifically useless other key items quote had been Outdoors exposed to the
elements for a few weeks prior to being collected end quote making them similarly
contaminated the report found this is my problem and this is a growing problem like I said in the True Crime Community
is where people have opinions or they go down a rabbit hole and they get blind sided and they just
they put their blinders on and and and this is the this is the answer that I came up with
and I am not going to listen to any other opinions and it seems like in this case
[Applause] I have no reason not to believe that law enforcement didn't destroy these
items maliciously because they're so they were so hell-bent on not going down any other rabbit holes the
other problem though again goes back to the ruling of the manner of death because if it with it being a suicide I
don't know how much of an obligation they are under to maintain these items very good point and to maintain custody
of this evidence and we should be seeking the truth we should always be seeking the truth it's one of my big
arguments with like The West Memphis Three case okay so you're gonna you're gonna tell me that you're gonna release
three individuals that you think are responsible for killing three children but you're not going to keep the case
open so we can then figure out who actually did it you're saying they did it but you're
going to release them out to the public makes no sense at all it's like if you're going
who need to constantly be looking for the truth and not trying to be the one that's raising our hand up and saying I
was right I was right and I I just don't understand what what did law enforcement has
nothing to lose but a little bit of time and a little bit of effort if the medical examiner comes back and
says well based on what we know based on the tests we've done we're leaning towards suicide we're going to
tell the family that and then tell them hey be patient with us because we don't want
to close this case until we get the information correct get all of our ducks in a row right yes and examine and
vet those Ducks so the the Valente family of course had a response a statement to
uh the the inconclusive finding of the test that was granted on these items and they said look
we were hopeful for a miracle with the DNA testing especially knowing Tiffany's Death From the Start was dismissed as a
suicide without a proper investigation ever conducted there is no excuse for evidence being mishandled
and then it goes on to say we're talking now we're talking about the ax remember that the the acts that
was found near the scene that had red markings on it right well there were hopes that they would test
the acts but the authority said we could not test test the ax because it's missing oh God the family's
response quote NJ Transit lost the ax how do you lose an ax a spokesman for NJ for the New Jersey
Transit declined to comment of course they did a letter to the family's attorney detailing their findings from
these newer tests state from a laboratory director stated that the packaging and maintenance of
the DNA and physical evidence by the New Jersey Transit Police was not in Conformity with acceptable protocols
again it's almost like they had their ruling and they weren't going to have anybody
tell them what to do and when they said hey here's this new information here's new evidence can you
test this instead of doing so because they might have got a different result those items were destroyed or misplaced
and again it looks like given the state of the the evidence at this time the the
only way that this is getting changed the manner of death getting changed or amended in this case or an actual
investigation into possible foul play in the death of Tiffany Valente will be if
a witness or Witnesses come forward if anybody has information again there is a reward out there for information please
contact the family's attorney and you can find their contact information on the website
diamatto law firm.com please [Music] want to thank everybody for joining us each and every week in the garage
Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this week Captain we got a little something
for your eyeballs and your ear balls check out our friends over at the law and crime Network on YouTube You're
Gonna Love what they're doing I'm sure you've probably already heard of them or seen them by now also check out their
latest severed Affair also available in podcast form that's law and crime Network check them out tell them the
colonel and the captain sent you you can find that great recommendation as well as many others on our recommended page
on our website truecrimegarage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't live
thank you [Music] foreign

Mystery at Mile Marker 45 /// Part 2 /// 705

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

Eighteen year old Tiffany Valiante died tragically on July 12, 2015. She was either struck by or run over by a train approximately four miles from her families’ home in Mays Landing, New Jersey. The last two hours of her life are a mystery. The investigation quickly ruled the manner of death a suicide, but were the authorities too quick to judge? Since, the family with the help of an attorney have gathered experts that say the manner of death should be changed to a “suspicious death” or “undetermined.” This case aired on Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix in October of 2022 as part of a Halloween event. There is a reward to help solve the 2015 suspicious death of Tiffany Valiante. Tips and Reward Claims: Reward@justiceforTIFF.com

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Check out SEVERED AFFAIR: The Gruesome Murder of Shad Thyrion. Using Law&Crime Network’s gavel-to-gavel coverage, Severed Affair provides an in-depth narrative of the disturbing case. The Law&Crime original podcast uses exclusive audio and court footage to piece together the gruesome story. You can listen to severed affair exclusively and ad free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery app or on apple podcasts. Check out the Law&Crime Network on Youtube.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses Tiffany Valente's suspicious death and the family's fight for justice amid investigation flaws.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of Tiffany Valente. Tiffany Valente's death was ruled a suicide, but her family believes foul play was involved.
Unsolved Mysteries Catalyst. The new Netflix episode may bring new information about Tiffany's suspicious death.
The Changing Statements. Both engineers involved in the case change their stories significantly, raising questions about the incident.
The Bruise Incident. Tiffany's mother admits to punching her during an argument, leading to a CPS investigation.
Suspicious Cell Phone Findings. Tiffany's cell phone was found far from where she was last seen, raising questions about her disappearance.
Headband and Sneakers Discovery. Tiffany's mother finds her headband and sneakers weeks after her death, suggesting foul play.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Was she the victim of murder?

Questioning the circumstances surrounding Tiffany's death.

5:01WatchOct 5, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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