Cold Case Files - The Rifkin Murders Part 2

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Serial killer Joel Rifkin took the lives of 17 women in New York before he was caught red handed in 1993. Almost thirty years later, after interviewing Rifkin for a documentary, a TV producer leverages his relationship with New York’s most prolific serial killer to get information police could use to discover the identities of Rifkin’s two remaining unknown victims. When presented with actionable leads, New York State Police revisit the case and begin a two year search for justice for Victims Six and Nine. This Episode is sponsored by BetterHelpBetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/COLDCASE to get 10% off your first month.Hers: Start your free online visit at forhers.com/CCF for your personalized weight loss treatment options.Homes.com: We’ve done your homework.Rosetta Stone: Cold Case Files listeners can get Rosetta Stone’s lifetime membership for 50% off when you go to RosettaStone.com/coldcaseSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. In 2022, 29 years after the arrest of serial killer Joel Rifkin,

investigators Tiffany Attai and Sean Lammons are searching for the identities of his 6th and 9th. victims. The goal of this investigation, looking into the new leads that Peter had got from Rifkin, is to hopefully find victim number six and identify her and hopefully identify victim number nine. Rifkin had given a description of where he dumped the barrel with victim number six. When I talked to Rifkin on the phone, what he told me was that he used a 55-gallon barrel to dispose of her body in a waterway around New York that he wasn't sure of which waterway it was. Now, number six, it couldn't be more than 15, 20 foot wide. In 1993, Rifkin had told senior investigator louder that he disposed of victim number six in a 55-gallon drum and dumped her in the Harlem River.

They searched the river, but she's never been found. But then he told me that that's just kind of what he thought at the time, but didn't really know it was the Harlem River. The new information that Rifkin gave about the waterway where he disposed victim number six did not match the Harlem River at all. I focused in on the Bronx River because of, you know, how narrow it is. So my next steps is going up in the helicopter and seeing it, you know, live in aerial view. This creek, I've never been able to find it in anything. I don't think it was more than 20, 13 feet across. I went over a little bridge.

I remember mostly that whole road was recycling centers and junkyards. We're up to basically a Bronx Zoo now, so you want to try and go back? Um, you don't mind. Okay. Rifkin had given a description of the waterway being narrow. Um, there was a bend in the river where he dumped the barrel. Was it jumped out? Turn.

Spray back on north. Coming left. So anywhere in here, you think? Yeah, if you weren't, Ben. Where it turns, I think it was like a freight railroad line. It's all heavy industry, recycling, and the auto parts, junkyards. And it was just one after another after another. Going up in the helicopter and seeing the area on the Bronx River,

it pretty much matched Rifkin's description, where he said that the river took a bend, there was railroad across the way, and there was auto salvage yards. In 2021, TV producer Peter Rice began speaking to Rifkin by phone at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Denimora, New York. Rice had initially met Rifkin in 2004

while producing a documentary about the biological causes of violence. I know Investigator Tai has been working hard to identify where Rifkin dispose victim number six and I'm constantly trying to develop a closer relationship with Rifkin so that I can get more information from him. My relationship with Rifkin is complicated because I am befriending in many ways an evil person, someone that brought great misery and tragedy to a lot of people's lives. But in order to get him to trust me, I talk

to him like a normal person and I tell him things that are going on in my life and I ask him about things that are going on in his life. How are you feeling after the shot? Good. I didn't have any of the side effects. Now that people are getting vaccinated or things returning to normal. So far so good.

Am I making a deal with the devil and speaking to Rifkin and befriending him to try to get information? Maybe, but he's the only one that has this information. I can't find these answers on my own. What I can do is leverage my relationship with Rifkin to get information

that hopefully the police can use to try to get these women's families' answers. All right, so this is the area we're over today. Being able to go up in a helicopter in an aerial view was very helpful. Certain things and pictures on the ground just didn't translate the same as being in the helicopter. Go a little bit further north.

Yeah, I keep going right up there. It's even more narrow up here. How narrow is that portion of the river? About 25 feet. I think it fits. It has the two bends. bridge, tracks on the opposite side. Yeah, I feel like that fits as well.

Between all the information from the helicopter flight and after looking at some historical maps and some current maps, Tiffany was able to narrow down on an area of the Bronx River, Starlight Park. Starlight Park is a park in the Bronx. It is about 13 acres. It's basically reconstructed and an expanded park from what it was, back in the day.

We would have to probably get back in the area with on foot or even get a boat in the water. Yeah, we'd have to see if we can navigate that area, but we got to start somewhere. And then we can go from there. Victim number six, there was two ways to attack it. And we're working both. One way is to locate where he dumped this victim and find out if she's still there. If we find her remains, we can potentially get DNA that can be used for, investigative genetic genealogy. So I felt good about identifying victim number six

specifically by finding her. And then the second step was hopefully we get DNA on the earrings. But I had some doubt about getting DNA from those earrings because of the amount of time that had passed and DNA, the grades over time. I didn't think we would get a sample from those earrings at all. So there was always that thought in the back of my mind that it's a long shot that we're to get any DNA. But then six weeks after we submitted the pair of earrings and the single earring to the New York State Forensic Investigation Center, we received results in a lab report. We had a partial profile on the pair of earrings. I knew that this was a breakthrough in this case because that DNA could help us in identifying victim six.

So a partial DNA profile indicates that not all of the locations of the look for along the human genome have produced data. We look specifically for 24 locations along the human genome, and in this case, only eight of those were developed. A full sample is a sample that could be uploaded into CODIS. CODIS is the combined DNA index system, which is a DNA database maintained by the FBI. CODIS allows us to try to identify DNA from a crime scene. We don't have that.

We have a partial sample, which is suitable for a comparison. Harrison and investigative genetic genealogy based on the quality and quantity of the DNA. So after we learned that they obtained a partial DNA profile, it made me want to speak to Rifkin to just make sure that this pair is the pair that he is describing and what he remembers because he told Peter a pair of earrings, and then he changed it to a single earring. So it is just one earring. Yeah. I had started to arrange meeting with Rifkin,

but as much as you want to go talk to somebody early on, you have to have your ducks in a row and have all the information you need to conduct a good interview. And that takes time. Before her meeting with Rifkin, Investigator Ty asked me to try to get as much detailed information from Rifkin about the river that he disposed of the body of victim number six. and eventually investigator at Ty had the idea of Rifkin drawing a map.

I felt like Starlight Park really fit the area, and it could be a breakthrough in the case. I just wasn't 100% sure. So I thought if he could put it down, you know, pen to paper, I could see what he's seeing, as opposed to interpreting his description. So I started to prod him and ask him to draw this map that, Investigator Attai had asked for, but then he didn't do anything for a long time. Hey, thanks for calling. How are you? Good. I got your email.

Yeah, cool. Yeah, no worries. I just hadn't heard for you in a while, and I wanted to check in. All right. Are you still sending, or did you send the math? No. Even though he is interested in working with me, I don't think Rifkin feels completely comfortable coopering with police. How are you feeling about where this is all going? Are you still comfortable with trying to help out for these two victims and families?

Oh, yeah. Well, good. Well, I've been talking with Tiffany, and I know she's going to be coming up to visit you. Oh, okay. I assumed he was going to be helpful and give them actionable information. But at the same time, I feel like he is conflicted with talking to police. Five months into the investigation, Rice speaks to Rifkin again. Do you guys get anything special on Thanksgiving Day here?

Did they serve you turkey and stuffing and anything? Yeah, we get this imitation, like turkey roll, stuffing. They measure the cranberry sauce with like a teaspoon. So one, I wanted to go back to, you know, any chance you're going to send that map that you were talking about? Yes. All right, cool. So another investigative avenue that I took to be prepared. prepared for the interview with Rifkin was finding photos of women who could be victim six or nine.

If we look at girls who were arrested for prostitution back during that time period, who kind of what I call fall off the grid, if I could obtain those photos and show them to Rifkin, he might remember one of them resembling or being victim six or nine. I focused in on the specific areas where he said he picked up the victims. And obviously with the time period, I had NYPD pull those photos from their records to bring to show to Rifkin. And also, I looked at the case files and noticed that the investigators back then had a list of women that they were crossing off as either being a victim or they were able to determine that they were alive. One specifically was Judith Veloes. She was on the list, but she wasn't crossed off.

So I started looking in to her to see what that was about. There was no footprint for her, no arrest. It just seemed like she fell off the face of the earth. What happened to Judith? You know, where is she? This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Have you ever noticed how February has a way putting relationships under a microscope?

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Prescription required. See website for full details, important safety information, and restrictions. Actual price depends on product and plan purchased. In any investigation, you don't know where it's going to lead you. In this case specifically, it led me to Judith, who might be a Rifkin victim. What's interesting about Judith Veloz is that she kind of fit the profile as a sex worker who went missing back during that time period. So I started looking in to her to see what that was about. I was able to get current contact information for one of her sisters, and I reached out to her. Sue Ona is Judith Voloz's sister.

Judith was our older sister and she was our role model. In my eyes, she was like superwoman. Judith was in high school when she ran away. She was about 19 years old when we found out that she was pregnant and I was just so happy for her. But then, in February of 93, my mom called me and told me that Judith is missing. Her partner had said that he dropped her off somewhere and came back for her and she wasn't there.

I didn't know back then that her partner was actually her pimp. I don't know what happened with my sister, but what I can assure you is that she would have never left her baby. She was a wonderful mom, and she loved her daughter. Arles Jones is Judith Velose's daughter. I was born in New York, May 9th, 1992. I don't have any memory of my mom. I wish I did, but I don't. My grandmother raised me along with Aunt Sue.

I never really felt or really thought that she was completely past. I definitely always hoped and thought that there was a possible that she'd still be alive. When Investigator Atai contacted me, I actually watched a documentary on Joel Rifkin. It was a lot to process

the way he did things. It was a little traumatic to even think that my mom could have been one of his victims. So after speaking with Judith's sister and daughter, I learned that she didn't fit being a

Rifkin victim based on the timeline. Victim number six went missing in the fall of 1991 and victim number nine was from 1992 and Judith went missing in March of 1993. So it was way after victim six and victim number nine. She just didn't fit in the timeline based on the last contact people had with her. I was frustrated, but also they're a family that has no answers. I thought it was important to help the family and you know, get her reported as a missing person. I mean, she could be an unidentified human remains in another state. Getting DNA from Drew this sister and daughter is important too. So those can be compared to unidentified human remains that are actually available for comparison. I want to

do that. I'm so grateful for Tiffany. She's definitely renewed my drive for answers. And so many good things came out of this case, and that's one of them. We're bringing light to a woman who has been missing since 1993. I want our story to be told. I still feel hopeful. I still feel the possibility that she still could be alive. Sometimes it's a long shot that'll solve a case. You can't leave any stone unturned.

You have to exhaust every lead. I went to open source data, which is websites, social media looking for anybody maybe talking about a family member who they're looking for. And I found a forum which was talking about a woman by the name of Marilyn Mara. And in reading all of the comments on this forum, a lot of people were indicating that Marilyn might be a Rifkin victim. So I started to look into Marilyn Mara and I found that she had a, a Namus profile. Namis is the national missing and unidentified person system. It's a resource center for all cases involving unidentified missing and

unclaimed persons in the United States. The daughter of Marilyn was on these forums, so I thought it was important to reach out to her. Tanya Papagianicus is Marilyn Mara's daughter. I was 14 when my mother went missing. I think the hardest part is not knowing. It's very difficult to have someone you love just vanish. My grandparents raised us, and even though my mother was pretty heavily involved in prostitution and drugs,

she could get her act together for long enough to be with us and create memories, and when she was with us, she was a really good mom. My grandmother, before she passed, made me promise her. Don't ever stop looking for your mom. Just do whatever you can do. When Tiffany first reached out to me, she just kind of was asking, you know, questions to see the timing. My mother went missing.

Victim number six went missing in the fall of 1991. Victim number nine was recovered in 1992, and her mother was last seen in the summer of 199. of 1990. So it was a whole year prior. Although the timeline might not fit, I'm going to talk to Rifkin and I will show her photo and see if he recognizes her. Ideally, I wouldn't want to know that that's how my mother's life ended. But at the same time, it's really important for me to get an answer so that I can kind of put it to bed. Going through the list of women, that took time. but then I knew that I was going to interview Rifkin.

I wanted to be prepared. And being prepared, I wanted to make sure that I had enough information to bring up to him. It's just a matter of time. So eventually, after me prodding Rifkin several times to draw the map, he did draw a map and sent it to me in the mail. And he sent a letter with the map to me, and it was dated on my birthday. Whether or not he knew it was my birthday, I have no idea. But I know that dates and anniversaries are very important to Rifkin.

I'll talk to you again Monday after Hanukkah. Until then, peace, Joel. It was surreal. It was so detailed. It had so much information on it. And it's obvious that he had put a lot of effort into it. And, you know, I was sitting there thinking, is this map going to lead us to victim number six?

It's December 2021, six months into the investigation. Investigators at Thai and lemons meet to discuss new information. I just got some stuff from Peter. Rifkin wrote a letter and drew a map of the area as how he remembers it when he dumped victim six. That's the map. In the letter he writes, hi Peter, here's the map, which I've been mentioning for the past couple of months. I think that it gives a fair idea of what I've been trying to explain. And then this is also the aerial photo.

that we got from New York City then and now, right, from 1996 of the area that we're focused on. Right, like a park. Correct, yep, I Starlight Park and where all those salvage yards are. Okay. You know, I'm trying to compare it to this. There's a lot of similarities. The tracks, the Odle Salad yards,

you know, those are big things to remember. And he writes here that this is a culvert or a bridge. Right. And he obviously doesn't know what's under it. Like is there water flow or is it just a bump in the road? Is there anything like that that matches that we run that area? I don't remember. Well, he draws a triangle here.

And if you see up on the box, he indicates small triangle, three to five truck lengths long, two to three, at widest. I mean, when you look at this map, do you see some triangles here? That could be in this area? Yeah, right here. So yeah, we have two triangles. I just, I'm not seeing what that hump is that he's talking about. So at that point, I knew that I was ready to interview Rifkin.

I knew the pivoting point to move this case forward is going to be the interview. But then COVID was a huge factor at the time in the jail. So you got boosted. That's great news. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. That's got to make you feel a little better, even though homicry. You still get sick, but you don't end up in the hospital. Yeah, and that's why we're on a partial COVID slowdown.

The only thing left to do was wait. The interview that the investigators wanted to do with Rifkin took a while to schedule. As time went by, I wanted to follow up on victim number nine. Investigator at Ty had made the request for an exhumation, and after that, it's pretty much a waiting game. So I reached out to them, and I learned that that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City

was having trouble finding the remains of victim number nine. I didn't really know exactly what that meant because I thought that she was going to be the easy one to identify. Bill Simon is a retired detective with the New York City Police Department. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is in charge of all the bodies in New York City. So we work hand in hand together.

We make the request. They accept the request to retrieve the body and then have it reexamined. I made the request to the OCME to exhume the body. It had to be right away. Victim number nine is buried on Hart Island. Hard Island is restricted only to family members. It is off limits to the general public. People who were poor, they couldn't afford burial,

people that were unidentified, and prisoners, this is a spot that the city is designated as a cemetery for those people. They started burying bodies there in the late 1800s. There are roughly over a million bodies buried on Hart Island. You can see the markers showing where the gravesites are. They are mass graves. I believe it's 100 to 150 per grave per site,

and the markers indicate each burial plot. Victim number nine is on plot 226. When I made the request to OCME, on it right away, and whenever they schedule crews to come out here to the island, they went and they searched for the body. But they're going out to an island with various environmental conditions which have changed over the time to go dig in a mass grave with bodies that have been in that grave for 30, 40 years.

I'd call maybe every couple months, say, hey, any luck, any luck? And like, no. When they went to the site, you know, they dig, and as you're digging, you're not finding a pine box intact. You're finding pine bones, mud, water. But there's always hope. You can't say that anything's finished. When I reached out to OCEME, they told me that they are actively looking for her body and that they still hope to find it. But it's been a long time, and they still haven't found her body.

So, you know, there was different ways to attack identifying victim number nine. And specifically the ones that I could help with was with photos of women. There was some potentials matching the description of victim number nine. He might remember one of them resembling or being victim number nine. So I figured I could attack the case that way. So what's new? Can't think of her last thing, Tiffany. Yeah.

And she's coming up for what could be considered a police. I was told that I was going to interview Rifkin in person on May 2nd, 2022. I was feeling a little bit nervous, but also excited. I wasn't sure how Rifkin was going to receive the police in prison. I wasn't sure how comfortable he was going to be and how forthcoming he was going to be. And then, Rifkin just went completely dark on me. No more phone calls, no more emails. I didn't know what to make of Rifkin's silence.

Was he stopping cooperating with me? Was he getting cold feet? Was he getting second thoughts about helping investigators to try to identify these two women? I had no idea. I would email him over and over again. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I've always loved the idea of learning a new language. It's one of those skills that really stays with you.

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getting close to figuring something out that he really doesn't want us to figure out. But we still have to go up to Danamo for the Rifkin interview and see where it brings us. This is a huge interview that's going to hopefully be the tipping point to potentially identify victim number six and number nine. My plan before I leave for this interview is to call Tanya, the daughter of Marilyn Mara. I just keep her in the loop. Hello. Hi, Tanya. It's Tiffany. How are you? Good. How are you?

Good. So I just wanted to let you know that I am going up to talk to Rifkin. And as soon as I'm done, I'm going to give you a call and let you know what he says. Okay. So how are you feeling? I feel okay. I hope that, you know, you'll be able to get, like, some answers, not only for me, but for you and for the other families. We'll see what happens.

And, you know, if he doesn't recognize your mom as one of his victims, maybe he recognizes her from the streets back then. Maybe he knows something. So, um, I'm hopeful. I don't know if I necessarily feel one way or another, whether he'll be forthcoming or not. But I really, I definitely trust Tiffany 100%. Okay, well, good luck.

All my love and good vibes. Thank you, I appreciate it. So I just want to go over everything before we go up. Okay, sounds good. Make sure I'm not forgetting anything. Yeah, you show me other books that you got prepared and we can kind of go over it a little bit. Yep. So I think the first thing we do when we get there is have him pick out whether it was the pair

or the single earring. I don't want him to think, oh, I see a pair automatically. It's not it. Right. What I did was I isolated it so that the single ear. isolated it so the pairs isolated as a single and the single is a single I'm also bringing up the video from when we went up in the helicopter and then the aerial photos you took when we were up in the helicopter are in there as well start showing things

and then see where he runs with it mm-hmm I also have all the female photographs in here I was feeling a little bit nervous that I don't have everything I knew there was some photos that we didn't have but also excited that there's the that he might pick out the exact area or he might pick out one of the females as being six or nine. I think with everything that we have, something is, he's gonna remember something.

Yeah, no, definitely. Where he dumped six, or if any of these girls fit as being six or nine. Yeah. We could throw all this stuff in a box. Pretty much everything we've done over the past few months, we've all kind of come to a head at this point. The only feeling I have is hope to get answers.

But there's always the possibility that, Rifkin changes his mind and doesn't want to talk to us. It's now one day before the Rifkin interview. I am in Danamoire, New York, for the face-to-face meeting that investigators have with Rifkin tomorrow. I wasn't allowed to go in with them because they were doing an active investigation. But because this was proving to be such a big moment in the case, they were kind enough to allow me to come to Danamora and just be there with them to get the latest information. There is definitely some anxiety about what's going on with Rifkin right now.

What's he thinking? Why did he stop communicating? We will return with part three of the Rifkin murders next week on Cold Case Files. Thousands of free movies and TV shows. What? This is the mindset. Free. This is the mantra.

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