Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen Girl Walks 10 Miles BAREFOOT to COMMIT SUICIDE? NO WAY Say Parents

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

Tiffany Valiante, 18, has graduated high school and is on her way to Mercy College in New York. Standing 6 feet 2 inches tall, Valiante is a star athlete, earning a volleyball scholarship. On July 12, 2015, Valiante left her cousin's graduation party. A few hours later, the family learns Valiante has been struck and killed by a train traveling 80mph in a secluded, wooded area just four miles from her home. The death is ruled a suicide by the medical examiner.  Valiante's family is fighting that ruling over many issues. First and foremost, Valiante had an intense fear of the dark, meaning there was no way she would walk more than four miles in the dark. Her shoes were found more than a mile from her body, yet her feet were clean. A rape kit was not performed on Tiffany’s body.  Joining Nancy Grace today: Stephen & Dianne Valiante - Tiffany's Parents; See Change.org Petition Here Paul D’Amato - Trial Lawyer representing the Valiante family (pro bono- the D’Amato Law Firm); Twitter: @DamatoLawFirm Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA; Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University; Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital - Voted My Buckhead’s Best Psychiatric Practice of 2022   Jim Brennenstuhl  - Private Detective working with Paul D’Amato and the Valiante family; Owner of Investech  Dr. Donald Jason - Former Atlantic County Medical Examiner and Forensic Pathologist (hired by Paul D’Amato to reexamine aspects of the case); Currently Professor Emeritus of Pathology; Autopsy Service at the Wake Forest School of Medicine Justin Rohrlich - Reporter at The Daily Beast; Twitter: @JustinRohrlich  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace A teen girl allegedly commits suicide, but it doesn't make sense. It makes no sense at all. A young teen girl, barely clothed, suicide by train. I'm not buying it. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. What do you do if you're the parent of a child and authorities insist your child committed suicide? But you know, based on the facts, she didn't. Absolutely did not. And what about when experts tell you

there's no way this is a suicide? This is a homicide. But yet seemingly, cops and authorities won't budge. First of all, take a listen to our friends at Crime Online. When Stephen and Diane met, Diane already had two girls, Jessica and Crystal, and they didn't plan on having any more. They were surprised and shocked in a good way when Diane found out she was going to have Tiffany.

Diane says the first time they laid eyes on her, it was heaven. Tiffany was a happy child, and after the older girls grew up and out, friends and family say Tiffany was raised kind of like an only child. You know, I've got an all-star panel to try to make sense of what we know right now. But first, I want to go to special guests joining us, Stephen and Diane Valente. These are the parents of Tiffany, the teen girl who lost her life. Mr. and Mrs. Valiente, thank you for being with us. And I've studied the case very carefully. And from what I can see, your daughter's case is a complete divergence from every statistical data that I know to be true regarding suicide, methods

of homicide and suicide. I understand where you're coming from based on the facts, but I want to hear about the moment that was just described by our friends at CrimeOnline.com. I remember the first moment I saw my children's faces, my twins. That moment. I will never forget it. Tell me about that, Diane. When we first saw Tiffany, she was just so precious.

Beautiful. We just loved her from the moment we actually put our eyes on her. She was just gorgeous. Now, I can remember the twins, they're extremely premature, about two months premature. And I had an emergency C-section and the nurses showed them to me. And I remember their little blue eyes looking at me like, help me. I will never forget it and I was so I didn't know but at that point I was near death too I couldn't even sit up and I touched a kiss to my lips and put it on each one of their foreheads and then we were all torn apart to ICUs. Stephen what do you remember about that moment?

When she came out, it was just a miracle. I mean, you just say it, it was a miracle. It changed my whole life. In what way? In every perspective there is. I mean, I worked hard, I got the house built.

It just gave me more of a stride. Guys, you were hearing the parents of Tiffany Valiente, a teen girl whose death was ruled suicide by train. Joining me, everyone who has been working so hard on this case, but I want to go to Dr. Donald Jason, former

Atlantic County medical examiner and forensic pathologist, currently professor emeritus of pathology at Wake Forest. Dr. Jason, thank you so much for being with us. You know, when you study over years and years and years of, as I have done the method and assessment of homicide and suicide I've seen zero suicide by train I mean I see it on movies but in real life not so much doctor have you no I have not I've seen homicide by train well actually I've seen a homicide covered up by a train. Right. I've seen accidents. Right. Usually people in cars. Right.

Not just on the tracks. I'm with you, doctor. I'm just thinking back, in all the years I prosecuted, I've never once, not once, seen suicide by train. Never. It's extremely rare. In fact, in all the years that I prosecuted in inner city Atlanta, strictly felonies, and all the cases we have covered and investigated ourselves, I've never seen suicide by train. That's a lot of cases. Well, the statistics are that it's even more rare in teenage years. Yes. Well, I mean, suicide itself, although when a teen does commit suicide, it makes the headlines. Why? Because it's so rare. It's an anomaly. It's highly unusual

for a teen to commit suicide. Now, we see it a lot in the media because the media will seize on anything that is unusual and naturally because we are curious about it. But when you look at the bulk of suicides, they are largely not teens. And also, isn't it true, Dr. Donald Jason, that statistically, women practically never commit suicide unclothed? Well, they tend not to do it where their bodies will be mangled. Exactly. Mangled. In fact, when women commit suicide, you rarely see them shooting themselves in the head just doesn't happen or committing and i remember the first time i had cause to study this

my district attorney my elected da longest serving da in the country at that time i think it was 37 years elected mr slayton i heard him on the loudspeaker n Nancy, come to my office. I'm like, uh-oh. I ran, literally ran to his office. And he said, I want you to look at this file. I said, fine. Because the father of the victim was a lawyer. I think it was in a Sunday school class. I can't remember that connection. But I looked at it and immediately I saw that the female victim was completely nude and shot herself in the head.

Right there, although I didn't understand it, it seemed wrong to me. That's what led me to begin studying method and assessments of suicide and homicide. It's extremely rare for a woman to mangle her body as you said much less not fully clothed. Statistically speaking rarely happens. Joining me is Justin Roerlich joining us out of

Manhattan. He is with the Daily Beast and you can find him at thedailybeast.com on Twitter at Justin Roerlich. Justin take a listen to our friend Dave Mack. Tiffany grew into a striking young woman with a large circle of friends. She was an excellent athlete, and at 6'2", she made an impact on the volleyball court. Tiffany loved the game and received multiple scholarship offers for colleges.

She decided to take her game to the next level at Mercy College in New York, where she was expected to start as a freshman and pursue a degree in criminal justice. You know, it seems to me, Justin Warlick, that she had everything going for her. You know how hard it is to make a volleyball team, Justin? Have you ever tried that? I have not. Can I tell you my daughter has? She's made it twice, and one time she didn't.

It's hard. These girls are tough. I mean, you've got to be a real athlete to get on a school volleyball team. I'm just telling you, Justin, it's not easy. Yeah, I mean, this was a young woman who had everything going for her and certainly had everything to live for.

From what I've been told by the Valente family, by Paul D'Amato, people that knew her. We spent a lot of time together and really dug in deeply to this case. And, you know, while I certainly don't know exactly what happened that night, because I wasn't there, obviously, I do believe the Valente family deserves a proper investigation because it definitely appears that the conclusion of suicide was reached very, very quickly. Man, you're not kidding, Justin Roiland.

Guys, Justin, joining me from the Daily Beast. Okay, take a listen to more from Dave Mack. On a beautiful Sunday, July 12th, the Valente family went to a graduation party for Tiffany's cousin across the street from their Mays Landing, New Jersey home. This was a big party with family and friends filling up the yard. Cars parked on either side of the roadway. This was not a one-hour party and open-up presence.

This was a full party complete with steaming clams, fun in the swimming pool, competitive and fun volleyball games going on. Finally, a little after 9 p.m., Tiffany unexpectedly heads back across the street to her house. So there's a big party. Now, let me ask you, Stephen and Diane, let me go to you, Diane. That was on July 12, around 9 o'clock p.m., correct? That's when she left the party yeah somewhere maybe a few minutes before that okay and you saw her that evening correct you were at the party also we were with her all day actually other than her going to

Wawa to get lemonade that brings back good memories I still live on top of a Wawa in Philly with my sister so So during the party, it sounds like a really great party for Tiffany's cousin. Was she downcast? Was she sad? Was she upset about anything? No, she was totally excited talking to everyone about, you know, college and shopping and apparently was scoping out for a kitten for me for my birthday, you know, which was the following week. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. With me is Dr. Angela Arnold, a renowned psychiatrist out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, and she specializes in the treatment of women and all aspects of their life.

Dr. Angie, we need you and we need you now because I want to know if you agree or disagree with any or part of what I've been saying about teen suicide. While we hear about it a lot, it is by far not the main percentage of suicides across our country and especially here where this young girl is happy. She's got all these college scholarships being offered to her and she's doing forward thinking planning. In other words, I'm looking for kittens to give my mom for her birthday. We're going shopping for x, y, and z. I'm looking forward to blah, blah, blah. It goes on and on. That's not typically what you see when a young girl is planning to kill herself. No, Nancy, you are exactly right about that.

And there are things that we typically see when a young girl is thinking about killing herself. Like what? Oh, Nancy, there's so many things. Like? If they have a substance abuse disorder, if they typically show impulsive kinds of behavior, if they've had a change in their friendships, if there's been a change in their family, like divorce or moving to a new town, you see how negative all of those things, how negatively these things can impact a child.

But like you said, Nancy, this young girl is getting scholarships. She's graduating from high school as happy as a lark. She's an amazing athlete. She's moving on to do wonderful things in her life. And none of that looks like suicide. And I'll tell you something nancy what young beautiful woman is gonna stand on some train tracks and wait for a train to come by you would change your mind before you did something like that who's gonna wait for a

train to come by to get hit by a train you know what the? The way you just put it, guys, I've got to go to an incredible guest joining us, Paul D'Amato. He is a veteran trial lawyer, and he has been representing the Valiente family. You can find him at D'AmatoLawFirm.com. Paul, I actually had not, and I've looked at this case over and over since I first found it. But what Dr. Angie just said, I didn't think of that. And it's so obvious.

It's staring me right in the face. What girl, a teen girl, is going to stand out at the train tracks and wait all alone for a train to leap in front of it? I mean, none. That's who. None. It's just so obvious. It is. And I thank you for your insight. All of us that have been working pro bono,

including Dr. Jason and other consultants retired from law enforcement, everybody has concluded that you cannot rule this as a suicide. And if the New Jersey Transit Police Department at the very least had done a psychological autopsy of Tiffany, if they had taken the time to interview Steve and Diane and Tiffany's two sisters, the grandmother, the relatives, the friends, the coaches, they would have learned that there was nothing, nothing at all in her background that would have motivated this young lady to die by suicide.

And they would have learned, the transit police, that though she was not formally diagnosed with this psychiatric disorder, she was an exquisite example of suffering from nyctophobia, a fear of darkness. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It was already 9 p.m. when she left the party. Wouldn't it have been dark? And somebody's trying to tell me this girl who was afraid of the dark, and that was her only mental disturbance.

She's afraid of the dark, like probably everybody. She's afraid of the dark. You're going to stand out on a train track in the dark? Precisely. It just, I mean, Steven, would your daughter

have stood out in the dark and waited for a train? No. Never happened. Tell me about her fear of darkness. What did you do to relieve that? She used to work at Wawa, too. But she worked,

more or less came home at like 11, 12 o'clock at night. So what I did, I put a motion light out in front. So when she pulled up

because she pulled right in front of the house and as soon as she pulled up that light would come on so this way she wasn't scared but she would still run from her car

to the house which is only probably 25 feet, 20 feet. What about inside? What about inside, Diane? Did she keep a nightlight on in her room? Yes, she had a, well, she had, she would leave her bathroom light on.

Actually, even when she would watch TV, she would shut the shades in the living room. Because she was afraid somebody was looking at her. Huh. You know, she was just, you know, that's just the way she was. She shut the shades. Guys, so she leaves the party just a tiny bit before nine o'clock. Take a listen to Crime Online. When Stephen and Diane come back outside to find Tiffany gone, they assume she went back across the street to the party. However, after discovering Tiffany is not at the party, they enlist help of family and

friends to start looking. Everyone gets very concerned because it's now dusk and getting darker. It's common knowledge that Tiffany is petrified of the dark and would never put herself in a situation where she was alone in the dark. Not only is it getting darker, but Tiffany isn't answering calls or text messages. No matter what tiffany has her phone with her at all times but now she isn't answering after walking back and forth along the road tiffany's father finds out why tiffany isn't responding to calls and text messages why take a listen to our friends why why the family found tiffany's phone on the ground after she disappeared but they said she was basically attached to her phone, so much so that she bought a waterproof case to be able to bring it into the shower.

Also, it was nighttime when Tiffany disappeared, and she was afraid of the dark. But most of all, Tiffany was happy, her family said. She had promise. Her mother Diane says that never seemed to matter to investigators. How come nobody's questioned us? I can't understand. Nobody's been to my home. Nobody's, I just don't understand. So Jim Brennestuhl joining us, Private Eye working with Paul D'Amato and the Valiente family,

the owner of Investec and former police officer. Jim, how far away from her cell phone, where her dad found it, to the location of her death? What was the distance between those two points? Depending on the route, at least a mile, if not almost two. And depending on what route or whether you used roadways like a more straight line got it so between one to two miles jim could you describe the place the location where tiffany allegedly killed herself it's some distance from any roadway along the train tracks from Chilton Road east towards Genoa Avenue.

Jim, when you say it's some distance from a roadway, what do you mean by that? More than a few hundred yards. It is very dark. There's no lighting at the scene. So she would have had to walk several hundred yards to wait for a train to jump in front of um i want to circle back to stephen valiente this is tiffany's dad what went through your mind the moment you saw her cell phone it's just weird because why was why was her phone here but we knew we could get a hold of you know i mean it just i just knew there was something wrong because there's no way that kid left their phone anywhere. Wouldn't you agree, Dr. Angela Arnold, people, especially teens, are glued to their phone?

That is a threat that I use, if I have to, to get the twins to do just about anything. If I say, I'm going to wait until you're asleep tonight, I'm going to take your phone. Oh, they'll do anything. Of course. And Nancy, we talk about this all the time on your show. We talk about patterns of behavior. And it's such an obvious pattern of behavior.

Listen, to me, that needs to be a red flag. We need to write about this in a book, okay? We need to scream it from the rooftops. If a teen is dissociated from her phone, from his or her phone, that is a red flag that something has gone wrong because that is how much teens are attached to their phones in the world that we live in today. Is anybody in this studio or on our panel right now further away from your phone than arms reach? Anybody? I've got mine right here. Why?

I'm not looking at it. But if it pops up and it's from one of the twins, one of my children, I'm going to look at it because they may need me. And that's the only way I don't think they even know a home phone number they that's how they reach me at all times and I'm just stunned that she would have left her phone lying on the ground back to you Steven it was lying on the ground uh back to you steven it was lying on the ground where uh probably about 15 20 feet from my one driveway face down the reason i've seen it because it lit up it lit up okay but it was facing downward jamming in the leaves was she driving a vehicle diane no she didn't have

her vehicle so she would have walked one to two miles by foot. She would have walked that far without her phone in the dark and waited for a train. Is that my understanding of the analysis to Justin Roiland joining us from the Daily Beast? Is that the theory that has been advanced by law enforcement? That is the theory. It, you know, as some of the other guests mentioned before, Tiffany had a crippling fear of the dark. So just that alone would seem to indicate that she wouldn't be walking four miles in the dark

to find a place to die by suicide, and certainly not by walking onto train tracks. No, you're absolutely right. Dr. Angela Arnold joining us, psychiatrist. Dr. Angie, isn't it true that a majority of suicides take place in the home? Yes, and I'll tell you, yes, a majority of suicides take place in the home. And as you said previously, Nancy, I just want to reiterate this. When females attempt to commit suicide, they don't do it in a way to mangle their bodies.

Yeah, overwhelmingly, you're correct. Take a listen to our friend Joe Hernandez. On July 12th, she was struck and killed by a new jersey transit train a few miles from her home investigators said she killed herself but right away her mother diane had doubts when they first came to the house to tell us i i i said i made them repeat themselves because I just was in shock. I'm like, it's not my Tiffany, you know. I mean, maybe I'm way off base, but it seems to me, to Jim Brennan-Steele, veteran, private eye, former cop, that she left the party for a reason. Either she went to go meet someone, or she was called out of the party, the party for her cousin,

the graduation party across the street, remember? She left a little bit before nine and then somehow her phone ends up not far from there on the ground. To me, it's clear she was taken somewhere. If the question is, why did no one wonder what she did or what her whereabouts were,

was she with anybody for the hour and a half between the time she was last seen and the time of the train strike? It's a fundamental flaw in the investigation from the very inception. Are you going to walk that far in the night, catch a train that happens to be coming by to kill yourself and it all happens in the space of about 90 minutes it just it's not making sense guys take

a listen to our friends at whyy tiffany's shoes were found far from where she died but to get to the spot where the train hit her she'd have had to walk over rocks and dirty ground. Yet her feet were clean and undamaged in the autopsy photos. That's one of the many criticisms attorney Paul D'Amato has of the investigation into her death. What is in that file of the state medical examiner's office that led them to rush to judgment to conclude that it was suicide. And that is quite disturbing. Because just think about it for a second. You have parents, you have sisters, that have to live with the fact that some governmental agency

concluded that their loved one committed suicide? You know, joining me is esteemed Atlantic County former medical examiner, forensic pathologist, Dr. Donald Jason. Donald, what about this, in addition to what we've already pointed out, screams to you, this is no suicide. Atlantic County used to be my jurisdiction for 10 years from 1982 to 92 and when i was medical county medical examiner in atlanta county a case like this first i would have sent out a nurse or paramedic investigator and when i would have heard what this case was, I would have gone myself. I would have spent all night

looking at the scene, gathering the evidence and piecing together where she must have been, which would have been quite difficult. That's why I would have taken all night. Do you believe that her injuries are consistent with being hit by a train? Well, of course, of course, she was not only hit by a train, but the entire train went over her body and cut her into pieces with the train tracks. What about toxicology? And then the autopsy was described as taking only 15 minutes. How can that be?

I've never heard of an autopsy taking 15 minutes. Well, that's if you don't do much of an autopsy. It was really an external examination. It wasn't really an autopsy. You cannot do an autopsy in 15 minutes. That's impossible. Well, no, there was no microscopic examination of anything. And there was no attempt to piece the skull back together. Most important, Nancy, there was no x-rays taken. In a case like this where

body has been so badly mangled, and Trane is just one example, you do the same thing. You can find the body decomposed or body hit by a car and badly mangled. You x-ray the entire body and look for foreign radio opaque things like bullets or what have you. This was not done. Dr. Donald Jason, was there a toxicology test? Yes. What, if anything, did they show? Nothing.

There was no drugs and no alcohol in her body. Guys, take a listen to this. Tiffany's death was ruled a suicide and the case was closed in less than 48 hours. But many questions remain. In the last known photo of Tiffany, she is seen on her dad's deer camera leaving the driveway of their house wearing a black shirt, blue jean shorts, white headband, and shoes. Tiffany was found barefoot and just wearing her underwear, no short pants. Investigators didn't find her shoes or headband. Her mother did. While walking the route it is believed Tiffany walked her last night, her mother, Diane, found her shoes and headband more than a mile away from where she was hit by the train.

According to the autopsy report, Tiffany's feet were clean and free of injury. So how did Tiffany walk barefoot over rugged terrain for more than a mile at night and not show any physical signs of doing so. To Diane Valiente, this is Tiffany's mom. Miss Valiente, I see why you are fighting this suicide ruling. It seems to me like her clothing, her shoes, her headband were thrown away. It doesn't sound to me like she discarded them in a stone-cold sober walk through the dark over rocks barefoot. That did not happen. So why were her shoes so far away? Why were her feet completely unharmed?

And why did you have to find evidence? Why not police? I can't answer for the police why they didn't find anything because they didn't do an investigation. Tiffany wasn't one to walk around barefoot except in the house. Take a listen to our friends at Crime Online. According to the Daily Beast, investigators did such a bad job storing and keeping track of evidence that some has become unusable while other items are missing altogether. One example is Tiffany's shirt. She was seen on her dad's deer camera walking down the driveway in a black t-shirt. That shirt was collected at the scene, but it was stored in a plastic bag with a knot tied in the top of the bag. This allowed for mold to flourish and destroy the

evidentiary value of the shirt. Meanwhile, during the investigation, New Jersey Transit recovered an axe with red marks from the scene. However, when it came time to examine the axe, it turned up missing. So they destroyed the shirt and lost an axe. Okay, Justin Roelick with me from the Daily Beast a young woman like Tiffany Valente. The ax was lost. It was lost before it could be tested. And in March 2022, Paul D'Amato hired a forensic examiner who found that the remaining evidence in the case had been stored improperly by police, making it all but worthless for a new round of DNA testing. You mentioned the shirt that Tiffany had been wearing the night she died. That had been stuffed into a plastic bag, which was tied with a knot,

and the conditions left it covered with mold and useless scientifically. Other items had been left outdoors and exposed to the elements prior to being collected, and those were similarly contaminated, according to a private DNA testing lab that the family hired. I tried to get in touch with New Jersey Transit about this, and they didn't respond to my inquiries. But this, on top of conflicting accounts from the engineer and the trainee engineer who were in the front cab of the train that night, all sort of combined to at least raise an eyebrow or two. And certainly, I believe that the family deserves some closure here and definitely deserves some further investigation. There's really no downside that I can see for New Jersey Transit to just open up the books again and take a more in-depth look at what might have happened. Justin Roerlich, who is the law enforcement arm that was in charge of the homicide investigation?

From what I understand, it was New Jersey Transit. They're in charge of a homicide? New Jersey Transit? That is what I was informed. And yeah, I mean, they obviously have a proper police department there. But as Mr. D'Amato has mentioned many times, they deal with very few homicides in relation to the other sorts of crimes or violations that they're dealing with. Look, I'm not locking transit. My dad was a railroad man his whole life. So was his father and all of his brothers. And that's what put me through school.

But I don't think of New Jersey Transit as being a homicide investigation expert. To Paul D'Amato, the trial lawyer who's been working with Valientes, was this case investigated by transit? There was no investigation, and that is the fundamental problem. We have corresponded with the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, the State Medical Examiner's office, we've asked repeatedly to reopen the investigation. They're never going to reopen it because to do so will expose the fact that there wasn't an investigation. This is a classic case of something that you've seen hundreds of times before, confirmation bias. They rushed to judgment within less than 12 hours.

A statement was issued that Tiffany had died by suicide with less than 12 hours. It was in the local newspaper. Imagine how Steve and his beautiful wife, who has been fighting this cause, Diane, over and over. How they felt that it's in the paper less than 12 hours later. I'm going to go a step further. A friend of mine that belongs to the same church, he introduced me to a retired FBI agent. And that gentleman approached me and he said, how can I and my wife help? She also was a retired, is a retired FBI agent.

I said, what you can do is look at the entire file of the S&E and New Jersey Transit Police Department. By then, as a result of three lawsuits, I was able to get what I believe is most of the files for both of these agencies. They spent three months studying the file. They issued a 59-page report, which i was told to send to the new jersey town new jersey uh attorney general's office the new jersey transit police department and the state medical examiner's office and said this gentleman and his wife are available available to be interviewed the conclusion of the report was you cannot conclude as a matter of law this was suicide. You must reopen the investigation. And do you know what the response was? Zero to this date. Not a letter, not an email, nothing from these agencies. It is a travesty of government. And having spent two years as a state

assemblyman, I've seen where government can work and where government has failed, and I'm telling you, this is one of the biggest travesties I've seen in my almost 49 years as a traveler. You know, Diane, how is it that you learned that your daughter's death had been ruled a suicide? Well, my husband read the newspaper in the morning and hid it from me, so I didn't see it. And he was on the phone with the Atlantic City Press screaming at them at the top of his lungs,

how could you put it out there that our daughter committed suicide? People were tweeting and on Facebook from 4.30 a.m. Now, you need to know, we didn't find out Tiffany was hit by that train until 2.30 in the morning. So to see all this out there already and then Nancy Snyder

from New Jersey transit put it on the computer that my daughter stood in front of that train on the tracks and did not move. What right? She ruined my daughter's reputation. She made accusations that were not true without an investigation. crime stories with nancy grace justin roerlich you mentioned conflicting reports

from the engineers on the train what do you mean by that no this is something that uh that paul domato has long been bothered by uh there were inconsistent statements by the two engineers there, or rather the one engineer and the one student engineer. In a 2019 civil suit that D'Amato filed on behalf of the family, you know, the engineers were questioned three separate times and provided a different version of events each time. I reviewed transcripts of these interviews, so I'm familiar with the way the stories changed. In one, the engineer said that Tiffany had run out from the woods and across the tracks. In another, he said that he didn't see Tiffany until the train was

right on top of her. About a week later, he claimed that he first saw her from about a half a mile away, crouched alongside the tracks, and then stood up and dove in front of the train. The trainee engineer also gave conflicting accounts of what happened that night. They were talking about that they blew the horn and rang the bell as they put the emergency brakes on but then under oath the engineer said that he actually had his back to the cab while he was chatting with the conductor standing nearby and the train's black box says that showed that neither of them ever actually rang the bell i also tried to get in touch with the two engineers and they didn't respond to my requests either. But, you know, there are certainly enough questions being raised here that a, you know, another look seems like the right thing to do.

And it's surprising that it's never been reopened. So let me understand the black box shows they never blew the horn and they never hit the brakes? Not the brakes. The black box showed that they never rang the bell. This was one of the points that they made to investigators. And while the bell is not necessarily the crucial aspect here, it's definitely one inconsistency that could be an indicator of other things that might come out as well with a deeper look. I hardly know which way to go.

But to Dr. Angie, none of this is fitting together. None of it. I agree with you, Nancy. And when none of it's fitting together, that means they have come to the wrong conclusion. How can parents move forward with their lives? I mean, they're never going to have closure. But how can they even move forward when this is left unresolved? And there's an injustice on top of the grieving. Well, you know, Nancy, one of the things that I wanted to point out when you were first asking the parents about what it was like when

they first brought their baby home and whatnot, Nancy, that shows such an attachment to this child. It sounds like she grew up in such a loving home where she was wanted. That's part of the reason she was so successful in her short life. This is not a child. You're right. This is not a woman who committed suicide. To Diane, this is Tiffany's mother. Diane, how do you keep going, not only grieving your daughter,

missing her every single day, walking by her room, wondering what could have been as each milestone passes, but the injustice of this so-called investigation. It kills me every day. I just know that she wants justice for herself, and I just feel that we need to be her voice. And on top of that, not only to be there for Tiffany,

but I don't want this to happen to another family. I don't want them to go through seven and a half years of hell like we had. Stephen, what is your response? And Tiffany's got to be her voice that makes sure everything's done for her. But she's not here. After Tiffany passed away, you had always promised her that you would build a volleyball court. Is it true you built a professional grade volleyball court after she passed away? Yes, I did. And when you look out at the volleyball court after she passed away. Yes, I did. And when you look out at the volleyball court, what goes through your mind? Like they always said, they're come.

They ain't come yet. Guys, if you want your voice to be heard, the New Jersey Attorney General is Matthew Platkin, P-L-A-T-K-I-N. And you can reach him at 669-292-4925. Repeat, 663-275-5555. Repeat, 973-275-5555. Or email at matthewplatkin at state.nj.us. If you have any information that could help in this investigation into the death of Tiffany Valiente, this beautiful teen girl, please call 609-926-3300. Repeat, 609-926-3300. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend.