More Than a Decade Later, Questions Still Surround the Death of Tiffany Valiante

A recent WOND radio investigation and an upcoming podcast have renewed scrutiny of a case officially ruled a suicide but still challenged by the teenager's family and investigators.

More than 11 years after the death of 18-year-old Tiffany Valiante, one question continues to divide investigators, legal experts and the public:

Did authorities reach the right conclusion?

On two recent broadcasts on News Talk 1400 and 92.3 WOND, hosts Gabe Staino and Dom Berenato devoted nearly two hours to reexamining one of South Jersey's most debated death investigations. Their guests included attorney Paul D'Amato, whose law firm has represented Tiffany's parents for years; investigator Anthony Marendino; and journalists Marie McGovern and Martin Dunn, who have spent years researching the case for an upcoming eight-part podcast, Cruel Summer: The Violent Death of Tiffany Valiante.

The broadcasts did not claim to solve the mystery of Tiffany's death.

Instead, the guests argued that significant questions remain unanswered and that the original investigation failed to examine evidence that could have altered its conclusion. Throughout the discussion, D'Amato emphasized that his legal team is not claiming it has proven Tiffany was murdered. Rather, he said the evidence warrants changing the official manner of death from suicide to "undetermined" until additional investigation can be completed.

A Case That Refuses to Fade

Tiffany Valiante was found dead near New Jersey Transit tracks in Galloway Township in July 2015 after being struck by a train.

Authorities ruled her death a suicide.

In the years since, however, the case has attracted national and international attention, fueled in part by the Netflix series Unsolved Mysteries, which featured the case in an episode titled "Mystery at Mile Marker 45." During the WOND program, D'Amato encouraged listeners unfamiliar with the investigation to watch the documentary before drawing conclusions.

For Tiffany's parents, Steve and Diane Valiante, the official ruling has never answered what they believe are fundamental questions about the circumstances surrounding their daughter's death.

Those concerns eventually led them to retain D'Amato, who said he initially believed the case would be relatively straightforward.

Instead, he told listeners, obtaining investigative records required litigation, and what his team found only deepened their concerns about how the investigation had been conducted.

Looking for Answers, Not Conclusions

Throughout both broadcasts, the participants repeatedly returned to one point.

Their goal, they said, is not to persuade the public that Tiffany's death was unquestionably a homicide.

Nor, they argued, should the public simply accept the original finding without asking questions.

"We're taking the most conservative position," D'Amato said during the program. "Change the death certificate from death by suicide to undetermined."

That distinction became a recurring theme during the discussion.

Hosts Staino and Berenato repeatedly reminded listeners that the program was intended as a fact-finding exercise, not an effort to assign blame or accuse any individual or agency of wrongdoing. Near the end of the broadcast, they emphasized that neither they nor the radio station were reaching conclusions about what happened to Tiffany, but believed there were still important questions deserving further examination.

Why the Investigation Continues

The renewed attention comes as McGovern and Dunn prepare to release their eight-part investigative podcast, which they say is based on more than four years of reporting and includes interviews with individuals who have never previously spoken publicly about the case.

According to the journalists, the series will explore Tiffany's life in the months leading up to her death, her relationships, and what they describe as previously unexplored avenues of investigation.

"We're just looking for those answers," Dunn said during the program, adding that the podcast is intended to encourage anyone with additional information to come forward.

More Questions Than Answers

One of the most striking aspects of the WOND discussion was how often the participants acknowledged the limits of what they know.

Although several guests said they no longer believe the evidence supports the suicide ruling, they also repeatedly cautioned against replacing one assumption with another.

Instead, they argued that the available evidence raises enough unanswered questions to justify additional investigation.

Those questions center on several key issues discussed during the broadcasts:

• Whether Tiffany could have walked several miles, much of it in darkness and without shoes, to reach the railroad tracks.

• Whether the original investigation adequately preserved and processed the scene.

• Why certain forensic examinations were never performed.

• Whether conflicting statements from train crew members were properly examined.

• Whether available evidence supports the conclusion that Tiffany intended to take her own life.

Those questions—and the evidence behind them—formed the heart of the WOND investigation and continue to drive efforts by Tiffany's family and those working alongside them to seek additional review of the case.

The Investigation Under Scrutiny

While the official determination in Tiffany Valiante's death remains suicide, participants in the recent WOND radio investigation argued that the original investigation left too many questions unanswered to support that conclusion.

Attorney Paul D'Amato, investigator Anthony Marendino, journalists Marie McGovern and Martin Dunn, and hosts Gabe Staino and Don Berenato spent much of the program detailing what they believe were significant shortcomings in the investigation conducted by the New Jersey Transit Police Department.

Their concerns range from Tiffany's reported route to the railroad tracks to the handling of physical evidence and witness statements.

Could Tiffany Have Made the Walk?

One of the central issues discussed during the broadcast was whether Tiffany could have traveled from her family's Mays Landing home to the railroad tracks under the circumstances described by investigators.

According to the guests, Tiffany would have covered roughly three-and-a-half miles in darkness, much of it without shoes. They noted that the final mile allegedly required walking along railroad ballast—large, jagged stones lining the tracks.

Marendino said his calculations suggested the trip would have required Tiffany to maintain a steady walking pace despite the terrain, darkness and the fact that she reportedly had no shoes.

The group also questioned why someone described by those close to her as being afraid of the dark would voluntarily make such a walk through an isolated area at night.

D'Amato explained, "we took the exact route that the bloodhound took and there was just no way on earth if I were trying to put myself in the in the in the head of a 18-year-old girl that was terrified by the dark, by every report that that I have seen and read so far...that was distraught, distraught enough to want to commit suicide...took this route that was just all over the place and long with no shoes, no phone. It was impossible for me to, especially after I saw photos of her feet. There was there was no way in the world that she could have a done it in a timely manner with that mindset, with that mentality that she could have done it without damage to her feet."

McGovern added, "Well, like everyone, I was incredulous that an 18-year-old young woman would be walking to a very isolated spot to her death. Look, I mean, having covered a lot of these kinds of cases in the past, sadly, suicides and in particular, we know that most suicides, when they are committed on railroad tracks, are done at crossings or public places. We also know that most 18-year-old young women or women in general, when they are going to die by suicide, choose to do it in a less violent way. Drugs or hanging or something along those effects. For a young woman to throw herself in front of a train is highly unusual. I'm not saying it could never happen, but it's very, very unusual and particularly in an isolated spot like that. So those two things struck me first and foremost. Forget the fact that when you see a young woman who's not wearing clothing or is partially clothed, that immediately, as a woman, sends alarm bells going off in my head because I'm thinking that there could have been some kind of sexual attack."

D'Amato encouraged listeners to visit the location themselves, particularly after dark.

"If you were to drive it yourself... and especially if you do it at night," he said, "you will walk away from this case and say, 'No way can you conclude that it was death by suicide.'" He emphasized that his team's position is not that homicide has been proven, but that the manner of death should be reconsidered as "undetermined."

Questions About the Missing Clothing

Another issue repeatedly raised during the discussion involved Tiffany's clothing.

McGovern noted that photographs taken earlier on the day of Tiffany's death showed her wearing a black T-shirt, white denim shorts and white canvas shoes.

She said investigators never created a documented inventory comparing what Tiffany had been seen wearing with what was recovered at the scene.

According to McGovern, Tiffany's shoes and shorts were never accounted for, yet the absence of those items did not appear to become a major focus of the investigation. "You know, shoes get tossed when someone gets struck by something. Literally, they get thrown out of their shoes. That's understandable that they might not be found at the scene or near the scene. But this girl was wearing heavy white denim shorts and they were never found. And somebody out there knows what happened to her shorts."

"Right then and there," she said, investigators should have been asking, "Where's her shoes? Where's her shorts?"

Handling of the Crime Scene

Perhaps the strongest criticism voiced during the broadcast involved the handling of the scene itself.

McGovern said investigators failed to secure the area immediately after Tiffany's death, allowing numerous people to move through the location while her body remained there.

She argued that this created the potential for contamination of evidence.

The panel also questioned why investigators did not thoroughly search the surrounding area.

According to McGovern, an encampment located only a short distance from where Tiffany was found contained lawn chairs, empty beer bottles, a fire pit and other signs that people regularly gathered there. She questioned whether anyone who may have been present that night was ever identified or interviewed.

Additionally, D'Amato explained, "One thing that that stands out to me, and it's something that really, really bothered me at first is the pattern of (blood) splatter...Normally, when something like this happens in any type of accident, when blood is spilled, the spatter at the point of impact is very fine and very thin. It spreads out as the blood is spread out. The air hits it and the droplets get bigger and bigger. From looking at these pictures...that doesn't appear to be what happened here."

Forensic Evidence They Say Was Never Collected

The guests also pointed to several investigative steps they believe should have been routine including determining whether or not Valiante was indeed suicidal.

Dunn explained some of the research they have conducted that the investigators did not. "What Marie has done is used today's technology to use digital forensics, to use everything that this young woman did on her cell phone and married that with crime reports and literally put together what I can only describe as 180,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, because that's how many pieces of information she studied. And in studying everything that Tiffany said, wrote, did, photographed and videoed, she was able and really was the first person to ever devote her time to building up a very, very accurate profile of Tiffany's state of mind in the days, months before this tragedy happened. And certainly within that investigation and that construction that Marie has carried out, there is nothing, nothing at all that would suggest this young woman had any suicidal thoughts in her mind. And that's something that should have been done at the time and was not done."

Additionally, McGovern questioned why investigators did not perform fingernail scrapings for DNA analysis or conduct a sexual assault examination.

She described those procedures as standard practice when an 18-year-old is found dead in an isolated location.

Those omissions, she argued, eliminated opportunities to collect evidence that might later have answered important questions.

McGovern tied the lack of a proper investigation to money. "Basically...this all goes back to money, right? Tiffany's death and the lack of investigation goes back to the fact that they didn't want to spend the time or money. And New Jersey Transit P.D. had an initial conflict of interest in that their job is to protect the Corporation of New Jersey Transit and not the people in general."

D'Amato added, "What we have learned as a result of 11 years of studying this case is that the transit police did not have the type of training that you would see, shall we say, with the major crimes unit of the New Jersey State Police or the detectives from the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office...The original investigation was conducted by the Transit Police Department. That investigation was inherited by the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office. And the truth be known, as a result of the family and the efforts of our law firm, we were able to get the prosecutor's office to start doing some additional investigation. But sadly, it was way after the fact. It was after Tiffany's body had been cremated."

"There is absolutely no inclination at all by the New Jersey Transit or its police department to explain its actions and procedures at the time" explained Dunn. "I personally have gone in front of the New Jersey Transit Board of Directors to ask very simple questions about what procedures were in place to have been carried out that night to investigate this case properly.And they just refuse to answer. Diane, Tiffany's mother, has appeared in front of the directors, and they refuse to answer her questions either. So there is this very strange wall of corporate silence around it, which just adds to the frustrations, I think, of Paul, Marie, myself, other investigators looking into this case.

The Train Crew Statements

According to D'Amato, the student engineer initially told investigators that Tiffany appeared in front of the train only moments before impact.

Days later, however, the engineer gave another statement under oath that differed from his original account.

The senior engineer also reportedly changed his account.

D'Amato questioned why investigators accepted later statements while placing little apparent emphasis on the first interviews conducted shortly after the incident, when memories would have been freshest.

He argued that those inconsistencies should have prompted additional scrutiny rather than reinforcing the original conclusion.

McGovern offered a more measured assessment, saying she believes the student engineer should also be viewed as someone affected by the tragedy.

She noted that he had been on the railroad route for only a short time and suggested the traumatic nature of the incident may have influenced his recollections.

Even so, she questioned why investigators did not more thoroughly examine the differences between his statements.

A Call for More Answers

Throughout the discussion, none of the guests claimed they had established exactly what happened to Tiffany Valiante that night.

Instead, they argued that unanswered questions about the investigation itself continue to undermine confidence in the official finding.

For them, the issue is not simply whether the original conclusion was correct.

It is whether every reasonable investigative step was taken before that conclusion was reached.

That question—and whether additional evidence could still emerge more than a decade later—remains at the center of their continuing effort to persuade authorities to revisit one of South Jersey's most closely watched cases.

D'Amato said there has been no evidence to date to back up the theory that Valiante suffered from depression. "We got her pharmacy records. She wasn't on any type of medication for depression or anxiety. We spoke to 30, 40 people in the months after her death, Her volleyball coach from Stockton University who voluntarily came to the office and everybody said she was not suffering from depression. Listen, going through the teenage years for anybody, it could be the best and the worst at the same time. So this idea of depression is just non-existent. And again, to those of you that suggest that she had depression, come see me. Give me the proof that she had it. And I've challenged people, the naysayers, over the years. You have evidence that is credible that this young lady took her life. Bring it to us and we'll present it to the family because they don't need to be suffering like this on and on. Not one person, not one person has ever come forward with that type of evidence. But unfortunately, these naysayers, they're weighing zero evidence. And I do, as somebody who came in objectively and critically, you know, we have seen the evidence and we can promise you that there are something more to (41:45) this case than has been released."