GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — Much of the debate surrounding the death of Tiffany Valiante has historically focused on what investigators concluded.
A new examination of the case is increasingly focused on a different question:
What didn't investigators do before reaching that conclusion?
During a two-hour WOND special Saturday hosted by Gabe Staino and Don Berenato, attorney Paul D'Amato and journalists Marie McGovern and Martin Dunn revisited several steps they say were either never undertaken or were compromised in the investigation of the 18-year-old's July 2015 death.
Among them: DNA comparisons, a rape kit, a formal psychological assessment of possible suicide risk and proper preservation of physical evidence.
Those aren't merely criticisms raised years later by radio hosts.
Several are documented in court filings made by Tiffany's parents and, in the case of the damaged DNA evidence, an independent forensic laboratory report.
The state's official finding nevertheless remains unchanged: Tiffany's death was classified as suicide after she was struck by a New Jersey Transit train.
Her parents maintain that conclusion was premature and that foul play was never adequately excluded.
DNA was collected — but not compared with the evidence
One of the most consequential questions concerns DNA.
D'Amato said investigators had biological material from Tiffany but did not use her DNA profile to test potentially relevant evidence gathered in the case.
“We file suit again, and they say, ‘We never did any DNA testing at all,’” D'Amato said Saturday.
Asked why, D'Amato said he was told there was already enough evidence to support suicide.
That claim is supported in part by the family's own earlier court filings.
A 2019 complaint stated:
“There was no DNA testing performed on Tiffany's body and clothing.”
The 2025 lawsuit went further, alleging that investigators “did not test the DNA samples that had been taken from Tiffany's body against evidence that had been accumulated.”
D'Amato said an axe recovered near the railroad area was among the items he wanted tested.
“Our DNA expert, Dr. Julie Heinig, says you have to test that axe,” D'Amato said Saturday.
The axe was ultimately unavailable when the family received court authorization for independent testing, according to previous public records and litigation surrounding the case.
Testing that was eventually done had another problem
The family ultimately obtained a court order permitting an independent laboratory to analyze surviving evidence.
But that did not resolve the question.
It exposed another problem.
DNA Diagnostics Center laboratory director Julie Heinig wrote in 2022 that several items were in such poor condition that meaningful testing was impossible.
A T-shirt worn by Tiffany had been stored in a plastic bag and tied shut.
“One piece of evidence maintained in a plastic bag appeared to be covered in mold,” Heinig wrote.
She explained that biological evidence should generally be kept dry and packaged in paper because plastic traps moisture.
The laboratory was unable to obtain DNA of probative value from the submitted items.
“We have extensive experience performing DNA analysis on evidentiary samples with degraded or limited DNA,” Heinig wrote, but improperly acquired and maintained evidence makes the likelihood of useful results “remote.”
D'Amato discussed a stained towel during Saturday's broadcast and said its condition likewise compromised later testing.
“Because that towel was kept in a plastic bag, as opposed to a paper bag, it developed mold,” D'Amato said.
“When it was sent out to the laboratory in Ohio, we were warned ahead of time ... that the mold might jeopardize the scientific reliability of the testing.”
“And lo and behold, it did.”
No rape kit
Another procedure the family's attorneys have repeatedly questioned is the absence of a sexual-assault examination.
The 2019 complaint specifically alleged:
“No rape kit was utilized on the body of Tiffany.”
The family's 2025 lawsuit again cited the lack of a rape kit as one of the investigative steps it says were omitted.
That question has taken on additional significance as the family's latest theory of the case has shifted toward the possibility that Tiffany was targeted because of her sexual orientation — an allegation made in the 2025 lawsuit but never established in court.
The lawsuit was dismissed this spring, and no person has been charged with a crime in Tiffany's death.
What is a ‘psychological autopsy’?
Perhaps the least familiar issue raised Saturday involves something called a psychological autopsy.
McGovern said a confidential source connected with the Medical Examiner's Office alerted her to a questionnaire used to examine a deceased person's state of mind when suicide is suspected.
According to McGovern, investigators can ask relatives and friends about changes in behavior, loss of interest in activities, drug or alcohol use, emotional problems and other potential warning signs.
The purpose is not literally an autopsy of the brain. It is a retrospective reconstruction of a person's mental state.
McGovern said Tiffany's parents told her those questions were never put to them.
“When we approached Stephen and Dianne and showed them this questionnaire that should have been presented to them, they were shocked,” McGovern said.
The podcast subsequently recorded the Valiantes answering the questions themselves.
“It addresses very pertinent information,” McGovern said. “It asks questions about the person who is now deceased — what was going on in their lives?”
“Did this person have a love of life? Did they lose interest in activities? Were there changes in their behavior, in their eating habits? Were they using drugs? Were they abusing alcohol?”
McGovern said those are the types of issues she believes should have been explored before suicide was determined.
The absence of such an assessment is independently reflected in the family's 2025 complaint, which alleges investigators did not conduct a standard psychological autopsy or use a suicide-intent questionnaire supplied to medical-examiner investigators.
Toxicology showed no alcohol or illicit drugs
McGovern also discussed Tiffany's toxicology results.
“According to the lab reports, no,” McGovern said when asked whether Tiffany had drugs or alcohol in her system. “Tiffany's system was clean.”
The 2025 complaint likewise states that toxicological analysis revealed no illicit drugs or alcohol.
That finding does not prove or disprove suicide. But McGovern and the family's attorneys contend it should have been one element of a broader assessment of Tiffany's physical and psychological state.
Scene handling remains central criticism
D'Amato also returned to what he considers the fundamental error in the investigation: the early treatment of the incident as suicide rather than as an unexplained death in which homicide first had to be excluded.
“That's why we are all here today,” D'Amato said.
He argued investigators should begin with the possibility of homicide and eliminate it through evidence rather than beginning with suicide.
He also criticized the failure to tightly secure the railroad area.
“Why didn't they cordon off the area?” D'Amato asked. “Everybody was walking through the area.”
Family members later returned to the site and found human remains, according to D'Amato and prior public accounts.
The family's complaints about scene security and evidence preservation have been raised repeatedly before courts and the NJ Transit board.
But the official determination has survived repeated challenges
None of that means homicide has been established.
It has not.
Tiffany's body was struck by a train. The State Medical Examiner classified the manner of death as suicide, and that remains the official finding.
The Valiantes previously sought to have that determination changed and have filed multiple lawsuits seeking records, evidence and additional investigation.
Their latest lawsuit — which for the first time formally advanced a hate-crime murder theory — was dismissed this spring by Superior Court Judge John C. Porto.
That distinction is critical.
There is documented evidence of shortcomings in evidence preservation. There are also documented investigative procedures the family's court filings say were not performed.
But whether those shortcomings mean investigators reached the wrong conclusion about how Tiffany died remains unresolved.
That's the space McGovern and Dunn are now examining through Cruel Summer.
“We collect facts,” McGovern said Saturday. “We don't go on assumptions.”
For D'Amato, the unresolved issue is whether enough of those facts were collected in 2015 before Tiffany's death was labeled a suicide.
And 11 years later, that question remains at the center of the fight.
About the Author
Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
