PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The victim may have been sleeping or already dead when struck by the train,” Jason wrote. He noted he had personally investigated a death that seemed like suicide by train but turned out to be strangulation. Police investigation resulted in an arrest and conviction in that case, he said."
STORY: "Bias tainted Tiffany Valiante death investigation, forensic pathologist said," by reporter Claire Lowe, published by Atlantic City Press on February 15, 2018.
SUB-HEADING: "Oakcrest High School graduate Tiffany Valiante likely did not take her own life in July 2015."
GIST: "A
former Atlantic County forensic pathologist says investigators already
believed Tiffany Valiante, 18, committed suicide, skewing the results
before they began investigating her 2015 death on the train tracks in
Galloway Township. “This bias
negatively affected the way in which the scene was processed by all
members of the team, both responding police and medical examiner’s
staff,” forensic pathologist Donald Jason wrote in a report filed this
month in the civil case attempting to amend the cause of Valiante’s
death. Jason, who worked in
Atlantic County in the 1980s, submitted a written statement Feb. 6 to
attorney Paul D’Amato. D’Amato represents Valiante’s parents, Dianne and
Stephen, in the case filed against several unnamed defendants
attempting to change the cause of death to “undetermined” and reopen the
investigation into their daughter’s death. The
New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, which oversees the state Medical
Examiner’s Office, did not respond to requests for comment. Valiante
died in July 2015. She was hit by an NJ Transit train traveling 80 mph
near Prague Avenue in Galloway Township after she left a cousin’s
graduation party, according to court documents. Her death was ruled a
suicide by the Medical Examiner’s Office, but the Valiante family has
since disputed that. They suspect foul play. In
July, Louise Houseman, a former investigator for the Atlantic County
medical examiner, wrote an independent report claiming Valiante likely
did not take her own life. “It
is highly unlikely this very accomplished, 18-year-old female athlete
walked barefoot, alone in the woods, without her cell phone, over stones
and brush, in the dark, along 1.5 miles of isolated railroad tracks, on
a hot summer night, for a total of nearly 4 miles in order to commit
suicide,” Houseman wrote in her report. In
his recent report, Jason said a basic tenet of death-scene
investigations was violated: “Treat the location as a crime scene until
assessed and determined to be otherwise.” He
wrote there was no attempt to make a clear identification of the
deceased through scientific methods other than DNA evidence, although
that was never tested.Jason also wrote that in his opinion, “within
reasonable medical certainty,” Valiante’s cause of death was
undetermined. He wrote there was no attempt made to uncover any other
means of death by the medical examiner. He said that due to toxicology
results, poisoning is highly improbable. “The
story that the victim jumped onto the tracks is suspect. The victim may
have been sleeping or already dead when struck by the train,” Jason
wrote. He
noted he had personally investigated a death that seemed like suicide
by train but turned out to be strangulation. Police investigation
resulted in an arrest and conviction in that case, he said. The
Valiantes first filed a lawsuit in 2016 against the state Attorney
General’s Office, the state Medical Examiner’s Office and its southern
regional branch. The new lawsuit, filed July 10, alleges kidnapping, murder and destruction of evidence. Since
her death, Tiffany Valiante’s family has been pushing for Justice for
Tiffany Valiante, a grass-roots campaign that includes a hotline to call
with any information. Signs are posted around Atlantic County
advertising the hotline, and Facebook and Twitter have accounts for the
group."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic/bias-tainted-tiffany-valiante-death-investigation-forensic-pathologist-said/article_9b94f16d-0702-5dbc-b4b0-10fa0e55b8cb.html
Thanks to Dr. Mike Bowers of the ever informative CSI DDS (Forensics in Focus) blog for bringing this story to our attention at the link below: "More examples of sub-standard death investigations by law enforcement – evidence ignored and bias from the beginning: This case has parents suing a Coroners Office to reopen their daughter’s death investigation. They argue that the actual crime scene was never processed and the circumstances of the young woman’s death raise significant questions regarding the death being suspicious."
