Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Two Crimes from New Jersey in Netflix's 'Unsolved Mysteries' - What truly Happened?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: At eleven p m. On September twenty four, nineteen seventy seven,
- 0:05Thomas Cockotylow commenced his duties as a campus police officer
- 0:09at Trenton State College now known as the College of
- 0:13New Jersey, located in Ewing. While conducting his patrol around
- 0:18the campus, Cockotilo observed a bicycle secured to the railing
- 0:22outside Kendall Hall, which accommodates the main stage theatre. Given
- 0:27that the semester was still a few days away from commencing,
- 0:30Cockotilo contacted the dispatcher to inquire if anyone was expected
- 0:35to be present in the building that evening. Upon receiving
- 0:39confirmation that no one was scheduled to be there, he
- 0:42proceeded inside to conduct an investigation, noting that the theatre was
- 0:47locked and that he had to unlock it to gain entry.
- 0:52Upon entering the main stage, Cocotilo initially perceived what appeared
- 0:57to be an individual resting on the stage, leading him
- 1:01to question whether it was a person or merely a prop.
- 1:05As he approached the figure, he noticed a significant amount
- 1:09of blood and quickly discerned that it was indeed a person.
- 1:14The only clue indicating the individual was female, was an
- 1:17earring lying on the floor surrounded by a pool of blood.
- 1:22At that moment, every ewing police officer on duty that
- 1:26night arrived on the stage. Cocatajelo recounted in the Netflix documentary,
- 1:32The individual, identified as Sigrid Stephenson, a twenty five year
- 1:37old student at Trenton State College pursuing a master's degree
- 1:41in music and education, was recognized through her driver's license.
- 1:46A family friend featured in the docuseries described Stevenson as
- 1:51a piano prodigy. At approximately one a m. That night,
- 1:56doctor Rafat Ahmad, who served as the deputy medical exams,
- 2:00arrived at the scene. She informed Netflix's producers that the
- 2:05incident was one of the most gruesome murders she had encountered.
- 2:10During the autopsy conducted the following morning, investigators discovered lacerations
- 2:16on the back of Stevenson's head and the front of
- 2:18her face, extensive bruising across her body, and signs of
- 2:23sexual assault. Additionally, there were markings on her wrists suggesting
- 2:28she had been restrained. Doctor Ahmad concluded that the cause
- 2:32of death was massive cranial cerebral trauma to the head,
- 2:36indicating that Stevenson had likely been struck with a blunt object.
- 2:41Although her body was discovered at eleven thirty pm that night,
- 2:46doctor Ahmad estimated the time of death to be between
- 2:49seven point thirty and ten pm that evening. Stevenson had
- 2:53returned to campus on September second after a trip. Upon
- 2:57her arrival, she found herself without a commodation as her
- 3:01intended hosts were on vacation. Consequently, she opted to stay
- 3:06in Kendall Hall for a few days. The last confirmed
- 3:10sighting of Stevenson occurred around eleven thirty p m. On
- 3:14September third, after she attended a play in the black
- 3:18Box Theater, also located in Kendall Hall. Witnesses noted that
- 3:24she appeared to be in good spirits after the first act,
- 3:27but one cast member observed that she seemed upset after
- 3:31the second act, mentioning a disagreement with a man. Less
- 3:36than twenty four hours after the play, Stephenson was murdered.
- 3:41The Netflix docuseriies revealed that the crime scene yielded no
- 3:44finger prints or footprints, and there were no blood smears.
- 3:48The murder weapon was never recovered. Mystery at milemarker forty
- 3:55five on the evening of July twelfth, twenty fifteen, Tiffany Valiante,
- 4:01an eighteen year old resident of May's Landing, attended her
- 4:04cousin's graduation party with her parents, located directly across the
- 4:08street from their home. At approximately nine to fifteen pm,
- 4:12Valiante departed from the gathering, prompting her mother, Diane Valiante,
- 4:17to receive a phone call from one of Tiffany's friends,
- 4:20who requested that she come over to their house. Diane,
- 4:23accompanied by Tiffany's father, Stephen, proceeded to the residence, where
- 4:28they encountered Tiffany's friend, alleging that she had misused her
- 4:31credit card. Initially, Valianti denied the accusation, However, she later
- 4:38confessed to the act after her friend had departed. Diane
- 4:42then entered the house to retrieve Stephen, and upon their
- 4:46return outside, they discovered that Valiante was missing. They promptly
- 4:51initiated a search for her, soon locating her phone abandoned
- 4:55in the grass a short distance away. According to an
- 4:59article for from Screen Rant, Netflix overlooked several significant aspects
- 5:04regarding a potentially missing murder weapon. The involvement of a
- 5:09K nine unit that attempted to trace Valiante's path, and
- 5:13additional information concerning the Valiante family. Furthermore, screen Rant reports
- 5:20that although the case cannot be reopened without new evidence
- 5:24being submitted to the prosecutor's office, Demato has been actively
- 5:28generating new leads since the release of the Unsolved Mysteries episode.
- 5:34To view the complete episode related to this case, please
- 5:38refer to the first episode of volume three of Unsolved
- 5:42Mysteries available on Netflix, titled Mystery at Mile marker forty five.
- 5:49As stated in the Netflix episode, individuals with information regarding
- 5:54this case are encouraged to reach out to the law
- 5:56offices of Paul Demato at one six h nine nine
- 6:00nine two six three three hundred, or submit o Shichi