At A Glance
Name + age: Tiffany Ida Mae Valiante, 18
Date: Sunday, July 12, 2015
Location: Mays Landing, New Jersey
What happened: On the night of Sunday, July 12, 2015, 18-year-old Tiffany Ida Mae Valiante is struck by New Jersey Transit train No. 4693 just after 11 pm. Tiffany’s case is featured in episode one, season three of Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries, because her death was ruled a suicide, but many people believe she fell victim of foul play. What do you think?
Young, athletic and driven, 18-year-old Tiffany Ida Mae Valiante of Mays Landing, New Jersey, was just weeks past her high school graduation and weeks from starting her freshman year of college, when she tragically lost her life. On the night of Sunday, July 12, 2015, just after 11 pm, Tiffany was struck by New Jersey Transit train No. 4693. The crash happened less than four miles from her childhood home, where she lived with her parents, Dianne and Stephen “Steve” Valiante.
New Jersey Transit Police Department (NJTPD) saw a scene that resembled a suicide and handled it as such. Research suggests consideration was not strongly given to the chance that Tiffany fell victim to foul play. Whether you think that matters in this case or not, depends on what you think about the presenting evidence.
Officers didn’t take proper precaution to maintain evidence. from the crash site. Multiple pieces of evidence were lost or improperly handled and later deemed unusable, and the crash site was never cleaned afterwards. While Tiffany’s paternal uncle and cousin searched for clues, they also picked up a jawbone with teeth and other bits of flesh along the train tracks; an experience that’s heartbreaking to only imagine.
Tiffany’s death came so suddenly and unexpectedly, that many are divided on whether her death was a suicide or homicide. Tiffany’s parents don’t believe their youngest daughter committed suicide and they continue to advocate on her behalf. In Unsolved Mysteries, they describe Tiffany as a happy person, and despite recent challenges, she was excited for her future.
The only other family members who appear in the Unsolved Mysteries episode are Tiffany’s parents, two of Tiffany’s paternal uncles, and one cousin on the paternal side. Neither of her half-sisters, Krystal or Jenny, participated, or any Tiffany’s friends are featured. Through internet sleuthing, I read the general consensus of Tiffany’s death amongst the Mays Landing community is that it was a suicide, which seems to be what many internet sleuths think also.
If you ask me, I’m still not really sure. I keep teetering back and forth. So, for this post, I’ll keep my 2 cents to myself!
This crime takes place here:
Tiffany’s case is featured on Season 3, Episode 1 of Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries, “Mystery at Mile Marker 45.” In my research, I learned that Unsolved Mysteries is notorious for leaving out information to paint a specific picture of “what happened” for viewers. That proves no different in this episode.
In this post, we’ll explore the facts on the following, for the purposes of discussion only:
- How did Tiffany Valiante die?
- Was she killed beforehand?
- Was her body placed on the train tracks by someone else?
- Did she commit suicide?
All the research sources used in this post are cited at the bottom, so you can continue on with your own research.
Sunday, July 12, 2015: Night of the Crash
Tiffany Valiante, 18, spends most of the afternoon on Sunday, July 12, 2015, at her family home. She leaves once to purchase a lemonade from a local Wawa supermarket, where she also works part-time.
At 1:56 pm, Tiffany texts a member of her college volleyball team, to ask about a college orientation scheduled for August 21, 2015. (Tiffany received a scholarship to play collegiate volleyball at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and in a month, she’d be attending as a freshman.)
In late afternoon, Tiffany and her parents attend her cousin’s high school graduation party at her paternal uncle’s home. Her uncle and his family lives in walking distance of the Valiante home, so they walk there together. The party has an atmosphere where guests come and go.
Tiffany, Dianne and Steve stay at the party until around 9 pm. Tiffany is in good spirits and behaves normally. She is seen laughing and playing on a waterslide with children at the party.
Tiffany is wearing white-washed denim shorts and a black t-shirt. Her accessories include a white sweatband-type headband and white Sanuk slip-on sneakers that she purchased recently. Her brown hair sits on her head in a messy bun.
Tiffany talks with her relatives about how she wants to decorate her dorm room. She says that she’s excited to visit Six Flags Great Adventure with friends the following day, and excited to play collegiate volleyball. She also tells them she’s adopting a kitten to keep her mother company while she’s away at school.
9 pm –
Tiffany’s best friend, who is not identified by name in most news sources, calls Dianne’s cell phone. She says Tiffany stole her debit card and used it the day before, without her permission. Dianne confronts Tiffany. Tiffany leaves the party and walks home.
On the call, Tiffany’s friend tells Dianne that she and her mother are driving to the Valiante home. Dianne tells husband Steve and they walk home together.
9:15 pm –
Tiffany’s friend and her mother arrive at the Valiante home. Tiffany adamantly denies the theft allegations and Dianne defends her daughter. Tiffany’s best friend is irritated. The suspected theft is for $86 in merchandise.
9:24 pm –
Dianne tells the friend that Tiffany will reimburse her the costs, if she did, indeed steal the car. The matter is settled for the time being, and Tiffany’s best friend and her mother leave.
Tiffany and Dianne walk over to Tiffany’s car to look for the debit card. Dianne sees Tiffany sneakily slip a card into her pocket and, caught in plain sight, she admits she stole the card. However, she also says that it’s not uncommon for the girls to use each other’s debit cards on occasion. Tiffany explains that she recently had to use her debit card to purchase food and other items for her best friend, because she was intoxicated.
It’s believed that Tiffany used the card to purchase the white Sanuk slip-ons she wore that night.
9:28 pm –
Tiffany and her mother argue. Dianne enters the home to tell Steve about the theft, and Tiffany walks off.
When she disappears, Tiffany’s family thinks she’s playing a joke because of her nyctophobia, or her intense and debilitating fear of the dark. As their worries grow, they start searching the nearby woods.
One final ominous image of Tiffany is captured by a deer camera on the property.
When Dianne and Steve come back outside a minute later, Tiffany is gone.
10:07 pm – 11:08 pm:
Eight people text Tiffany to ask where she is. This includes two texts from the friend she stole from, which read, “Tiff answer me I love you” and “Tiff I love you more than anything please answer me.”
How did all these people know she was missing if she’d only been gone for a half-hour?
Did she sent out alarming texts that caused eight people to text her with worry?
Did they know/believe she wasn’t in good place, mentally?
Had she exhibited similar behaviors before?
– At 10:23 pm and again at 10:42 pm
Data usage on Tiffany’s phone indicates someone was likely using an app.
– At 10:39 pm
Tiffany’s phone receives and answers a call from her best friend. The phone call lasts 24 seconds.
11 pm –
Tiffany’s father finds her cell phone a few feet from the end of their driveway.
11:07 pm –
Tiffany is struck by New Jersey Transit Train No. 4693. This train is not initially scheduled, but is heading to pick up passengers in Atlantic City, whose train was currently disabled.
The only witnesses are student engineer Marvin Olivares, who had about a year of experience, and senior engineer Wayne Daniels. Marvin operates the train, which is traveling 80 mph southbound from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, when Wayne Daniels steps away to discuss the plan for the disabled train with the lead conductor. About 60 passengers and crew are on board.
At exactly 11:07 pm, Tiffany’s body makes contact with the train. She predominately collides with bottom-left of the front of the train. Her body is dragged underneath for a quarter mile until the train comes to a complete stop.
In days to come, Marvin changes his story three times. First, he says Tiffany “darted out” of the woods and onto the tracks when she was hit. Then, he says he didn’t see Tiffany on the tracks until the train was overtop her. Third, he says, under oath, six days after the crash, that he first saw Tiffany about a half-mile away, crouching along the tracks. When the train came, she stood up and dove in front of it. This final version is the one that was accepted by investigators; that Tiffany stood on the tracks.
The changing stories are believed to be due to trauma.
According to the train’s “black box,” which records all activity—the train’s speed, distance traveled, time of day, use of the braking system, light and horn activation, etc.— neither of them rang the horn.
The train itself indicates that Tiffany’s body collided mostly with the bottom-left area.
11:30 pm –
Tiffany’s family members start to search for her and contact police to file a missing person’s report.
On a hunch, Tiffany’s paternal uncle, Michael Valiente, who is also a police officer, drives toward a train crossing when he sees flashing police lights. He approaches the scene. He is later asked to identify a body, which he confirms is Tiffany.
Midnight on July 13, 2015 –
Tiffany is pronounced dead by nurse practitioner Michelle Amendolia, who is on scene.
2:30 am –
Tiffany’s uncle Michael Valiente notifies the family of her death, but they are not informed of it being a suspected suicide. It wouldn’t be until later that morning, when the Valiante’s read an article in the local paper, that they learned suicide was suspected.
Backtrack to Better Understand: Who Was Tiffany Valiante?
Tiffany Ida Mae Valiante was born on March 3, 1997, to Dianne and Stephen Valiante.
Dianne and Stephen meet and begin dating in 1989. They marry soon after. Dianne has two daughters from a previous relationship, Krystal and Jessica. The family of four settle in Mays Landing, New Jersey, a small, rural, unincorporated community home to about 2,000 folks in 2015. At the time of Tiffany’s passing, Dianne worked as an administrative assistant for the local public school district and Steve was a maintenance worker for the State of New Jersey.
Because of its size, Mays Landing—which spans about six square miles—is the type of town where everyone knows each other. Only a 20-minute drive from Atlantic City, folks there grow up close to the beach and visit the coast often. The town has a lot of greenery and dense forestland.
Dianne becomes pregnant with Tiffany eight years after her and Steve get together; the pregnancy is a surprise. Dianne and Stephen didn’t plan on having a child of their own, but when Tiffany arrives, they are ecstatic to welcome their youngest daughter.
As the baby of the family and nearly a decade younger than her older half-sisters, Tiffany’s parents and sisters dote on her. She develops an interest in sports and begins playing softball, later switching to volleyball, which she loves and excels in. In high school, Tiffany plays middle hitter and because of her skill—and also her height, as Tiffany was 6’2″—she is recruited to play collegiate volleyball by five different colleges, and offered scholarships to do so.
During Tiffany’s high school years, her home life and the relationship she shares with her parents, especially her mother, grow strained. Tiffany and Dianne fight often. By 2014, problems escalate to a concerning level. Now a senior at Oakcrest High School, Child Protective Services (CPS) visits Tiffany’s home three times that year and the social worker determines she and Dianne have “trouble communicating.” Counseling is recommended.
Tiffany and Dianne have their first and only therapy session on Nov. 17, 2014. Dianne tells the therapist that menopause is causing her to be short-tempered, especially with Tiffany. She expresses she is having trouble moving on from arguments with her daughter, as of late, due to her own anxiety issues, and will seek additional support if needed. During this same session, Tiffany tells the therapist she is neither depressed nor suicidal.
What prompts the CPS visits is allegedly when a teacher of of Tiffany’s sees her with a large bruise in class. This is unusual because Tiffany, who stood at 6”2’ and weighed 180 to 200 lbs., was also an athlete. As middle hitter on the school’s volleyball team, and also playing for the East Coast Crush Club, an elite girl’s travel volleyball program, injury and bruising wasn’t uncommon—but it must have been bad enough to be grounds for concern. Tiffany suffers the bruise during an argument with her mother; we aren’t sure what about.
Two days after their first therapy visit, Tiffany’s grandfather passes away. After this, Tiffany begins to exhibit behaviors that suggest she is struggling emotionally. She starts skipping class and before Christmas she steals money from her parents’ bank account. She also starts experimenting with marijuana.
In early 2015, about six months before her death, Tiffany comes out to her family as homosexual. Her mother allegedly does not take this news well. She likens Tiffany’s admission to a phase. Tiffany starts dating a young woman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who she met online, but the relationship ends four days before her death. The documentary describes the breakup as “amicable,” but I don’t necessarily believe this to be true. The text messages shown in the documentary suggest Tiffany was dumped. Nonetheless, she begins communicating with a new love interest.
Tiffany chooses to attend Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, which is roughly a 2.5-hour drive from her hometown, in the fall. In just a few weeks’, she would be playing on the school’s volleyball team as middle hitter while studying criminal justice. She hoped to follow in the footsteps of her paternal uncle Michael Valiante and become a police officer.
Tiffany was already assigned a roommate for her upcoming freshman year, and they began communicating that summer.
Personality.
Tiffany does not have a history of mental health issues, though it’s said that she struggled with depression. In the months that preceded her death, she was said to behave different. She expressed to a classmate that she felt distant from her parents and lonely. Tiffany suffered from nyctophobia, which is an extreme fear of the dark.
Tiffany is known to be impulsive and hot-tempered, and she struggled with feelings of not fitting in. Her friends told investigators that she self-harmed before. There was never any mention of suicide and Tiffany’s parents don’t believe these allegations.
Tiffany is also described as funny, caring, upbeat and athletic. She loved her family and had a close relationship with her nieces and nephews.
Treatment of the Crash Site and Evidence
Police locate Tiffany’s body at mile marker 45 in Galloway Township, almost four miles into the dark, dense woods. She is wearing a sports bra and a pair of underwear. She is no longer wearing sneakers, a headband or white-washed denim shorts. She is still wearing a black t-shirt, but it is reduced to a mangled condition.
There is a lot of scrutiny about her shorts, but it’s possible they were destroyed during the accident. The train was traveling 80 mph.
Tiffany’s Sanuk slip-on shoes and headband are recovered by Dianne at a later date about a mile from the Valiante home. The shoes are positioned in a way that suggests Tiffany stepped out of them, one by one. The shoes are located along the tree line where they are visible from the road.
There is also scrutiny concerning the soles of Tiffany’s feet. Because of the intensity of the crash and the way Tiffany’s body collided with the train, her hands and feet were severed. Her feet are said to be void of cuts or scrapes, though they appear muddy in the image shown on Unsolved Mysteries, but this is expected, as dirt surrounds the train tracks.
I didn’t get a close-enough look at the soles of her feet to determine if they looked “clean” or not, but the pathway she is believed to have walked is bumpy and speckled with jagged rocks, broken glass and other sharp debris.
There is a large pool of dark blood at the crash site, which may suggest she was killed and then subsequently placed on the tracks. Due to the speed and nature of a suicide-by-train, it’s more likely for the blood to splatter rather than pool in one location. What do you think about this?
A toxicology report revealed there were no drugs or alcohol in Tiffany’s system. A psychological autopsy, which is an analysis done after a person’s death to understand their prior mental state, was not conducted, and neither was a rape kit.
In the midst of emotions, Tiffany’s family chose to have her body cremated, which they now regret.
A bloodhound is brought in four days later to trace Tiffany’s scent, which it does—from her house and up to the crash site. It takes the bloodhound one hour and 10 minutes to walk the 3.2-mile distance. If Tiffany entered a car, the scent would have been lost. The area also saw two heavy rainstorms in the days that followed, which made containment of evidence more difficult. Nonetheless, the bloodhound never lost her scent.
The police officer who was led by the bloodhound took extra caution to ensure he did not influence the police dog in any way.
Evidence
Tiffany’s Cell Phone.
- Found by Steven at the end of the Valiante driveway
- Believed to be dropped or thrown a few feet from the the end of the driveway
- Suicide theory suggests Tiffany threw the phone in anger, upset that everyone was texting her about the debit card theft
- Homicide theory suggests Tiffany was picked up and the perpetrator threw her phone out the window
- Shows that at 10:29 pm, someone picked up a phone call from Tiffany’s best friend that lasted 24 seconds
- Data usage indicates activity on the phone at 10:23 pm and 10:42 pm, suggesting that someone is using an app
Tiffany’s Black T-shirt.
Due to the NJTP’s poor job of handling evidence, the t-shirt Tiffany is wearing the night of her death is not stored and labeled properly. As a result, it grows mold and is deemed unusable for DNA testing.
Tiffany’s Shoes & Headband.
- Found along the roadway by Dianne about a mile from the Valiante home
- Suicide theory suggests Tiffany stepped out of the shoes, which were white Sanuk slip-ons, because they were new and stiff, and thus caused blisters. Tiffany purchased the shoes the day before, so they weren’t broken in. She may have also left them there to indicate her whereabouts.
- Murder theory suggests Tiffany was picked up out of her shoes, as Dianne suggests in Unsolved Mysteries, and that she held onto a nearby tree (which looked to be rather flimsy?) to prevent the perpetrators from dragging her
- Collected as evidence, but the chain of custody was broken, so the shoes were unusable as evidence
Lost Evidence.
When Dianne found Tiffany’s shoes and headband, she also discovered a light grey Wilkes University sweatshirt and a keychain next to her shoes and headband, which she doesn’t recognize as belonging to her daughter. The keychain was a key tag for a rental car: a Black Mercedes GLK 250 2015 model. Both items were given to investigators, who misplaced the keychain before they could investigate it.
A bloody ax was also found in a nearby makeshift encampment not far from the accident site. It was also collected for evidence and subsequently lost.
A Situation Overheard
The manager of a local Wawa spoke with investigators in November 2016, to say he overheard a group of three teenage boys who worked there, talking about what happened to Tiffany. In their account, they said she was kidnapped and held at gunpoint, forced to strip down to her underwear and then humiliated, after which she was driven to the train tracks by the perpetrators. This manager since received death threats for his report.
The teens allegedly told the manager that after arguing with her friend about the debit card, a call was placed to an unidentified male, who picked up Tiffany in a truck and led her to her death. Tiffany was supposedly picked up in a vehicle. Ultimately, there wasn’t enough evidence to present to a jury.
Status of the Case
None of Tiffany’s friends have come forward to speak about the case publicly, and neither have her two older half-siblings, who also weren’t in the documentary.
Initially, Dianne and Stephen Valiante accepted the ruling of a suicide, because they didn’t know what to do or where to turn. They agreed to have their daughter cremated after her death, which reduced their chances even more of collecting evidence from Tiffany’s body.
Statistically, less than 1% of suicides in the U.S. are committed by way of the rail system.
The Valiante’s took New Jersey Transit to court, as represented by family attorney Paul D’Amato, and in 2017, NJT agreed to open investigative records with the goal to change the cause of death from suicide to “undetermined.” Doing so would permit police to reopen the investigation into Tiffany’s death.
In March 2018, New Jersey State Medical Examiner Andrew Falzon chose to leave the cause of death as suicide, which is what it remains today.
The Valiante family increased their reward from $20,000 to $40,000 for information leading to what happened to Tiffany on the night of Sunday, July 12, 2015.
Interesting Points of Discussion:
It’s important to note that around the time of Tiffany’s deal, here is all that she was dealing with:
- She is 18 years old and still a teenager. She is dealing with the emotions-feelings of this phase of growth, coupled with feelings of overwhelm to begin college and start anew someplace new
- She came out as gay to family and her mother was not fully accepting; she also lived in a small town where it’s typical for community members to know each other’s business and chitchat often
- She was in a relationship that ended days before, and it seemed Tiffany was dumped
- She was caught stealing from a friend right before she died
- She was supposedly depressed and had difficulty fitting in
- She didn’t feel safe to express / communicate herself at home and felt judged
- She was tall for a female, which placed attention on her even if she didn’t want it
It’s Also Important to Consider:
- Tiffany had an intense fear of the dark, and the walk to the train tracks would have required her to navigate in the pitch black darkness, without a phone or flashlight, and without the moon illuminating overhead, for nearly four miles. Even people without a classified fear of the dark wouldn’t do something like this. Doing so would be absurd.
- Tiffany had bruising on her knuckles, though it’s uncertain as to whether it happened before or during the crash
- Tiffany had been gone from her home for one hour (1) and 50 minutes by the time she was struck by the train
- Someone was using Tiffany’s cell phone, and spoke with her best friend, when it was supposedly sitting near the end of the driveway
- No witnesses reported seeing Tiffany walking alongside the road, and she wasn’t caught on surveillance captured by local businesses. Also note here that she lived a small town and was easily spotted because of her height
Resources
- Unsolved Mysteries episode 1, season 3, “Mystery at Mile Marker 45”
- Suspicious death: Tiffany Valiante – Uncovered
- Was high school grad being chased before grisly train death? – The Daily Beast
- Was Tiffany Valiante’s grisly death by train a suicide—or something far more sinister? – All That’s Interesting
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