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Lawsuit alleges Mays Landing teen's 2015 death by train was hate-crime murder

  • Courts

A lawsuit filed under the Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights looks to finally reopen the investigation into the death of a Mays Landing teen a decade ago, citing newly discovered hate-filled texts and several experts who are convinced this was a homicide.

Tiffany Valiante's family and a growing number of supporters have long insisted she did not throw herself in front of a New Jersey Transit train headed to Atlantic City at about 11:40 p.m. July 12, 2015, in Galloway Township.

Instead, there is evidence that the scene may have been staged, according to information presented in a lawsuit filed Thursday. 

Stephen and Dianne Valiante have pushed for years to change their 18-year-old daughter’s manner of death to undetermined in an effort to reopen the investigation, aided by a group of volunteers that include attorney Paul D’Amato and his team, who have worked pro bono.

A lawsuit filed Thursday pushes further, alleging New Jersey Transit, the state Medical Examiner's Office and other entities violated the state's Crime Victims' Bill of Rights by not properly investigating the incident and quickly labeling it a suicide.

It claims a possible hate crime, sparked by Tiffany Valiante coming out as a lesbian six months before her death. 

The possibility of hate crime was never explored, the lawsuit alleges. There also was no investigation into possible sexual assault. No rape kit.

There are three rules for investigating deaths, forensic pathologist Dr. Wayne Ross explained Friday during a news conference at D'Amato's law office in Egg Harbor Township.

"Rule number one, rule out homicide," he said holding up a finger. "Rule number two, rule out homicide. I guess you can probably guess rule number three, rule out homicide.

"Those are the three rules. They never deviate. They never change," Ross added.

He later told BreakingAC the lack of investigation was "kind of bizarre."

"Why didn't they do a more complete job?" he asked.

The nurse practitioner who was called to the scene to pronounce Tiffany dead agrees.

Michelle Amendolia recalled how all of the teen's limbs were cut from her body, almost as if amputated. 

This was the first pedestrian train death aftermath Amendolia had seen. She since has been to about five, and now has a different perspective.

“If I were called to the scene today, I would tell law enforcement not to rush and pursue this as a homicide and instead as a crime," she said.

She noted that the other cases had the bodies still intact. The injuries were not consistent with what was at the Tiffany Valiante scene.

Then, there is the new digital evidence, extracted by a digital forensics firm.

“I f---ing hate your guts you’re dead to me,” one female friend of Tiffany’s texted less than two months before her death, according to transcripts in the filing. “You’re the biggest piece of sh— I have ever met in my life and you’re never going to have anyone…”

“Our comparative analysis of past and present data downloads of Tiffany’s digital devices, expressly points to Tiffany as a target of ridicule, harassment and threats,” said Jason Silva, managing partner of the digital forensics firm.

A string of texts from another “friend” says: “What’s your problem with me? Think I’m scum? I’ll show you scum sweeting don’t you worry.”

It ends with, “Seeya dyke.”

“Because there was a rush to judgment by investigators in concluding in less than 12 hours that Tiffany died by suicide, an appropriate criminal suspicious death investigation was never conducted,” the lawsuit claims states.

The nine-count suit includes two counts of violating the New Jersey Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights, which is believed to be the first such filing of its kind.

It alleges Valiante was kidnapped, possibly at gunpoint, by unknown attackers, a scenario set out by a Wawa manager who talked about what he was told by three males in an interview with investigators Nov. 7, 2016.

A redacted transcript is attached to the court filing.

There also is the question of how she disappeared so quickly.

The Valiantes’ deer camera shows Tiffany walking down the driveway at 9:28 p.m. But when her parents came to that same area a minute later — per the timestamp on included screenshots — they could not find her.

    The Valiantes' deer camera shows just one minute between when Tiffany was walking and her parents came out to see no sign of her.
 
 

“The Plaintiffs will demonstrate at trial that Tiffany Valiante did not take her life, but that she was the victim of a conspiracy to inflict bodily harm, violently abducted the night of July 12, 2015, and subsequently murdered by (still unknown) Defendants while attempting to flee her imprisonment,” the lawsuit states.

The questions began the moment the suicide determination was made.

Tiffany Valiante was at a family party that night, talking excitedly about attending college on a volleyball scholarship, those there have said. There was even a planned Great Adventure trip the next morning. 

She was terrified of the dark, so those who knew her insist she never would have walked four miles in the near pitch-black night.

Her ever-present phone was found discarded close to her home. Her shoes were not near the body, yet her feet did not show evidence of having walked the rocky path a K-9 tracked. The pants she was wearing have never been found.

The myriad of alleged issues with the investigation and quick suicide determination are listed in the lawsuit, which also includes questions about how evidence was not properly collected or logged.

Tiffany's parents, sisters and her beloved dog, Tucker, attended the news conference Friday. Dianne Valiante thanked those gathered for getting the story out, and for the support of those who have pushed for answers.

"She'd be 28 years old today, a college graduate, a caring member of the community," she said. "Probably a member of law enforcement herself or in the military. These were careers that she dreamed of.

"We love her and miss her every single second of the day," the grieving mom added.

The lawsuit includes analyses by several expert who have all donated their time and knowledge to get answers.

Ross, the forensic pathologist, was brought onboard after his daughter saw the 2022 “Unsolved Mysteries” episode on the case titled, “Mystery at Mile Marker 45.”

"Dad, you've got to help these people," she told him.

He now is firmly convinced this was a homicide, as are others in his field he said he showed the evidence without offering them his opinion.

There also is a former South Jersey-based FBI special agent.

An independent forensic pathology report a former Atlantic County chief medical examiner authored in February 2018 said “a basic tenet of death scene investigation was violated: Treat the location as a crime scene until assessed and determined to be otherwise.”

“The victim may have been … already dead when struck by the train,” Donald Jason wrote in his report, according to the court filing. “I have personally investigated a death which turned out to be a murder by strangulation in which the victim’s body was placed with her neck on a railroad track, her body below the neck outside the tracks.”

H. Louise Houseman, a retired senior Atlantic County medical investigator said that “death by train is an extremely unusual method of suicide to be contemplated by anyone, especially a female teenager with no history of emotional instability.”

FULL NEWS CONFERENCE

 


author

Lynda Cohen

BreakingAC founder who previously worked in newspapers for more than two decades. She is an NJPA award-winner and was a Stories of Atlantic City fellow.

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Monday, July 28, 2025
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