Post by Joanna on Oct 9, 2015 0:03:06 GMT -5
2007 Murder of Mother, Daughter Unsolved
In the middle of the holiday season at a popular shopping mall in a high-traffic area, surrounded by restaurants and other bustling businesses, a mother and daughter are brutally murdered.
For many, the memory of this crime is still very much alive, particularly because the murders remain unsolved. “They are a notable sad point in our community history and it still strikes fear in my heart,” said Susan Gillis, curator of the Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum. “When I visit the Town Center Mall, I always think about it.”
Almost eight years ago on December 12, 2007, Nancy Bochicchio, 47, and her 7-year-old daughter, Joey Bochicchio-Hauser (pictured above), were found dead in the family’s Chrysler Aspen SUV, which had been left idling in the Town Center of Boca Raton mall parking lot. Investigators said the pair had been bound with plastic ties and handcuffs and at least one of the victims was wearing blacked-out swim goggles. Before they were killed, detectives said their abductor took them to an ATM and forced Nancy to take out $500 cash.
On Tuesday, October 6, in an effort to generate new leads, Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander and FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Michael D’Alonzo held a news conference to announce the $350,000 reward for information – city money offered two days after the slayings – had been raised by a $50,000 contribution from the FBI. “I think it’s important to have a sizable reward to demonstrate how committed we are to getting this case solved,” Alexander said.
The case is haunting, said Steven Abrams, Boca Raton mayor at the time, “because of the nature of it, the holiday season, and the location, the largest mall in the area. “It was a huge disappointment that the case was not solved while I was in office,” said Abrams, now a Palm Beach County commissioner. “It remains the biggest disappointment of my tenure that we couldn't solve this case. It is very personal to me.”
The failure to make an arrest in the double homicide also plagues Alexander, who had become the city’s top cop 18 months earlier. “Any circumstance where mother and daughter are involved gets personal quickly and touches your heart,” Alexander said. “There are emotions involved. And added urgency.” Yet, despite following up on some 2,000 leads and interviewing dozens of people in and outside Florida, police may be no closer to cracking the case than they were in 2007.
Two days after announcing the increased reward, Alexander said Thursday, “We have had a few leads our investigators are pursuing, one in particular that has some promise. But after 2,000 leads, you don’t get too excited.” Alexander also said detectives have reason to think the killer or killers bought the plastic ties and duct tape used to bind the two in their SUV at a “major retailer” in Miami-Dade County. He did not say in which store the items were purchased or why they think the items came from a specific store. He added that police have had this information since 2010.
Investigators also believe the murders of Nancy and Joey Bochicchio are connected to an August 2007 carjacking at the Town Center Mall. In that incident, a woman reported she and her 2-year-old son were bound in a similar fashion and forced to withdraw cash from an ATM. They survived and information provided by the woman led to a sketch of a potential suspect, described as a white man between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot-2 in his 20s when the crimes were committed. These two cases are “not tied together, forensically speaking,” Alexander said during the news conference. “But we believe that those two cases are related.” In the wake of the Bochicchio killings, police were criticized for issuing just a one-paragraph news release about the earlier August incident. The release said detectives were investigating an “alleged armed robbery that was reported to have occurred” at the mall.
JoAnn Bruno, Bochicchio’s sister, called the failure of police to better publicize the earlier incident “a big mistake. Bruno added, “If it had been more public, I know it would have brought more awareness. She might not have taken Joey to the mall.”
Alexander said that criteria for releasing information about reported crimes has changed since then. “As was commonplace at the time, we used to put out information that we could confirm,” he said. “Our approach [now] is much more aggressive, less responsive and reactive. On social media platforms, you probably would have seen more information come forward.”
A special task force formed between Boca Raton police and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office disbanded in 2009. At that time, investigators said they found no connection between the Bochicchio murders and another highly publicized homicide, the March 2007 killing of Randi Gorenberg, 52, last seen alive as she drove away from the Town Center Mall in her black Mercedes. Gorenberg’s body was found five miles away next to a parking lot behind the South County Civic Center on Jog Road near Delray Beach. She had been shot in the head, Palm Beach Sheriff’s investigators said. That case also remains unsolved.
Bruno, who lives in Boca Raton, said she is grateful for the resolve of the Boca Raton police and FBI to keep hunting for the killer of her sister and niece. “It gives me hope that they are not giving up,” she added. But only one development will ease her pain: an arrest and conviction. “I promised at my sister’s coffin that before we meet in heaven, he would be caught and pay for what he did. I keep praying for it, and if you don’t give up, I believe God hears you eventually.”
Sources: Mike Clary, The Sun-Sentinel, October 3, 2015, and Carlos Frias, The Palm Beach Post, March 31, 2012..
