The Death of Tiffany Valiante

Who was Tiffany?

Tiffany Ida Mae Valiante was born on March 3rd, 1997 in Mays Landing, New Jersey. Often referred to by her friends and loved ones as ‘Tiff’, she was a surprise baby to Stephen and Dianne Valiante. Dianne had two daughters from a previous marriage, Jessica and Krystal, when she met Stephen in 1989. The couple hadn’t planned on having any children, but when Tiffany was born, her mother described it as “heaven”.

Tiffany was a ball of sunshine. She was full of energy and excitement and seemed to always have something funny to say. Tiffany was a standout athlete at Oakcrest High School, playing a year of softball before finding her calling on the volleyball court. At 6’3, Tiffany was a middle hitter, which was typically reserved for the tallest player. Her job was to be the first line of defense against the opposing team, and she was a rockstar. She also played for the East Coast Crush Volleyball Club, a traveling team meant to help prepare her for the possibility of playing college volleyball.

Tiffany graduated from Oakcrest in 2015 with varsity letters and ranked as 8th in the state for the number of volleyball kills she had. She received a volleyball scholarship to play at Mercy College in Dobson, New York and was excited to attend in the fall of 2015. 

In her recruiting profile for colleges, Tiffany wrote the following:

“I started playing volleyball my freshman year of high school. As soon as I touched a ball I knew my life was about to change. Before then I was dedicated to playing softball. In my sophomore year I decided to pursue a dream to play volleyball in college. I cannot see myself not playing it.”

Tiffany’s club volleyball coach, Ali Walker, said that he loved being her coach. 

“She was an excellent volleyball player, but an even better teammate. She worked so hard to get better, which became evident when she received her scholarship. Tiffany lit up the court with her smile and was always the first to encourage everyone on the floor.”

While Tiffany dreamed of representing the US at the Olympics in women’s volleyball, she also looked forward to earning a degree in Criminal Justice. She planned on following in her uncle’s footsteps and going into law enforcement. She even told her family that she also thought about joining the United States Air Force one day.

Tiffany was not the kind of girl who gave up easily. She was passionate and smart, and had a special knack for caring for her niece and nephews. Her cousin, Danielle, recalled that last time she saw Tiffany. It was the night before she died, and Tiffany had come into the restaurant that Danielle worked at to pick up her parents. She and Tiffany watched as their moms danced to the live music at the restaurant, laughing at them and being silly. Having Tiffany as her cousin was just like having a sister. 

One of the best things about Tiffany was that she lived in the moment and tried not to worry about anything. She made the best of every situation and seemed to always have a smile on her face. Tiffany radiated love and happy thoughts, and was so excited to move onto the next chapter in her life in college. She’d already been chatting with current members of the college volleyball team and was set to move in on August 18th. 

The Day Tiffany Died

On Sunday, July 12th, 2015, Tiffany and her family were celebrating her cousin’s graduation at a party across the street from their own home. The party had been going on for several hours, as the crowd steamed clams, played games, and Tiffany, of course, played volleyball with friends. 18-year-old Tiffany was telling neighbors and party goers about how excited she was to leave for college in just over a month. She couldn’t wait to join the volleyball team and make some new friends while getting to do what she loved. She was even making plans with her sisters about going to secretly buy a kitten for Dianne’s birthday surprise the next week.

Around 9:15PM, Tiffany went back across the street to her house. Shortly afterwards, Tiffany’s mom, Dianne, got a call from one of Tiffany’s friends, Jaime. Jaime said that she and her mother were pulling up to the Valiante house and asked if she could come out to speak with them. In the Valiante driveway, Jaime confronted Tiffany in front of both of their mothers, accusing her of using her debit card without her knowing. Dianne later said that Jaime was upset and yelling at Tiffany about the debit card. Tiffany denied the accusation and eventually Jaime and her mother left. 

Tiffany then admitted to her mother that she’d used Jaime’s credit card, but that she and her friends often did that when necessary. She explained that one night recently, she was hanging out with Jaime, who’d been drinking. Tiffany had used Jaime’s card to buy Jaime meals and a few items. The total had come to about $86. Dianne was upset that her daughter had gotten into this situation, and told her that she’d have to tell her dad. Dianne walked inside to get Stephen and walked back outside less than a minute later. Tiffany was gone.

Dianne and Stephen, along with Tiffany’s dog Tucker, walked down their driveway and out to the street. The party was still going on at their neighbor’s house, so cars were parked along the dead end road, but there was no sign of Tiffany. They asked everyone around if they’d seen her, but no one had. She hadn’t returned to the party either. They walked down the street, looking between houses and through the trees. Tiffany was scared of the dark, so they couldn’t imagine that she’d go too far.

Tiffany’s sister was texting everyone she could think, all of Tiffany’s friends, but nobody had seen or heard from her. Dianne and Stephen continued to call Tiffany’s cell phone, texting her, but she didn’t respond. Stephen remembered that he had a trail camera near the driveway, so they checked it, hoping they’d see where Tiffany went. At 9:28, a photo was captured of Tiffany walking down the driveway. She was wearing her jean shorts, a T-shirt, a pair of canvas shoes, and a white headband. Though she was walking straight, her head was turned away from the camera, as though she were looking at something. At 9:29, Dianne, Stephen, and Tucker walked out into the driveway. It seemed as though Tiffany had disappeared in less than a minute.

Someone went to Tiffany’s grandmother’s house, just a ½ mile away, but she wasn’t there. No one had seen Tiffany walking away from the home or down any of the nearby streets. As tall as she was, she wasn’t easy to miss. 

Just after 11PM, as everyone continued calling, texting, and searching for Tiffany, Stephen noticed something flat laying in the grass in front of their home. It was Tiffany’s cell phone, about 5-8 feet from the road. This was when true panic set in. Tiffany was 18 years old; She never let her cell phone out of her sight. Her parents said she even bought a waterproof case for it so she could still use it while in the shower. Tiffany loved her cell phone and wouldn’t leave it behind. Something was wrong. 

Tiffany’s uncle, Michael Valiante, drove around the area, looking down nearby roads and off into wooded areas. Around 12AM, he drove down Pomona Rd, crossing over the railroad tracks. Michael looked down the transit access road that ran parallel to the tracks and saw several flashing blue and red lights. He immediately had a bad feeling.

Michael drove down the access road and got out of his vehicle to speak to the Galloway Township Police officers. One of the officers told him that someone had been hit by the train, possibly a female. The Galloway Police said that they were just helping out, and that the death was in the jurisdiction of the New Jersey Transit Police. Michael asked them if they’d seen Tiffany and described her for them. Officers said they couldn’t be positive, but they thought the person struck by the train was the girl he was describing. They asked Michael if he could identify the body. He walked down the tracks and found a horrific scene. The person who’d been hit and killed by the train was his 18-year-old niece.

Around 2:30AM, now Monday, July 13th, Dianne and Stephen walked out of their house as a police cruiser pulled into their driveway. Michael got out of the vehicle, along with an officer, and told his brother and sister-in-law that their youngest child was dead after being struck by a train. 

Michael, who was on military leave from working with the New Jersey State Patrol, was extremely distraught and unable to elaborate. It was reported that for the next several hours, Dianne and Stephen believed that Tiffany had been in a vehicle that was struck by a train and killed. Several hours later, after seeing social media and the news alert, they found that she’d actually been struck by the train as a pedestrian. 

Suicide or Murder?

Stephen later said that he lost part of his life that day. Tiffany’s family was shocked and absolutely devastated. How the hell had this happened? Before the family could even process that Tiffany was gone, the New Jersey Transit Police had ruled her death a suicide. An article published on July 13th by The Press of Atlantic City said the following:

“Tiffany Valiante, 18, of Mays Landing, was standing on the train tracks near Tilton Road in Galloway Township, but did not move when the train’s engineer sounded the horn and applied emergency brakes, said New Jersey Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder.”

Dianne said that her daughter wasn’t depressed and she wasn’t suicidal. She was happy and making plans for college. She’d already made plans with her future roommate for the fall. Tiffany had plans to play softball on Wednesday and she was supposed to go to Six Flags the next day with friends. Dianne insisted that there was no way that Tiffany would’ve killed herself. 

On July 11th, the day before she died, Tiffany tweeted at 12:14AM, “dude I probably should be but I’m kinda content rn” (right now). While some people who die by suicide don’t show signs of depression or sadness outwardly, it was incredibly difficult for those who knew Tiffany the best to comprehend that she’d been so unhappy that she’d taken her own life. 

The train that had struck Tiffany was New Jersey Transit train 4693. It had left Philadelphia at 9:50PM that evening and was heading east to Atlantic City. There were abou 60 passengers and crew on board when it struck Tiffany at 11:12PM, right by mile marker 45. The impact appeared to be on the lower left side of the train, right near the track. The location where Tiffany was found was about 3.5 miles from her home and well into the dark woods.

There were two engineers on board that night, one Senior Engineer, Wayne Daniels, and an Apprentice Engineer, Marvin Olivares. In an initial statement obtained by police at the scene, Daniels and Oliver’s said that the “approximate location of train when trespasser was first observed” was essentially right on top of Tiffany. They signed a joint statement stating that the Engineer “blew the horn, rang the bell”, as well as “put train into emergency brake application”. Their description of what Tiffany had done was that she’d “dove in front of train” and that they were the only two witnesses. 

The New Jersey Medical Examiner, Daksha Shah, released the autopsy report for Tiffany, which explained the findings. The final pathological diagnosis included 

1. Extensive crushing injuries covering entire body
2. Multiple organs recovered from scene and collected in separate bags
3. Fracture of all extremities
4. Amputation of all extremities

Her cause of death was ruled as multiple traumatic injuries and her manner of death was listed as suicide five days following her death. There were no drugs or alcohol in Tiffany’s system. There was reportedly no attempts to collect DNA off of her remains and no rape kit. 

On July 20th, Tiffany was laid to rest after a service at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Mays Landing. A few days later, her remains were cremated.

The Valiante family was determined to prove that Tiffany hadn’t died by suicide. They wanted to find out what had really happened and who was responsible for her death. They hired an attorney, Paul D’Amato, to help them investigate the strange inconsistencies in Tiffany’s death. When D’Amato first met the family, he recalled feeling sad that after reviewing all of the records, that he’d be forced to tell the family that Tiffany had died by suicide, however he was shocked at what he found.

The Inconsistencies

On July 18th, Senior Engineer Daniels was put under oath to make his sworn statement, which contradicted what he’d told investigators on scene. He actually said that he didn’t see the person approaching the tracks that night because he was turned completely around and talking to the Conductor. He said that he’d heard the Student Engineer blow the horn and put the train’s emergency brakes on, saying that a girl had jumped out in front of them. Daniels said, “So, at the time…of the impact, I didn’t see anything because I was turning around to say something to Bill.”

Student Engineer Olivares gave his sworn statement to police on the 22nd, 10 days after Tiffany’s death. He said that around 11PM, after passing mile marker 44, he saw something off to the left side. He estimated that the figure was about a quarter to a half mile away. Olivares said he couldn’t tell what the figure was initially. He said that he had all of his lights on bright and that he blew his horn to see if it would move.

“As I come closer, approximately a quarter of a mile away—or a little closer that that, I noticed that it was, in fact, a human being in a crouched position in darker clothing…so I blow my horn initially. A really long horn just to get their attention…I was traveling approximately 80 miles an hour, maximum authorized speed…as I’m getting closer, the individual in the black clothing stands up and I immediately recognize that it’s a female…I keep blowing my horn. As I’m approaching closer, the individual stands up, faces towards the track. And as I’m approaching closer, probably within, like, five seconds of passing her, she jumps—she dives in front of the train to the lower portion of the cab car.”

Olivares said that the person was about 15-20 feet to the left of the track wearing very light black clothing. He also added that when the figure was crouched down initially, she was facing away from the track. 

According to the train’s event recorder (black box), the train was indeed traveling 80 mph. The time spanning between the engineer sounding the horn, striking Tiffany, then applying the brakes was just 4.1 seconds. Was that enough time for him to have seen what he described? There was never a reconstruction done of the accident scene, despite the changing stories of the two engineers. It seemed as though quite a bit of weight was placed on the two initial stories from the engineers, leading to the suicide ruling. 

The scene was never roped off to preserve evidence and it didn’t seem to have ever been investigated as an actual crime scene. The area of the hit was about 1 mile into the woods from the closest intersections. There was very little, if any light at all out there, and Tiffany wouldn’t have had her cell phone. Her entire family insisted that Tiffany was terrified of the dark. 

When Tiffany’s remains were recovered, she was wearing a sports bra and black underwear. Remember, when she left her house and was caught on the trail cam that night, she had on a tank top, sports bra, shorts, shoes, and a headband. Her shirt had been found, torn and tattered. Unfortunately, it was stored as evidence in a plastic bag that had been tied with a knot. As you can imagine, this was not the way to store evidence, and the shirt soon became covered in mold and was unable to be used for any testing. Reportedly, several other pieces of evidence collected at the scene were contaminated.

Tiffany’s cousin and uncle went out by the train tracks near mile marker 45 to walk the area, looking for any of Tiffany’s clothing or belongings. They found pieces of her remains scattered around, a bloody glove on the ground, and a large area of blood on one of the wooden railroad ties right by where the impact took place. They also found one of Tiffany’s rubber bracelets she’d been wearing, and they gave it to Dianne. They didn’t find her shorts, headband, or shoes.

On August 3rd, just over two weeks after Tiffany’s death, Dianne was out walking down the roads near her home and where Tiffany was struck when she saw something off the side of the road. Just about 15 feet off of Old Tilton Rd., Dianne found Tiffany’s shoes and her headband. The shoes were laying flat on their bottoms, about a foot apart. Her headband was on the ground about 6 feet away. 

Dianne said that it looked like the items had either been placed there, or that Tiffany had been pulled right out of her shoes. The spot was about 1 and ¾ miles away from where she’d been struck by the train. This would have meant that Tiffany would’ve had to remove her shoes, then continue to walk almost two more miles barefoot, including by the gravel train tracks. Photos of Tiffany’s feet showed some abrasions, but didn’t appear to have been as torn up as one might expect after walking that far without shoes.

Also found nearby was a sweatshirt that didn’t belong to Tiffany, and a laminated car key tag (one that’s usually connected to a rental set of keys). Uncle Michael called the Galloway Township Police, who sent a detective to photograph the area and collect the clothing. Additionally, it was later noted that neither the shoes nor the headband showed any evidence of blood or body matter that might indicate Tiffany had been wearing them when she was struck by the train.

Detective never sent these items out for testing. Five years after Tiffany died, her family paid to have them sent for DNA testing. Unfortunately, like much of the other evidence related to Tiffany, the chain of custody had been broken so many times that the results wouldn’t mean anything. 

More Weird Shit

The Valiantes’ seemed to discover more and more information leading them to more and more questions each day. Why had no one seen Tiffany walking from her driveway and down the street? Why had no witnesses ever been found that had seen a 6’3 girl walking down one of the well-traveled roads that she would’ve likely taken to train tracks? Why was Tiffany’s cell phone left in the Valiantes’ front yard? 

Retired Senior Medical Investigator, H. Louise Houseman was brought in to review and analyze the information and evidence in Tiffany’s case in 2017 after the Valiantes filed a civil suit to overturn the suicide ruling. Houseman, who had been to several thousand crime scenes over her past 20 years as a Medical Investigator, immediately saw red flags, including some of the information we’ve mentioned earlier. 

Krystal, Tiffany’s sister, provided Houseman with some concerns she found regarding the data on Tiffany’s phone:

“There was a call from Jaime Haye (the girl who confronted Tiffany the night of her death about using her debit card) to Tiffany at 10:39PM on July 12th, 2015 that was answered for 24 seconds. When a call is answered, it turns the name of the caller ‘black’ and states ‘incoming or outgoing’ below the name. When a call is missed, it will turn ‘red’ whether the caller missed the call or went to voicemail…it will only say ‘missed call’. My sister’s phone shows Jaime called her and her name was black with it saying incoming call for 24 seconds…Who had my sister Tiffany’s phone and answered it at that time, if my sister did not have her phone with her and was found by my father quite a few feet away from driveway of Tiffany’s home?”

“There was also data usage in Tiffany’s phone that shows someone was on her phone in an app that uses a large amount of data at 10:42PM on July 12th, 2015. There is another time before that at 10:23PM that shows data usage as well, but not as much…How does she use an app around that time and her phone had been found so very close to home if she ‘walked’ four miles to the train tracks?”

Suicide or Murder?

With Tiffany’s death having been ruled a suicide, many tried to put the pieces together that would fit to her having taken her own life. Stories began circulating of Tiffany being depressed and even harming herself in the past. Tiffany’s family said that they knew nothing about her ever self-harming. It was reported that Jessica, Tiffany’s sister, first heard this story from Jaime on the night of Tiffany’s death. Jaime told her that Tiffany cut her wrist in November of the prior year. Strangely enough, Jaime apparently did not mention this when she was interviewed by detectives a month after Tiffany’s death. In Houseman’s report on Tiffany’s death, she noted that Jaime did mention this in her interview:

“Jaime told Detective Acevedo that Tiffany was ‘always sad,’ was stubborn, had a temper when angry, was impulsive, but ‘never talked about suicide.’”

Another friend told the detective that Tiffany had intentionally cut her leg in May and showed it to her. Dianne said that this had to be untrue, as Tiffany had been wearing shorts during that month and she would’ve noticed it. Tiffany had no diagnosed history of depression or suicidal ideations according to her family and her doctor.

Many people pointed to Tiffany having a strained relationship with her mother as a possible motive for her having taken her own life. Dianne admitted that her temper had gotten worse and that she was easily upset, but said it was due to menopausal changes she was going through at the time.

Prior to Tiffany’s death, in 2014, one of her teachers noticed a bruise on Tiffany’s arm. Concerned, the teacher pulled Tiffany aside and asked her about it. She was concerned enough to report the situation to the Department of Youth and Family Services. DYFS investigated the case, visited the home several times, and spoke to Tiffany and the rest of her family members. It was suggested that Tiffany and Dianne attend counseling at nearby Atlanticare Behavioral Health. 

The mother and daughter only attended one counseling session on November 17th, 2014. Notes from the session revealed that Tiffany acknowledged she’d been making some not-so-great choices, including smoking pot with a friend, skipping class after her grandfather died, and taking money from her mom’s bank account. She reportedly even admitted that she was “just being stupid and immature”. 

Dianne admitted that she had punched Tiffany in the arm after an argument. The notes indicated that Dianne and Tiffany felt as though they’d overcome their problems and were able to move forward. Dianne later said that she considered the problems they were having were “normal teenage stuff”. Their case with DYFS was closed on December 17th, 2014 with closing notes saying that Tiffany denied suicidal or homicidal ideations, denied anxiety, and denied depression.

Tiffany had recently come out to her parents as gay in early 2015. Houseman’s report said that he found both parents to seem accepting of Tiffany’s sexuality, though there are unsubstantiated rumors that it wasn’t an easy change for them. Tiffany had recently broken up with a girl from Philadelphia that she’d been dating on the Friday before she died. According to texts on her cell phone, it appeared that the breakup had been amicable. Nothing seemed to indicate that things were hostile. She’d even started talking to another girl online.

The Valiantes’ lawyer, D’Amato, said that he believes people at school may not have been as accepting. He said that some girls in school wanted to “experiment” with Tiffany after she came out as gay. D’Amato believes that might have upset some of her other classmates. A few various classmates of Tiffany’s said that she was feeling distant from her parents recently and that she was a bit sad about life. They described her as impulsive and hot-tempered, but said they’d never heard her talk about suicide. 

Strangely enough, when Houseman began looking into Tiffany’s death, she found that the Valiante family had never been interviewed by anyone from the Medical Examiner’s Office. Detectives didn’t question the family until August 6th, after Dianne called asking why no one had come to talk to them. 

Two of Tiffany’s uncles called police on July 16th after walking around the tracks near mile marker 45 to report a suspicious looking nearby clearing. The police contacted the New Jersey Transit Investigators, who sent a detective to the scene. He spoke to both of the uncles and “processed” the scene. Houseman described the clearing after seeing photographs:

“…in the clearing there is evidence of recent drug activity—possibly a hang-out area. In addition to discarded sofas, lawn furniture, and mattresses, there were small green leafy plants, suggestive of marijuana, in potting containers which showed evidence of active and recent cultivation.”

There was also an axe found in the clearing. The axe reportedly had “red markings” and the Valiantes were hopeful that DNA evidence would show that it was blood, leading to the case being reopened, but the axe was lost in storage before any testing could be conducted. 

Houseman also noted that several hundred feet away from where Tiffany was struck, there was a residential drug treatment facility. Before the detective left, both uncles told him that they didn’t think their niece’s death was a suicide. They were never questioned further about it. The New Jersey Transit Police didn’t investigate homicides or suspicious deaths often, so it seemed possible that they were out of their depth with Tiffany’s death. 

Four days following Tiffany’s death, the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office sent a bloodhound and its handler in hopes of tracking the path Tiffany took before her death, as well as look for clues along the way. The handler asked not to be told exactly where the train had struck her, so his bloodhound could lead the way. The bloodhound led them to the general area of mile marker 45. It was important to note that there had been several heavy rains between Tiffany’s death and the day that the bloodhound tracked her, so it’s unknown if this affected the tracking.

Murder?

A private investigator looking into the case for D’Amato and the Valiantes set up a hotline for people to call with information about her death. A call was received from a local convenience store worker who said he’d overheard three individuals talking about Tiffany’s death in the store. On November 7th, 2016, the worker was interviewed under oath. 

He explained that he’d overheard the three people discussing how Tiffany’s death was a homicide. They said that Tiffany had been picked up by three people that she knew that night, two females and one male, then she was taken near the railroad tracks, forced to strip down to her underwear, threatened and held at gunpoint in order to humiliate her. Detectives brought in all three of the individuals who were reportedly having this conversation to question them, but they all denied knowing or saying anything. 

Many people, including several of Tiffany’s family members, believe that she either got into a car at the end of her driveway, or was forced into a car. It would explain why she seemed to disappear into thin air so quickly, as well as why no one saw her out walking down any of the roads that night. Additionally, the Valiantes house was on a dead end road. It wasn’t a house that someone would just happen upon. It seemed as though someone drove down there with intention.

Prior to Stephen finding Tiffany’s phone in the yard, several of her friends had come over to help search for her. Some theorize that one of these friends could have planted the phone there after leaving Tiffany on the railroad tracks. This could also explain someone answering the mystery 24 second phone call that was answered after Tiffany disappeared, but before Stephen found it.

Tiffany’s case is still closed and listed as a suicide. The Valiantes had a small area built near the train tracks where Tiffany was found. It has a bench set up, along with a small hut that has photos of Tiffany inside. Stephen kept a promise he’d made to Tiffany, and finally built a regulation-size sand volleyball court by their home. Nearby, he placed a concrete plaque that reads, “Planted in loving memory of Tiffany Valiante, ‘rooted in love, forever in our hearts’”. The Valiantes continue to fight for Tiffany’s case to be reopened and be fully investigated.

Please visit and sign the change.org petition to reopen the investigation into Tiffany’s death. There is also a discussion group on Facebook called Justice for Tiffany Valiante. This group has several of Tiffany’s family members in and dives further into theories and evidence.

If you have any information regarding the death of Tiffany Valiante, please contact local authorities. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please reach out to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988.