Up next, a
beautiful young woman is found
dead under a bridge.
Did she jump from that
bridge, or did somebody push her
And police learn
she had a secret life.
She was dancing under the
name Roxanne, and they were
calling her "foxy roxy."
Police find a
surveillance image of a truck
near the bridge on the night she
disappeared.
You can see an apparent body
in the back of the pickup truck.
But who is driving
the truck, and what is the
motive?
There was something more
going on than just a woman
leaping from a bridge for no
apparent reason.
It was early on a
Saturday morning, underneath a
bridge in burlington township,
New Jersey, when an atv rider
found the body of a young woman.
He assumed she'd taken her own
life.
We just see a young girl.
She looks like she's about 20 to
She had no I.D. On her.
The damage to her body was
consistent with a drop of about
Insect activity
indicated she'd been dead
several days.
But who was this woman?
Police released a description to
the media.
Her manager from work called
in, an ex-boyfriend called in
saying that they recognized the
description of the jewelry that
she was wearing.
From the victim's
butterfly pendant, she was
identified as 21-year-old
Rachel siani.
I kept telling myself that it
wasn't true.
And I told myself that all the
way up until her funeral, until
I actually went up and looked at
her.
Nancy knew
something about her cousin
Rachel siani that few other
people knew.
Rachel was a college student by
day... And an exotic dancer by
night.
She was only doing it just to
pay her way through college, and
the way she described it to me
was that she was dancing in an
extremely skimpy bikini.
Rachel worked at a
place called divas international
gentlemen's club across the
bridge in Pennsylvania, just
found.
Her stage name was Roxanne.
Divas is your... your typical
gentlemen's club, where guys go
in... mostly guys... and, you
know, sit down and have some
drinks and watch the girls.
Rachel's friends
and relatives could not believe
she committed su1c1de.
They said she exhibited none of
the typical signs of depression.
Instead, she was focused on a
career.
She was studying psychology
because she said she really
wanted to focus on that and help
people.
And Rachel had a
good relationship with her
family, despite some
disagreements about her
employment.
Her father absolutely did not
approve of it.
They obviously loved her very
much as a daughter.
But I think that they had
resolved themselves that Rachel
had to find her own way through
life and figure out what was
gonna be best for Rachel.
But was this a su1c1de?
Evidence on the bridge revealed
a disturbing clue.
There were some fibers that
were consistent with the sweater
that she had on, but there was
also some bloodstains on the
outside wall of the bridge.
If the blood on the
bridge was Rachel's, then this
might have been m*rder.
In a small town on
the outskirts of Philadelphia, a
young exotic dancer found dead
beneath the bridge was
front-page news.
If she worked at an ice-cream
stand, it wouldn't have said,
"ice-cream girl," you know,
"m*rder*d."
It was unsettling because
everything was "exotic dancer
m*rder*d" or "stripper thrown
off bridge."
It was never her name or that
she was a bucks county community
college student.
Since Rachel was
found at the bottom of the
bridge without shoes, wearing
clean socks... Investigators
suspected she had been carried
to the bridge and thrown over
the side.
They were very clean.
Up on top of the bridge, there
were no shoes.
There was no car.
There was a lot of road debris
and other dirt that would've
become embedded in her socks if
she was walking around up there.
Fibers from her
sweater wedged in the concrete
of the bridge also made it clear
she didn't jump.
Her body scraped along the side
of the bridge.
DNA testing on blood found near
those fibers confirmed it was
Rachel's blood and that she was
bleeding before she hit the
ground.
So, the police had to work
backwards.
They had to find out, how did
that blood and how did that
fiber get on the Pennsylvania
turnpike bridge rail?
There were no marks
on Rachel's neck, so
investigators didn't believe a
ligature or even the k*ller's
hands were used to strangle her.
If it's a large surface, like
a forearm, pressing against the
neck or a large just flat of the
hand pressing against the neck,
you don't get bruising.
Significant
internal bleeding told medical
examiners Rachel was still alive
when she was thrown from the
bridge.
The victim had blood spatters
on the side of her face, and it
wasn't consistent with a fall
from the bridge.
Two broken
fingernails made it clear she
tried to defend herself.
The cause of death was blunt
force trauma, a skull fracture.
The fracture extends from one
ear canal to the other ear
canal.
Rachel's car, a
battered old Lincoln, was in the
parking lot of divas, the
gentlemen's club where she
worked.
There was food and money
strewn about in the car, which
led us to believe that her
demise was not a result of a
robbery.
Fellow dancers told
police that a former cook,
been bothering her.
He seemed to have somewhat of
a fixation or obsession towards
Rachel.
He actually told people that
Rachel was his girlfriend.
Wasn't true, but he told people
that.
In fact, Jason had
been fired just a month earlier,
and when police found out why,
they knew they had a solid
suspect.
He was infatuated with her,
and he was subsequently
terminated because of his
infatuation with Rachel siani.
When questioned by
police, Jason denied any
involvement in Rachel's m*rder.
He was believable, but we
still couldn't rule him out.
We always have to keep that
individual in mind.
He can be a good actor.
Then homicide
investigators got a break.
On the last night Rachel worked
at divas, she was in the parking
lot talking with a friend after
the club closed, and a man,
obviously drunk, started banging
on the door of the club.
A local police officer witnessed
the incident.
The policeman offered to help.
One of the owners or managers
came out, said that it was okay.
They knew Jack.
He was a regular customer.
"Jack" was
John denofa, a 35-year-old
businessman who had been in the
club earlier that night.
According to divas' manager,
Rachel offered to walk denofa to
the motel located right next
door to the club.
Maybe she thought he had
had too much to drink and she
wanted to take care of him, help
him, perhaps, get to his room.
Her friend had actually asked
Rachel if she was okay, and
Rachel indicated to her, "no,
it's just Jack.
I'm fine.
I'm okay."
Motel records
indicate denofa checked into
room 223.
The hotel clerk remembered that
Rachel helped denofa up to his
room, but he didn't recall
seeing her leave.
Denofa contradicted that.
He claimed Rachel left and that
he went up to his room alone.
He said that he was with her,
and she just went her way and he
went his way, and that was it.
He said he had absolutely
nothing to do with her demise
whatsoever.
But to
investigators, something just
didn't seem right.
I didn't like the guy.
The prime suspect
in Rachel siani's m*rder was the
last known person to see her
alive, Jack denofa.
He was married with no children
and owned a sign company.
Employees say, like clockwork,
denofa visited divas every
Tuesday night.
Rachel was his favorite dancer.
She had mentioned Jack, and
she said that, you know, she
wouldn't even have to work that
night if she didn't want to
because he would just give her
money to sit there and talk to
him.
And she said that he seemed like
a lonely guy and that he was
basically paying for her
friendship.
We never discovered any
evidence of any kind of sexual
relationships.
We asked the girls that, and we
have no evidence at all that
Rachel ever engaged in any kind
of activity like that with him
or anyone else, for that matter.
Jack had a previous
drunk-driving arrest, so it
wasn't unusual for him to stay
at the motel connected to the
dance club.
He would rent a motel room
himself, and if he was too drunk
to drive, sometimes divas'
management would comp him a
room.
The weird thing about that was
his wife was cool with it, and
she would actually drive him to
divas and drop him off.
Jack denofa had no
criminal past and was
well-liked.
If you could pick your
neighbors, you'd pick
Jack denofa, because there
wasn't anything he wouldn't do
for you.
He came from a good family, was
a workaholic, Ace pool player,
back-slapping guy, you know,
chairman of his high-school
alumni association... great guy.
On the night of
Rachel's m*rder, witnesses saw
Rachel accompany an inebriated
denofa to the motel next door to
the club.
Jack denofa didn't deny that.
He simply said she left without
going to his room.
We knew Jack denofa was in
there, but we wanted to find
out, we wanted to place Rachel
in that room.
Four days had
passed since denofa stayed in
the motel room, and it had been
cleaned repeatedly.
But analysts got a break.
On the outside windowsill, they
found white fibers, and there
was a tiny spot of blood in the
shower stall.
Andrew nardelli compared those
fibers to fibers from Rachel's
sweater.
One of the main types of
characteristics that we would
look for, first off, would be
color.
And a number of the fibers from
the window were a different
color than the types of fibers
that were from the sweater.
Though
superficially similar, the
fibers did not match.
Investigators now compared the
blood sample from the shower
stall to Rachel's DNA and got
another setback.
With the swab from the shower
stall, there was no DNA
detected.
I ran the sample twice.
I tried to concentrate the
sample.
However, it was a small, very
weak blood swab, so no DNA was
detected from that swab.
On denofa's hotel
registration, he said he was
driving a 1996 red dodge pickup
truck that was parked in the
hotel parking lot.
If he did cross the bridge that
night, surveillance cameras
would show it.
They show clearly a 1996 red
dodge ram pickup truck with a
motionless body in the open bed
with clothes similar to
Rachel siani's going through the
tollbooth at 13 minutes after
the truck returned with nothing
in the back.
What the tapes don't show
clearly, anyway, is who's behind
the wheel of that truck.
The license plate
was impossible to read, but
police now had probable cause to
search denofa's truck.
They discovered it had been
thoroughly cleaned.
We thought we possibly had
lost any trace evidence of
Rachel being in that truck.
The first search
didn't turn up any fibers,
fingerprints, or blood from
Rachel, but part of the truck
might have withstood multiple
washings... a plastic bed liner
in the same area where this
surveillance image showed what
looked like Rachel's body.
What had happened was the
black bed liner was not
connected properly to the bed.
When the bed liner
was removed, analysts found what
looked like blood.
DNA showed it was
Rachel siani's.
I couldn't wait to hear how
he would ever try to explain
that Rachel siani's blood was in
the back of his pickup truck.
When questioned by
police, denofa had an incredible
explanation.
He said someone else must have
driven his truck.
What am I missing here?
Am I the dumbest prosecutor on
earth that this guy really
thinks he can win this thing?
This is the last
known picture of Rachel siani,
taken by a girlfriend just hours
before her m*rder.
For some crazy reason, she
had a camera in the car.
I guess this girl... young girls
will do... she pulled out the
camera and snapped a picture of
her, right opposite her in the
car.
Surveillance
photographs showed what appeared
to be Rachel's body in
Jack denofa's red pickup truck
as he drove over the bridge into
New Jersey on the night of the
m*rder.
According to friends, Rachel was
denofa's favorite dancer at
divas gentlemen's club.
Rachel knew him pretty well,
and she told people that she
thought he was a loser.
A sucker is what she called him.
He would give her $100, $200,
sometimes $300 just for sitting
next to him at divas.
And, so, his money did not buy
her heart, but it did buy her
trust, and that would prove
fatal to Rachel.
She thought he was harmless.
On the night of
Rachel's m*rder, denofa stayed
in room 223 of the motel next
door to the club, but
investigators found no forensic
evidence in the room, so they
tracked down the guest who
stayed in the room directly
below denofa's room that night.
There was a man staying in
the room.
About 3:00 A.M., he reported
hearing a noise outside his
room, a thud or a thunk.
Whatever it was, it was odd.
But he did not get up to check
it out.
Their rooms faced
the back of the hotel, where
there was little traffic late at
night.
On the sidewalk below room 223,
investigators noticed a dark
stain.
And we thought that it could
be oil, and we thought that it
was odd that someone was
changing oil or that their oil
leaked up on the sidewalk,
'cause the sidewalk was very
close to the building.
I took a white piece of paper
and rubbed the stain, and when I
looked at it, it was red.
A presumptive test
showed this was human blood.
A DNA test showed it was
Rachel siani's.
Something went south in that
room that night.
So, what happened
to Rachel siani on the night of
her m*rder?
Prosecutors say that Tuesday
night was like any other.
The regulars were at the
gentlemen's club, including
Jack denofa.
Rachel siani was the girl
that Jack denofa always wanted
but couldn't get.
And, you know, if he couldn't
win her affections with his
pudgy good looks and oily charm,
he would ply her with money and
gifts and buy it that way.
But it didn't work.
After the club
closed for the night, while
Rachel and her friend were
talking outside, Jack returned,
obviously drunk, and knocked
wildly on the door.
Rachel offered to walk Jack to
the motel next door, where he
usually stayed after a night out
drinking.
The evidence shows she walked
him to room 223.
Prosecutors believe Jack may
have made some type of advance
towards her, one that was
rejected.
Get off of me!
Enraged, he choked
Rachel until she lost
consciousness.
Denofa may have thought she was
dead and tried to get rid of her
body by putting her on the
awning below his window.
This way, he could lower her
into his truck.
But investigators believe Rachel
slipped from his grasp and fell
to the sidewalk, leaving the
bloodstain later found by
police.
Denofa threw Rachel's body in
the truck, and her blood seeped
underneath the plastic lining of
the truck bed.
He drove over the bridge into
New Jersey, where he was
photographed with what looked
like Rachel's body in the back.
Photographed with what looked
like Rachel's body in the back.
With little traffic on the
bridge that time of night, he
threw Rachel's body over the
side, thinking her death would
be ruled a su1c1de.
But her blood and the fibers
from her sweater were found on
the side of the bridge... proof
she was injured before she was
thrown over, proof that it
wasn't su1c1de.
He was buying her drinks,
tipping her, and obviously
trying to get something out of
her that she didn't want to give
him... whether it was money,
sex, or dr*gs... and when she
didn't give it to him, he got
angry, and he hurt her.
And the total lack of respect
that he had for her, he just
dumps her body like she's
garbage.
We can only assume how it
actually started, but at least
we know what happened after it
started.
In November of
guilty of first-degree m*rder
and given a sentence of 30 years
to life in prison.
It was a bizarre m*rder.
Two crime scenes were
extensively cleaned, but a few
spots of blood survived and
pointed directly to Jack denofa.
They didn't have much to work
with in their defense.
They produced no experts,
because I'm sure they couldn't
find any that could attack the
validity of the DNA or any of
the other evidence.
The evidence and the
eyewitness accounts kept
pointing back to Jack denofa.
It would've been criminal for us
to not look at him.
Jack denofa certainly wasn't
the big shot he pretended to be.
He wanted to be a big shot in
the worst way, you know?
He wanted to own divas when he
walked in there.
And he was just a small, little
man and perhaps the most
incompetent k*ller that
bucks county's ever seen.
13x07 - Last Dance
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Documentary that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness.
Documentary that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness.