New Podcast Reexamines the Mysterious Death of Tiffany Valiante

The death of Tiffany Valiante, the 18-year-old Mays Landing girl who was hit by a NJ Transit train on July 12, 2015, is a story I have been following and writing about since the news of Tiffany's death first became known.

Like many in South Jersey, I was saddened by the news and then increasingly pulled into the mystery of her final night alive.

Then, in 2022, an episode of Unsolved Mysteries: Volume 3 premiered on Netflix with a detailed look at the mysterious death.

So, I was intrigued when PEOPLE published an article this week about a new podcast focused on Tiffany's death.

The eight-part Cruel Summer: The Violent Death of Tiffany Valiante podcast examines newly recovered messages from Tiffany's devices.

I will give you an overview of what new information the podcast discusses and the interview that PEOPLE had with her parents, Stephen and Dianne Valiante.

First, let's review what has already been reported.

What We Have Reported Previously About the Case

This is how Unsolved Mysteries teased the episode on Tiffany Valiante in 2022, titled "Mystery at Mile Marker 45".

When talented 18-year-old volleyball star Tiffany Valiante was hit by a train on a remote, unlit stretch of tracks in Mays Landing, New Jersey, authorities quickly ruled her case a suicide. However, Tiffany’s family and a team of pro bono experts believe she was murdered and her body, left on the tracks, to destroy the evidence.

 

Valiante's death was ruled a suicide at the time after an investigation by NJ Transit Police, but her family never believed Tiffany committed suicide, and they continue to the present day to pursue a murder investigation.

This case is well-remembered locally. Years later, you would still see posters around South Jersey offering a cash reward from her family for information on "the truth" behind Tiffany's death.

From the family's perspective, there certainly are many questions and inconsistencies about the case.

Her parents said Tiffany did not seem depressed before she died. She was excited about having just graduated from Oakcrest High and looked forward to playing volleyball on a college scholarship in the fall.

On the night in question, Valiante would have had to have walked five miles in her bare feet to the spot on the railroad tracks in Galloway Township where she died.

Tiffany suffered from nyctophobia, an extreme fear of the dark, and would not have wanted to be in the dark spot on railroad tracks at night where she died.

Tiffany's cellphone, which the family says she always had with her, was found later discarded outside her home.

In 2020, family attorney Paul D'Amato convinced an Atlantic County Superior Court Judge to reopen discovery into the case, and DNA from the case was tested, something that never happened at the time of Tiffany's death.

Other reporting from the Daily Beast on Tiffany's case brought several interesting bits of information to light.

There were discrepancies in the statement taken from the NJ Transit engineer at the controls of the train that night, a fight between Tiffany and her mother, and subsequent counseling and Tiffany having come out as gay in the months before her death.

New Information From People Article & 8-Part Podcast

Here's the information that was new to me in this week's PEOPLE article.

On July 12, 2015, the night she would later die, Tiffany returned home to shower and change, but at around 9:15 pm, her best friend and the friend’s mother showed up and accused her of using the friend’s debit card without permission.

Taken aback by the accusation, Dianne offered to repay the money, according to the Cruel Summer podcast. But the confrontation left Tiffany visibly upset, and at 9:28 p.m., a surveillance camera captured her walking away from the family’s driveway.

Tiffany's Parents Remain Convinced Death Wasn't Suicide

Eleven years after 18-year-old Tiffany Valiante was struck by an NJ Transit train, her parents remain convinced that she did not take her own life — and that her killer is out there.

“We think everybody’s guilty. We get in a restaurant and we’re looking around,” Dianne says in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE.

“We walk around, day in and day out, wondering who did it. Could it be this person? Could it be that one? You’re always looking over your shoulder.” “Could it be a family member? Could it be friends?” “We question everything.”

The New Text Messages

“My biggest surprise was text messages and stuff on Tiffany’s phone we were not aware of,” Dianne Valiante says. “It was heartbreaking.”

The Cruel Summer podcast has uncovered information Tiffany’s parents say they had never seen before.

A forensic examination of her phones and laptop recovered thousands of text messages, including an exchange in which Tiffany argued with a friend.

The messages offered a new glimpse into her relationships and the challenges she was facing before her death.

“[Tiffany] was very much like me in one sense, very blunt,” Dianne says. “She was the type of kid to say, ‘This is what I think, and you either accept me for what I am, or don’t accept me.’”