CLIFTON — The 18th of December is the darkest day of the year for Theresa Caron.
Twenty years ago, on that day, her 72-year-old mother, Gertrude Bizzaro, was stabbed to death in the family's Dutch Hill home. Caron's father, Cesaro, and her sister, June, found the body.
For years the family hoped and prayedfor a resolution to the now-cold unsolved case.
Cesaro died without knowing who killed his wife, Caron said. So did her two brothers. But sheand the remaining family members are still hoping and praying the suspect or suspects will be brought to justice.
"You would hope whoever did this would have developed a conscience," Caron said from her home in Vermont. "My family needs to know."
While reconciled that the day may never come, she refuses to give up hope.
Every year she drives back to New Jersey to meet with Clifton detectives, to discuss the cold case. They also talk frequently via phone.
Clifton police detectives say they have not given up, and won't give up, looking for the killer.
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The day of the killing
Police said that after Cesaro and June left the family's Sisco Place home that midweek morning, a burglar most likely broke in and was surprised to find Gertrude still home. They believe there was an altercation and, in thestruggle that ensued, she was killed.
So far, after years of periodic stops and starts and various suspects, the city detectives have yet to get anyone solidly in their sights.
That doesn't mean they have put the case on the shelf, said DetectiveRobert Bracken, who is the latest in a series of detectives to work the case.
"You never put them away," Bracken said. "It's all about perseverance and not forgetting about the victim or the family."
New hope
Bracken asked for and received the department's approvalto spend $10,000 to have aprivate lab inFlorida conduct a new series of DNA tests.
"Every year that goes by brings new technology and new hope," Bracken said.
While DNA testing has been around for more than 30 years, John Jay College of Criminal JusticeProfessor Angelique Corthals said, a new breakthrough in the science took place in the 1990s.
The development of polymerase chain reaction allows labs to duplicate sequences of DNA.Previously, the process of looking for genetic sequences in the sample destroyed it, Corthals said.
"We can recover DNA from a 20,000-year-old man," she said. "We can do this."
It can take time, though.
"It's not like on TV," she said.
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Corthals said protocols have to be followed to make sure the samples are not contaminated and they have the right DNA.
From the sample, experts can establish a DNA fingerprint, sequences unique to a perpetrator and his or her family members.
With the popularity of genetic firms like 23andMe, genetic databases exist where authorities can check potential matches. It doesn't even have to be the suspect, because typically families share unique sequences.
If the DNA sample thatwas found in the Bizzaro house matches one in the databases, policecan request a warrant for further information. The technology opens up new avenues to pursue.
To get this far takes a huge amount of legwork, said fellow John Jay CollegeProfessor JoeGiacalone, who worked cold cases for New York City's Police Department,but can providea pathway for the investigation to move forward.
"These are the kind of resources I wish I had when I was running cold cases," he said.
Still, it can takesixmonths to a year to go through the evidence provided to the lab and find genetic material that shouldn't be at the crime scene.
20-year investigation
"It's a matter of exclusion," Bracken said. While family members can be suspects,finding a stranger's DNA can lead to promising leads on suspects or tie old ones to the crime scene.
“There were suspects that we felt pretty sure were guilty, but we never had enough to charge them,” retired police Capt.Robert Rowan told NorthJersey.com in 2016.
A law enforcement source who spent years investigating the case also told NorthJersey.com that among the prime suspects were a group of teenagers heavily involved in drug use. The teenswere committing burglaries in the area of theBizzarohome around the time Gertrude was killed, the source said.
They were apprehended while committing a burglary not far from theBizzaro residence, thesource said in 2016, "and they remain strong suspects tothis day."
Another polarizing suspect isa convicted burglar and peeping Tom who occasionally lived with relatives onSiscoPlace.
Since that fateful December morning, city detectives haveinterviewed more than 200 potential suspects and witnesses. The FBI, the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office, the Passaic County sheriff's CSI unit andthe Paterson and Passaic police departments assisted in the investigation.
The case sent detectives up and down the East Coast, with tripsto Florida and Boston.
Bracken said it's important to keep the killing in people's minds in the hope that one kernel of information will be brought to light that breaks the case.
Caron has resigned herself to the fact that they may never know, and that's OK.
"IfI gave in all to all the dark emotions, I wouldn't be doing service to my mom's memory," Caron said.
Anyone with information about the homicide may callthe Clifton Detective Bureau at 973-470-5908 or the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office at 973-881-4800.
Matt fa*gan is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email:fa*gan@northjersey.com
Twitter:@fa*gan_nj
