Bike Path Killer sentenced to 75 years to life

[samanthajane13]

'I should pay for these crimes,' Sanchez tells judgeBy Matt Gryta
Updated: 08/14/07 1:50 PM


Altemio C. Sanchez, the confessed Bike Path Killer, was sentenced today to spend the next 75 years to life in prison for the murders of three local women.

Sanchez told State Supreme Court Justice Christopher J. Burns he knew he deserved "whatever sentence I get."
Burns, vowing to do his part to ensure "that you never see freedom again," denounced the 49-year-old Buffalo factory worker and serial rapist for showing "no remorse whatsoever except that you were caught."

Ann Brown, the older sister of the late Linda Yalem, and Steven Diver, the husband of Joan Diver, the last of his murder victims, asked the judge to impose the maximum prison term.

Sanchez's wife, Kathleen, sat in the crowded courtroom for the sentencing.

Sanchez, dressed in a dark gray suit and white shirt and tie, calmly said he wanted to apologize to his victims' families.

"I should pay for these crimes," Sanchez told the judge.

Sanchez previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing Linda Yalem, Majane Mazur and Joan Diver.

Sanchez also has admitted to prosecutors he committed up to 15 other rapes in Western New York over the past 25 years and possibly others for which he has no specific recollections.

During the nearly hour-long sentencing, attorney Andrew C. LoTempio told the judge his client's criminal conduct cannot be completely explained and he asked the news media to be kind to members of Sanchez's family.

[samanthajane13]

Bike Path Killer’s secrets are likely to remain untold
By Michael Beebe
Updated: 08/13/07 6:54 AM

Altemio Sanchez is likely to take his secrets to prison Tuesday, once he is sentenced to the maximum of 75 years to life for murdering three women over 16 years as the Bike Path Killer.

Police investigators who cracked the case say Sanchez has a story to tell, and they want to hear it.

Sanchez, 49, the friendly guy in his Cheektowaga neighborhood who kept his secret as a serial rapist for nearly three decades, admitted to killing Linda Yalem in 1990, Majane Mazur in 1992 and Joan Diver last September.

He met with Erie County prosecutor, Frank A. Sedita III, earlier this month and admitted raping up to 15 other women. Those were cases to which investigators had linked him through DNA or by a pattern of behavior during his rapes that changed little over the years.

His prison sentence from State Supreme Court Justice Christopher J. Burns will be for the three murders. The rapes will not be prosecuted, barred by the five-year statute of limitations.

Sanchez has done little but answer yes or no to questions about the murders and rapes, and the investigators who tracked him down want to know more, because he has never said:

• Why he raped so many women and why he killed.

• How he outwitted police for so long, sometimes almost taunting them, like the time he participated in the Linda Yalem Run near the same bike path where he killed her nine years earlier.

• Why he did not attack anyone for 12 years before he killed Diver on the Clarence bike path near her home.

• A single word about what he did to Anthony J. Capozzi, letting him sit in prison for nearly 22 years for two rapes that Sanchez committed, starting at least as far back as 1981, as the Delaware Park Rapist.

Sanchez has a right to make a statement before his sentencing Tuesday, but if his past courtroom demeanor is any guide, he is likely to say little.

He looked stunned and dazed, almost drugged, when he appeared for arraignment after his arrest in January. And he sobbed uncontrollably, barely able to speak, when he pleaded guilty before Burns in May.

Investigators from a half-dozen agencies who brought Sanchez to justice think that he owes them a lengthy explanation, if for no other reason than to set the record straight on what he did.

If he is truly remorseful, as his attorney contends, they say Sanchez should want to help them so they can catch others like him before it is too late.

And they also think that Sanchez owes it to his wife, Kathleen, whose 26-year marriage suddenly turned into a lie when he was arrested in January and she was confronted with the evidence against him.

“It’s rare that you get something like this,” said Capt. Steven A. Nigrelli, a State Police zone commander based in Jamestown who served on the Bike Path Rapist Task Force. “We have a real live serial killer, a murderer, a serial rapist right here in Buffalo, someone we could possibly study.”

It’s no idle thought. Nigrelli spent five days at the annual State Police homicide seminar in Albany last September, named for one of his department’s best investigators, the late Col. Henry “Hank” Williams, who spent most of his career in Western New York.

Kelly Otis, a detective with the Wichita (Kan.) Police Department, was the featured speaker. Otis was on the task force that arrested Dennis L. Rader, the BTK Killer who murdered 10 people over three decades. Nigrelli spent the week talking with Otis about BTK.

“He told me how they did things, how they went about it, how they prepped for interviews,” Nigrelli said, “and then I get assigned to the task force where we researched our own version of the BTK.”

Nigrelli and fellow task force member Scott R. Patronik, a chief in the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, want to develop a similar presentation on Sanchez for the Williams seminar.

“The reason why I want to rip this case apart and study it and pass it on to other police officers is because of the knowledge I picked up listening to Kelly Otis,” Nigrelli said. “He talked to me about the importance of including other agencies, of reaching out, of going over the old cases, poring over them again, the different ways of doing the DNA, and once you get a suspect, how you go about getting his DNA.”

Once detectives had zeroed in on Sanchez — after finding his name coming up repeatedly through old cases and prostitution arrests and after talking with his uncle, who had lied 26 years earlier about Sanchez’s using his car — they needed his DNA to check against the Bike Path Killer’s.

As Wichita police did with Rader, the task force here came up with ruses for getting Sanchez’s DNA without his knowing that they were convinced he was the Bike Path Killer.

Detectives first went to Sanchez’s home to retrieve a handgun he still possessed despite two convictions for patronizing a prostitute. When they failed to recover any DNA from the weapon, they grabbed the glassware Sanchez used after he ate dinner with his wife in an Amherst restaurant.

Patronik, whose boss, Sheriff Timothy B. Howard, called together the task force after Diver’s murder, said that the detectives in the case want to know more, not out of curiosity, but to improve their own procedures.

Sanchez moved Diver’s car after he attacked her, a step that eventually led to his arrest because his DNA was found in a drop of sweat he failed to wipe off the steering column.

“Why did he move it?” Patronik said he wants to ask Sanchez. “Did he need a way out, or did he do it to throw us off — you know, put the vehicle four miles from the body?”

Moving the car did initially trick the searchers looking for her body, and Patronik said that it has led to changes in the way sheriff’s officials will conduct searches in the future.

“Each agency I know has some particular questions they have wondered for a long time about their particular murder,” he said. The biggest question: Why?

Sanchez’s attorney, Andrew C. LoTempio, has suggested that Sanchez had impulses he could not control, possibly stemming from some childhood trauma.

But if that’s true, the task force detectives say, why did he kill Diver on Sept. 29, 2006, the same date he killed Linda Yalem in 1990? And why did he participate in the Linda Yalem Run, again on the same date, Sept. 29, 1999?

“He told me that he wore that Linda Yalem race T-shirt proudly,” Nigrelli said of the first interview with Sanchez after his arrest.

Why would someone acting on an uncontrollable impulse wear a T-shirt that honors the memory of a woman he killed?

And if Sanchez were acting on impulse, how could he attend a party with his wife, smiling and posing for photos last Sept. 29, as searchers were still looking for Diver’s body?

“If you look at everything that occurred over these years,” Nigrelli said, “maybe other law enforcement agencies can learn something to prevent this from happening again.”

[samanthajane13]

Sanchez: Some Answers, But Many Questions Remain
Posted by: Scott Brown (sbrown@wgrz.gannett.com?subject=RE:Sanchez: Some Answers, But Many Questions Remain), Reporter

Created: 8/10/2007 5:14:28 PM
Updated: 8/11/2007 9:27:07 AM


Earlier in the week, 2 On Your Side's Scott Brown reported that Altemio Sanchez had confessed to the District Attorney's office to a number of rapes for which there was no DNA evidence to tie him to.

Now, despite those confessions, members of the Bike Path Rapist task force still have many questions as to how, and why, Sanchez chose his victims.

Scott Brown spoke with a member of the task force, Sheriff's Sgt. Greg Savage, about the case.

Brown: "If you get a chance to sit down with him what's the first question you would have?"
Savage: "I think probably the biggest question would be the 12 year gap."

Police and prosecutors remain baffled as to why Sanhcez seemingly went quiet; they can tie him to no attacks from 1994-2006.

Savage: "We assume that there were other attacks that we don't know about because we assume that there were some that were never reported."

Brown: "So you think during that 12 year gap there were attacks?"

Savage: "Well we don't know. It's hard to believe that someone who was as active as he was would all of sudden just stop for 12 years."

That gap ended with the murder of Joan Diver.

And here again, police have a number of unanswered questions:

Why would Sanchez resurface after 12 years?

Why was the Diver attack the only one that took place in Clarence?

And why did Sanchez chose September 29th for the attack- that was the 16th anniversary of Linda Yalem's murder?

Savage: "It wasn't just a coincidence that he picked that day, it had to be some significance that maybe he hadn't been in the spotlight, or the news for those 12 years."

Brown: "Do you think that was a way of him thumbing his nose at the police?"

Savage: "That's another aspect, a lot of serial killers, they feel like they want to taunt the police, they like to demonstrate that they are superior, that they can't be caught."

[samanthajane13]

Anthony Capozzi's Life
Posted by: Robyn Young (ryoung@wgrz.com?subject=RE:Anthony Capozzi's Life), Reporter
Created: 3/29/2007 7:25:39 PM
Updated: 3/31/2007 7:44:25 AM

Anthony Capozzi's family says before he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and later wrongfully convicted and sent to prison, he was a kind and protective son and brother.

"My brother was protective. My brother was kind, soft spoken," said Pam Guenther, Anthony Capozzi's younger sister.

Looking back over Anthony's life, it seems his family essentially lost him in two tragic turn of events.

The good student at Hutch Tech High School, the young man who loved to play football and basketball and watched over his sisters, suddenly changed in his early twenties.

Anthony had attended Erie Community College for a short time, then started working for his uncle's business, "Good Pies," helping to distribute the product.

"He was making a lot of money at a young age," Guenther recalled.

But, Anthony changed.

"I hope nobody (else) goes through that, that change in his life," said Anthony's father, Albert. "He did so many terrible things, burned tv sets because he was hearing voices and it was driving him crazy."

The family consulted doctors and specialists, and received a diagnosis: schizophrenia.

Anthony was on medication, living back at home, and his weight ballooned to over 200 pounds.

"The person I always knew, that always just had it together, was falling apart," Guenther said.

At this time in the early 1980's, when Anthony was in his early 20's, rapes were occuring in Delaware Park, many near the Statue of David.

While Anthony was eating in a former Perkins restaurant on Delaware Avenue, someone noticed him and thought he acted strangely. He also matched many of the suspect descriptions in the ongoing rape investigation. The police were called.

"And that was the beginning of our nightmare," Guenther said.

Though Anthony was about 100 pounds heavier and had a distinctive scar on his forhead, he was convicted of two 1984 park rapes by witness identification, and sent to prison.

His family says he got the scar when he hallucinated, and thought he saw an
ex-girlfriend in a restaurant with another man. He approached them, a fight ensued, and Anthony ended up being pushed into a window.

Through the years, his parents visited weekly, even when it meant driving to Marcy prison near Utica, and the family never gave up their belief that he was innocent.

Twenty-two years later, new DNA evidence from rape victim test slides was found at ECMC, and a match was made with suspected bike path rapist Altemio Sanchez. He has been indicted on three murders and has DNA links to ten attacks.

Capozzi's family realizes that Anthony will need to live in a facility, but hope it will be close to home so that he can once again be there for their regular family dinners and events.

"He lost 22 years of his life. That's what we want. We want to forget the past," said Mary Capozzi, Anthony's mother.

[samanthajane13]

Family & Neighbors Celebrate As Capozzi Returns
Wednesday, April 4, 2007 06:22 AM - WBEN Newsroom/AP

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN/AP) — Anthony Capozzi had the opportunity to hug his family Tuesday for the first time since the Reagan era, while neighbors of the former felon rejoiced at his return to a street he left behind for 22 years in prison.

Capozzi's 1987 conviction on two rapes was thrown out Monday, based on recently discovered DNA evidence that linked the crimes to another man. As he reunited with his family, neighbors festooned trees around the family's West Side home with blue ribbons.

"It's organized chaos if you will, it's just ecstatic," says Christopher Townsell, who lives above the Capozzi's Jersey Avenue home in Buffalo. "Everybody's smiling even more so."

Capozzi, 50, reunited with his family Tuesday in an undisclosed Buffalo-area mental-health facility where he will receive treatment in the short term. He suffers from the schizophrenia, which he developed in his late teens.

His parents, Albert and Mary; his three sisters, Kathleen Jeras, Sharyn Miller and Pam Guenther; and his younger brother, Albert Jr., all visited with him and posed for a long-awaited family picture.

Through their attorney, Thomas C. D'Agostino, the Capozzis asked that the reunion be private.

D'Agostino has said he is prepared to sue the state for Capozzi's wrongful imprisonment as a way to ensure his future care.

"There's great anticipation and celebration for Anthony's freedom, especially for his mom and dad and his whole family," said Bill Miller, one of Capozzi's brothers-in-law. "He's exonerated, and his name is cleared, but it's tempered by the fact that we have a long road ahead."

Family members told The Buffalo News that said they hope Capozzi can start over with an independent life — they were considering the possibility of an assisted-living apartment, where a mental-health agency would ensure he was receiving his clinical care, taking his medication and attending some day-treatment program or job.

Capozzi was found guilty of the rapes Feb. 6, 1987, and given a prison sentence of 11 to 35 years.

He has been denied parole five times since becoming eligible in 1997 because his refusal to admit the crimes made it impossible to complete a mandatory sex offender program, another of his lawyers, Norman Effman, said.

Though his attorney, parents and other relatives have never doubted Capozzi's innocence, it was the recent arrest of a suspect in a 25-year string of rapes and murders that ultimately proved them right.

Altemio Sanchez, 49, was arrested Jan. 15 after DNA evidence identified him as a serial criminal known as the Bike Path Rapist. After linking Sanchez to three murders and several rapes in parks and other secluded areas dating to 1981, investigators began to question whether the 1983 and 1984 attacks for which Capozzi was convicted — which occurred in the same park as two of the rapes linked to Sanchez — might also have been committed by the Bike Path Rapist.

DNA evidence collected after the rapes and kept by Erie County Medical Center proved the hunch correct, according to Clark, who last week announced the DNA matched that of Sanchez.

Sanchez is charged with murdering two women in the early 1990s and one woman last fall. He has pleaded innocent. He is not charged in any of the rape cases because the five-year statute of limitations has expired. There is no time limit for filing murder charges.

[samanthajane13]

Sanchez says he confessed rape to uncle in early '80s

Updated: 08/15/07 7:32 PM

Altemio C. Sanchez, in a three-hour interview with county prosecutors, said he confessed to his uncle more than 25 years ago to raping a woman in Delaware Park.


If what he told a Deputy District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III is true, he could have been arrested for rape and jailed in 1981, long before he became the Bike Path Killer.

Sanchez said he told his uncle that he raped a 21-year-old Buffalo State College student in April 1981.

Buffalo Police had questioned his uncle, Wilfredo Sanchez Caraballo, because the rape victim later saw her attacker at a shopping mall and gave police the license plate number of the car he was driving.

Caraballo, the car's owner, told police then that he hadn't driven the car for weeks. Only last January did he tell investigators from the Bike Path Rapist Task Force that he had loaned the car to his nephew, Sanchez. That belated tip helped lead to Sanchez' arrest.

But even in January, in interviews with the task force and The Buffalo News, Caraballo said he never knew his nephew was a rapist.

Sanchez told the prosecutor during the recent interview, however, that his uncle knew the truth 26 years ago.

"So in response to the question, did Uncle Wilfredo know back at the time police first questioned him that his nephew Altemio had raped somebody?" Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark said. "The answer is, he did, according to Sanchez."

[samanthajane13]

Chilling statements from Sanchez
Story Published: Aug 15, 2007 at 6:54 PM EDT
Story Updated: Aug 15, 2007 at 6:54 PM EDT

It is one of the many questions, maybe the most pressing, in the case of the bike path killer . Why would Altemio Sanchez murder and attack? He offered some explanations in interviews with the Erie County District Attorney's office, and in the presentencing report.

"He did tell the probation officer, and he did tell the District Attorney that he had experienced some things as a young boy, as a preteen that caused anger toward women," said Defense Attorney Andrew LoTempio.

"He claimed his father left him, left the family when he was very young...his mother was forced to fend for herself, she started drinking heavily. And by inference, ignoring him," said District Attorney Frank Clark.

For more than 20 years, brutal attacks on bike paths and parks. Attacks that shocked and scared a community.

"This is a guy who had these sick urges and was chilling to listen to it," added LoTempio.

But for 12 years, between 1994 and 2006, no attacks.

"He said Amherst Police had questioned him on an attack that happened. He was frightened because of that he thought maybe he would be caught so he simply stopped," said Clark.

Clark points to contradictions in Sanchez's statements, saying at one point he said he did not take victim Joan Diver's car and move it, later on saying that he did.

"Most of the contradictions or his lies are not relevant to the underlying fact. He is a very puzzling person to try and figure out," said Clark.

Clark says they are still looking at Sanchez in connection with a few rape cases, but hope to have this wrapped up in the next 30 days.

[samanthajane13]

What's Next for Sanchez?
Posted by: Collin Bishop (cbishop@wgrz.gannett.com?subject=RE:What's Next for Sanchez?), Special Projects Producer

Created: 8/14/2007 1:37:35 PM
Updated: 8/15/2007 4:31:53 PM

What happens now that Altemio Sanchez has been sentenced?

A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Corrections says Altemio Sanchez was taken to Wende Correctional Facility in Alden after his sentencing Tuesday. From there he was moved to Elmira, which is one of three state sites that serve as a reception and classification facility.

While he is in Elmira, Sanchez will undergo tests and evaluations (physical, mental, risk assessment, educational needs etc.) The tests usually take several weeks.

Based on the results of those tests and evaluations, a decision will be made as to which one of 16 male, maximum security prisons Sanchez will serve his sentence.

He will be transferred to the designated prison when a bed becomes available.

[samanthajane13]

Sanchez's wife on court

Story Published: Aug 15, 2007 at 1:29 AM EDT
Story Updated: Aug 15, 2007 at 1:29 AM EDT



Before Altemio Sanchez spoke in court today, he spoke to law enforcement about crimes he committed.

"I think there were somewhere between 13 and 20 rapes that he admitted to. Some of them at first questioning he did not remember. There were so many of them as he went into the details he would say, oh yes I did do that," said Defense Attorney Andrew LoTempio.

His wife of more than two decades, and two children now have to face what has happened. Kathleen Sanchez cried in the courtroom when the victims families spoke.

"All of our focus is toward the victims of the crimes, and sometimes the family members of the defendant get lost in the shuffle. In a sense they are victims too," said Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark.

Kathleen Sanchez has been supportive of her husband. She has not spoken to the media, though she did release a statement through her attorney when Sanchez pleaded guilty, apologizing to the victims families. As to what will happen to her, her attorney was asked if she will stay married to Sanchez.

"Those are personal questions. That is personal information private to Kathy ,and to be perfectly honest I have no idea. She has not shared that with me," said Kathleen's attorney John Dudziak.

"There was some mention in the probation report that she knows she needs to get on in her life, and in order to do that she is probably going to have to cut all ties with him. I guess its like a divorce. You can't keep hanging around with someone if you want to end," said LoTempio.

LoTempio says he thinks Sanchez has a lot of remorse for his family. They have two sons who were not in the courtroom today.

"They did not know it was happening. They did not know why it happened. They still don't know those answers. I have done everything I can to tell his sons to stay out of the courtroom, keep their face off the television, out of the newspaper. They have a common last name. Hopefully they can move on in life," said LoTempio.

[samanthajane13]

Why did Altemio Sanchez Do What He Did?

Story Published: Aug 15, 2007 at 1:27 AM EDT
Story Updated: Aug 15, 2007 at 1:27 AM EDT

By Bridget Blythe


The cases span more than two decades. Although there may never be sufficient answers as to why Altemio Sanchez did what he did, there are theories.

His face, familiar now. His name, synonymous with 'bike path rapist and killer'. Altemio Sanchez - still though - remains very much a mystery. "I really believe there was a part of him that hates the other part of him. That's my honest opinion." Even Sanchez's Attorney, Andrew LoTempio, does not have all the answers.

LoTempio defended the man who admits to killing three women and raping more than a dozen.
"These are horrible, heinous crimes. I'm not making light of the crimes. But in my estimation and in the answers he's given, is not somebody who's extremely intelligent."

But members of the Bike Path task force feel differently. From as far back as 1979, Sanchez has been victimizing women. "I think he spent a lot of time, did a lot of homework. He knew - used one of the most brutal weapons used in history - a garotte. He's someone who really knew what he was doing, he was very methodical.", said Lt. Scott Patronik. He is with the Erie County Sheriff's Department and part of the Task Force.

Often waiting in wooded areas along local bike paths, Sanchez strangled his three murder victims. He also severely beat Joan Diver about the face. Duct tape was a tool he often used too.

"Everybody wants to turn him into hannibal lector or the zodiac killer. But I really don't think that's there. This is just a simple person who's missing a switch in his head.", LoTempio said.

"... 25 year reign of terror. 25 years this guy has stalked the women of Western New York. How is he different from any other serial rapist or murderer? Explain that to me Mr. Lotempio.", Captain Steven Nigrelli asked that to the media after Sanchez's sentencing Tuesday. Nigrelli is another member of the Task Force. He works with New York State Police.

Sanchez had a family life. A wife, children, friends. He worked. He played. But for 25 years he also hid horrific crimes. LoTempio said, "There appears to be some things that happened in his home life that may have triggered some hatred and anger towards women which is not unusual in a rapists background."

But did the man who said 'sorry' on sentencing day do anything to curb his compulsions? Lt. Patronik said, "We don't have any evidence that he ever went out to seek help. People who are addicted to drugs try to get help. There are alcohol programs. We have no evidence that he tried helping himself."

[samanthajane13]

COMMENTARY

Donn Esmonde: Punishment for Sanchez seems lacking

Donn Esmonde
Updated: 08/15/07 8:06 AM

It was not much in the grand scheme of things. But it was something. Something is all we ever get in these cases. Life is not fair. It is nowhere less fair than in violent death.

Witness Altemio Sanchez. The families of two of the three women he killed, spectators from the community he terrified, the authorities who finally tracked him down — all of them Tuesday morning stood in a courtroom and got their turn. It was our turn to see him powerless and punished. It was something. It was not nearly enough.

The predator, Altemio Sanchez, handcuffed and head bowed, stood impotent before a black-robed judge. He is no longer in control. He can no longer play god. He can no longer decide life or death, as he did with the three women he killed and more than a dozen others he admitted to sexually assaulting.

Gone from his hands is the 4- foot-long steel bike cable — cut precisely to most efficient length — used to control most of his victims. He wrapped it around the woman’s neck, bringing her in and out of consciousness as he violated her. With UB student Linda Yalem, prostitute Majane Mazur and wife and nature-loving mother Joan Diver, he used the steel cable to kill.

The violent masquerader stood in court, shorn of his disguise. Sanchez is stocky and balding, his square face set in a perpetual frown, as if pondering a deep thought. He is now revealed for what he is. He is uncovered to his long-deluded wife who still wears his wedding ring. He is exposed to his two tragically deceived children. No more can Sanchez pretend to be the good husband, the loving father, the concerned neighbor. There is no more deceiving.

Tuesday was our time. It was time to see the hunter be humbled, the predator rendered powerless. The judge condemned the Bike Path Killer to 75 years to life in prison. The handcuffed predator said he was sorry — without, tellingly, asking for forgiveness. Asking forgiveness means handing over control, making himself vulnerable. Sanchez is not capable of it. He lacks the humanity.

At the end of nearly three decades of violence, this is what we get. That is the eternal frustration, the terrible injustice, of this day of a killer’s reckoning. The punishment Sanchez received does not nearly balance the pain he caused. There is nothing any of us — loved ones of the victims, survivors of his attacks or residents of the community — can do about it. Sanchez could serve 10 life sentences, he could live to be 500 years old behind bars, and it would not be enough.

Steven Diver lost the wife he wanted to travel the world with. Four children lost the mother who held their hands, bandaged their hurts and fretted at night over their futures. Countless intensive- care patients in years to come lost a nurse who — next month, with her smallest child entering school — would have returned to work. Putting Sanchez behind bars does not balance any of that.

Ann Brown lost Linda Yalem, the little sister she rode Big Wheels with, the young woman who came to the University at Buffalo to be closer to her. Linda planned to run the 1990 New York Marathon, her first long-distance event. Then Ann got a call that September day, and — because of Altemio Sanchez — Linda Yalem’s dream of running a marathon, and all of her other dreams, ended. No punishment can erase that loss.

Majane Mazur was a prostitute, struggling to raise a 4-year-old daughter. That child now is 19. Mazur did not get a chance to change her own life. Her daughter was denied a mother. Sending Sanchez to prison does not make any of that better.

The predator was punished Tuesday. He will spend the rest of his life in prison. It was all the law could do. It was less than he deserved. If there is a God, I hope He makes up the difference.

desmonde@buffnews.com (desmonde@buffnews.com)

[odette]

Bike Path Rapist' sentenced to 75 years to life in prison

Posted at: 08/14/2007 03:37:25 PM
By: Carolyn Thompson Associated Press Writer
whec.com

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - A murderer who lived a double life as a friendly family man and western New York's "Bike Path Rapist" was sentenced Tuesday to the maximum 75 years to life in prison. ...

excerpt
Prosecutor Frank Sedita described Sanchez as a cold-blooded and calculating criminal who conducted reconnaissance before his attacks "and even practiced his signature double ligature." Sanchez wrapped wire around his victims' necks to control and kill them, leaving unconscious some of those who survived.

continued: Bike Path Rapist' sentenced to 75 years to life in prison (http://www.whec.com/article/stories/S167183.shtml?cat=565)

http://i15.tinypic.com/4kefx1k.jpg

[samanthajane13]

Though ‘he lied through his teeth’ in interview, ‘I don’t think he was lying about that,’ DA says

Sanchez says he told his uncle about raping a student in 1981

Attack in Delaware Park is belated focal point in Bike Path Killer case

By Michael Beebe - News Staff Reporter
Updated: 08/16/07 8:43 AM

Altemio C. Sanchez, in a three-hour interview with county prosecutors, said he confessed to his uncle 26 years ago to raping a woman in Delaware Park.

If what he told Deputy District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III is true, he could have been arrested for rape and jailed in 1981, long before he became the Bike Path Killer.
Sanchez said he told his uncle that he raped a 21-year-old Buffalo State College student in April 1981.

Buffalo police had questioned his uncle, Wilfredo Sanchez Caraballo, because the rape victim later saw her attacker at a shopping mall and gave police the license plate number of the car he was driving.

Caraballo, the car’s owner, told police then that he had not driven the car for weeks. Only last January did he tell investigators from the Bike Path Rapist Task Force that he had lent the car to his nephew, Sanchez. That belated tip helped lead to Sanchez’s arrest.

But even in January, in interviews with the task force and The Buffalo News, Caraballo said he never knew that his nephew was a rapist.

Sanchez told the prosecutor during the recent interview, however, that his uncle knew the truth 26 years ago.

“So in response to the question, did Uncle Wilfredo know back at the time police first questioned him that his nephew Altemio had raped somebody?” Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark said. “The answer is, he did, according to Sanchez.”

Whoever is telling the truth does not matter in a legal sense, Clark said.

The time to place any charge against Caraballo, either for not being truthful about his nephew using his car, or about what his nephew might or might not have told him, has long since passed, the district attorney said.

If Sanchez is telling the truth, it means there might never have been a Bike Path Killer, that Sanchez would not have killed Linda S. Yalem, Majane Mazur and Joan L. Diver, and raped as many as 12 to 20 more women.

Was Sanchez, who was sentenced Tuesday to 75 years to life in prison, telling the truth or was his uncle?

“He lied through his teeth throughout the interview,” Clark said of Sanchez’s meeting with Sedita. “He denied something earlier, then he would admit it later.”

But despite the lies, Clark said he believes Sanchez about what he said he told his uncle.

“I don’t think he was lying about that,” the district attorney said. “I think he was telling the truth.”

Caraballo, the only other person who could clear up the mystery, was unavailable. A woman who answered the phone told The News to “stop calling” when contacted at Caraballo's home in North Carolina.

Speaking by phone to WIVB-TV, he said that when Sanchez returned the car, “I asked him, and he said he didn’t do anything wrong. So he never told me anything about nothing.”

Caraballo added, “If he told me anything, I would’ve called the cops and turned him in. I got kids. I got girls and grandkids, you know? At that time, I had three little girls myself.”

Reporter Luke Moretti said Caraballo thinks Sanchez “is mad at him, wants to get him involved and wants to get him in trouble.”

When questioned by task force investigators, and later a News reporter in January, Caraballo said he never knew that his nephew had raped the woman.

“If I knew he did something like this, I would have reported it,” Caraballo told The News then. “If I knew he was doing all this raping, I would have reported it.”

Even members of the task force who arrested Sanchez are divided on whether he is telling the truth now.

“I personally don’t believe it,” Scott R. Patronik, a Sheriff’s Office chief who talked with Caraballo in January, said of Sanchez’s statement about his uncle. “I think he’s thinking, ‘Well, my uncle blew me in. This is the shot I’m going to give him,’ ” Patronik said.

Steven A. Nigrelli, a State Police captain and a task force member, said he thinks Sanchez told Caraballo about the rape.

Continued below-

[samanthajane13]

Continued from above ^

When Caraballo learned that police were trying to reach him in January, and called Patronik, Nigrelli said, the first thing he asked was if the call was about the attack on the student more than 25 years ago.

“I think it bodes well that Sanchez is telling the truth by how quick the uncle remembered the incident,” Nigrelli said. “You get a call from police 26 years later, you don’t know what the call’s about, and the first thing you ask, ‘Is this about the rape of the woman in 1981?’

“If Wilfredo Caraballo had stepped up and been a man,” Nigrelli said, “if he said his nephew, the man he loved, was actually a rapist, then all those victims would have been prevented.”

Clark said the exchange between Sedita and Sanchez over what his uncle knew came after Sedita asked Sanchez if he ever confessed his crimes to anyone over the years. Sanchez said no.

“He was asked if his uncle Wilfredo was merely covering for him, or knew that he was a rapist,” Clark said, reading from a transcript of the interview.

“[Sanchez] said he admitted he raped a woman when questioned by his uncle Wilfredo in 1981. Defendant said this admission soured their previously close relationship. In response to a question, defendant also admitted that Wilfredo looked disapprovingly at him because he knew that he continued to rape.”

“[Sanchez] nodded when the suggestion was made that this was their ‘dirty little secret,’ ” the transcript read.

Sedita’s interview with Sanchez came about, Clark said, because Sanchez wanted to meet with prosecutors about the rapes that he had been accused of but that were not formally tied to him through DNA.

Andrew C. LoTempio, Sanchez’s attorney, said Sanchez was most comfortable speaking with Sedita, and that’s why he asked for him.

After Sanchez’s sentencing Tuesday, task force members said that they would have liked to have been part of the interviews, but Clark said that wasn’t possible. “The decision of who he was going to talk to was his,” Clark said. “He doesn’t have to talk to anybody.”

Clark said Sanchez remains a mystery.

“When asked why he would do these things, he would say, ‘I would get the urge,’ ” Clark said. “And the urge that would trigger it was not a person or anything. He would pass a location that would look to him to be an ideal place to do something like that and he said it would trigger the urge to commit it.”

Sanchez also contended that there was no connection to the timing of his attacks on significant dates, Clark said.

The fact that Yalem was killed on Sept. 29, 1990; that he ran the Linda Yalem memorial race Sept. 29, 1999; and that he killed Diver on Sept. 29, 2006?

“He said he was totally unaware of the dates when these were committed,” Clark said. “Which is nonsense.”

He said Sanchez also quibbled about whether he used a rope or wire as a garrote on his victims, even when confronted with evidence that he bought lengths of wire just before he killed Diver.

Clark also said Sanchez contended that he never used a gun or a knife in a rape, despite evidence that he had with some of his early victims. “So he was untruthful in really stupid areas, but untruthful nonetheless,” Clark said. “And then you begin to wonder, if he’s not telling the truth now, what’s the truth and what’s the lie?”

Clark said Sanchez lied repeatedly throughout the interview, at times denying rapes attributed to him through DNA, then admitting them when confronted by the evidence.

“So you’re never exactly sure what he was saying was true or not,” Clark said, “or whether he’s denying it because it’s actually true, whether he doesn’t remember it or he’s lying.

“But every time he’s caught in a lie, he always comes up with the same, ‘Well I’m going to jail for the rest of my life. Why would I lie?’ ” Clark said, “as though that is the definitive answer to ‘Of course, I’m not lying. I have no reason to lie.’ ”

mbeebe@buffnews.com (mbeebe@buffnews.com)

[samanthajane13]

COMMENTARY

Pergament: Newscasts excel with Bike Path Killer coverage

Alan Pergament
Updated: 08/16/07 8:27 AM

Channel 4 anchor Jacquie Walker reported Tuesday that State Supreme Court Justice Christopher J. Burns told her he allowed cameras in his court for the sentencing of Bike Path Killer Altemio C. Sanchez because of the historical value of the case to the community.

To their credit, the local TV news departments did an excellent job overall recording history.

Surprisingly, the big news didn’t inspire big ratings at 6 p.m. Channel 4 was first with an 8.1 rating, with Channel 2 and Channel 7 tied with 6.7s. The combined Tuesday rating at 6 p.m. was lower than the combined Monday ratings.

At 11 p.m., Channel 2 was the winner with a 10.7, with Channel 7 riding a strong lead-in to a second-place 8.4. Channel 4, which had a strong 7.4 rating for its 10 p.m. news smoothly anchored by Melissa Holmes, slipped to third place with a 7.1 at 11 p.m. partly due to a poor lead-in.

Of course, all the stations provided team coverage of 10 minutes in the newscasts. And thanks to the Internet, a viewer who wanted more could head to their Web sites to watch the unedited comments offered by the judge, prosecutor Frank Sedita III and defense lawyer Andrew Lo- Tempio.

The speeches from the victims’ families weren’t available. Channel 2 anchor Scott Levin explained that the judge prevented the statements from being recorded. Levin didn’t explain that law enforcement officials said the family members wanted it that way.

Of course, not everyone is comfortable in front of cameras, especially those with privacy concerns. You can certainly understand the feelings of the victims’ families. But it meant the TV reporters had to summarize their emotions and the summaries — brief because there were no pictures — couldn’t do them justice.

Sanchez, meanwhile, spoke in open court against his lawyer’s advice. Lo Tempio didn’t say why he advised against his client speaking. Perhaps he knew that no one in the courtroom would believe his client’s apology was sincere.

Of course, each station tried to differentiate its coverage. Channel 4 used one of its “Only on 4” tag lines to promote Walker’s rare interview with a sitting judge. It was a relatively uneventful chat in which Burns gave a brief explanation of how the court system works and added what he felt the public should take from the day’s events.

“It is important to see they can go on the bike path,” Burns said. “It is a sense of closure, I think, for everyone.”

Well, maybe not everyone in the victims’ families or those who had been attacked by Sanchez.

Channel 4 also did a telephone interview with Dr. Joyce Brothers in which the TV psychologist opined that Kathleen Sanchez, the wife of the killer, might need help dealing with the realization of the horrible crimes her husband committed. Yes, Dr. Joyce Brothers, was “only on 4.” Of course, you might wonder why the station didn’t ask a local psychologist who might have been more familiar with the case.

The station also smartly brought in defense lawyer Terrence M. Connors to explain why he believes any appeal in this case would be “irrelevant.”

Channel 2, meanwhile, had some “Only on 2” personal moments. Levin wanted viewers to know he was in the courtroom, though he didn’t do any reporting. Reporter Claudine Ewing, who normally does an excellent job hiding her own feelings, noted that Mrs. Sanchez had been married for so long to her husband before adding “and now this.”

The station also had an excellent camera angle of New York State Police Commander Steven A. Nigrelli during his emotional discussion of the apology by Sanchez. “He only apologized because we got him,” said Nigrelli, a member of the Bike Path Rapist Task Force. From the angle Channel 2 had, Nigrelli appeared to be so emotional that he was near tears.

The station also carried a clip from outside the courtroom in which an emotional LoTempio admonished reporters about asking Sanchez’s relatives questions they have no answers for. “Leave them alone,” he said. Lo- Tempio clearly was on the defensive and almost apologetic for defending a man who committed heinous crimes. Inside the court, LoTempio asked for people to understand what his role was as a defense lawyer.

There was one story “only on 7” by reporter Steve Barber at 11 p.m. Saying many people wondered why Sanchez didn’t get the death penalty, Barber explained why. The answer was simple. It is unconstitutional in New York State. Barber’s story was about the case that made it unconstitutional.

Barber’s longer story might not have been necessary, but it was further evidence that the stations covered all the angles in this historical case.

apergament@buffnews.com (apergament@buffnews.com)

[samanthajane13]

Maximum Sentence for Sanchez
Posted by: Jerry Gasser (jgasser@wgrz.gannett.com?subject=RE:Maximum Sentence for Sanchez), News Operations Manager

Created: 8/14/2007 11:14:59 AM
Updated: 8/16/2007 10:59:50 PM


Altemio Sanchez will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. A State Supreme Court justice handed down a sentence this morning that amounts to 75 years to life for the admitted murderer and Bike Path Rapist.

Sanchez, showed little emotion at first, sat quietly and looked down or straight ahead as two immediate family members of his victims spoke.

Ann Brown, sister of murder victim Linda Yalem, and Steve Diver, whose wife Joan was also killed, addressed the court.

The State Supreme Court Justice Christopher Burns allowed cameras in the courtroom but no recording of video or audio of any family members or victims was allowed.

A large contingent of law enforcement was present for the sentencing. Five sheriff's deputies stood around Sanchez as the proceedings continued.

After hearing from family members, Erie County Prosecutor Frank Sedita III said Sanchez's actions were not spontaneous.

"The defendant methodically selected his locations, conducted reconnaissance, and even practiced his very advanced double ligature technique so he could control his victims, while he humiliated them, while he made them suffer," said Sedita. "There's not many people like that."

Sanchez, acting against the advice of his attorney, made this statement to the court:

"I just wanted to mention that whatever sentence I get today I deserve. I know I'm going to be spending the rest of my life behind bars, never to see the streets again. But I committed, I did these crimes and I should pay for these crimes. To Mr. Diver and the Yalem family, I apologize and I know I never can bring back your loved ones. What you said in court today is true about me, and I will pay for this for the rest of my life. Thank You."

Sanchez teared up as Judge Burns sentenced him to the maximum term. "These murders span 16 years and in that time women in our community have been unable to enjoy a simple walk without having the fear of being attacked. But you have been caught and this sentence reflects your unspeakable cruelty in committing these horrible murders. You showed no mercy and you deserve none."

Sanchez's wife Kathy was in court this morning for the sentencing. She did not speak to reporters and was described as appearing visibly shaken. John Dudziak, her attorney, said she was very concerned for the families of the victims and wanted to express her condolences to them. Dudziak also said it is important to remember that Mrs. Sanchez is also a victim.

Altemio Sanchez admitted to killing UB student Linda Yalem 17 years ago on the Amherst bike path. He also says he's the one who killed Majane Mazur in Buffalo, and then Clarence mother of four Joan Diver on the Clarence bike path last September.

An estimated twelve surviving rape victims were not given the opportunity to address the court. The law says only victim's relatives of the crimes he's being sentenced for can address the court.

The sentencing closes the book on a case that terrorized residents and mystified investigators for decades. It will not, however, bring an end to the pain and sense of loss that victims and family members live with each day.

Sanchez is now at the Elmira Correctional Facility for evaluation.

[samanthajane13]

STEVE DIVER'S VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT!!!!!

http://www.wgrz.com/news/downloads/diverstatement.pdf

[samanthajane13]

Story Published: Aug 17, 2007 at 1:02 PM EDT
Story Updated: Aug 17, 2007 at 1:02 PM EDT

By Steve Barber


76 Allendale Road in Cheektowaga is the home once owned by Altemio Sanchez and his wife Kathleen. Sanchez was arrested in January, and according to Erie County records, in May, a few months after the arrest, it became the home owned solely by Kathleen Sanchez. The recorded price was 1 dollar. "That is an unsophisticated and vulnerable attempt to try to protect the house from the claims of the victims." said business attorney Bill Savino.

Savino says a move like that, to keep Sanchez victims from suing for wrongful death to get money, likely won't work. Remember O.J. Simpson and the book 'If I Did It'? Simpson created a corporation in his kids name to try to keep book profits. A judge said no way and ordered the money to go to the victims families. "Here it would be much the same thing. We've got to get the house back into Altemio Sanchez name to try to get the victims paid.", said Savino.

For any victims to get anything, the Sanchez family would have to be pushed to bankruptcy and the assets would have to be liquidated. So far there is no word on any pending civil suits.

[samanthajane13]

Another Sanchez Victim?
Story Published: Aug 17, 2007 at 1:04 PM EDT
Story Updated: Aug 17, 2007 at 1:04 PM EDT

By Steve Barber



There may be another homicide victim at the hands of the man known as a serial killer and bike path rapist. Police are now investigating the possibility that the 1985 murder of 15 year old Kathy Herold may be the work of Altemio Sanchez. Herold was found beaten and strangled along train tracks in Tonawanda. It is a similar m.o. and there were other attacks by Sanchez in that area. Police did recover a Sacred Heart Auto League medallion found by Herold's hand. The Tonawanda Police will meet with the bike path task force to see if Sanchez could be responsible. If Sanchez is named he would be responsible for 4 homicides.

[samanthajane13]

Conjugal visits for Sanchez?
Story Published: Aug 17, 2007 at 7:05 PM EDT
Story Updated: Aug 17, 2007 at 7:31 PM EDT

By Melanie Pritchard

Altemio Sanchez, the man who committed more than a dozen rapes and killed three women, may be eligible for conjugal visits while in prison. But he'd have to meet several criteria first.

"I know I'm going to be spending life behind bars never to see the streets again," Sanchez said at his sentencing earlier this week. But will he be allowed to spend time with his family while he's in state prison? It depends on several factors - including how he's adjusting to life behind bars and successfully participating in programs addressing his crimes.

Sanchez must be housed at his permanently assigned maximum security facility for at least 90 days before it's determined whether he's even eligible for the family reunion program. There are 17 maximum security prisons in New York State. most of them allow conjugal visits with family members. And yes, inmates are allowed to have intercourse with their spouses. "These family reunion consist of spending anywhere from about 36 to 44 hours depending upon the institutions in trailers that we have within the secure perimeters of the given correctional facility," said Erik Kriss, Director of Public Information for the State Department of Correctional Services.

"The law is very clear. It's a privilege. It's not a right." Local defense attorney Tom Eoannou has represented numerous clients who've been granted conjugal visits...including serial murders and cop killers. He doubts Sanchez will qualify. "He may not be considered. They may say, look, when you're alone with women, you strangle them. We are not putting you in a trailer for two days unsupervised even for a number of minutes."

"One of the factors in determining whether an inmate is eligible for the family reunion program is the notoriety of his crime," said Kriss. But Eoannou says that notoriety can fade away with time. "In my experience, these crimes are front page now but 8 or 10 years down the road, everyone seems to forget them and when the inmates apply 8 or 10 years down the road, we've seen our clients actually get the visits.."

Sanchez is still being held a prison system receiving center in Elmira. It may take four to six weeks before it's determined which maximum security facility he serves out his 75 years to life sentence at.

[samanthajane13]

Investigators Researching Other Cases for Links to Sanchez

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(Tonawanda, NY, August 17, 2007) - - Investigators are taking a closer look at the striking similarities between a Tonawanda murder 22 years ago and the crimes connected to Altemio Sanchez. News 4's Jodi Hovenden has the very latest from investigators.

That's why Tonawanda detectives spent 2 1/2 hours with investigators with the bike path task force going over the 1985 murder of 15 year old Kathy Herold comparing evidence to the known murders committed by Altemio Sanchez.

One striking similarity is the location Kathy Herold's body was discovered along the same railroad tracks where detectives say Sanchez raped two women not far from American Brass where he worked.

But it was the death of Joan Diver that detecties say sparked their interest in Sanchez. Neither woman was sexually assualted, both violently fought their attacker, and while Kathy Herold died of manual strangulation detectives now say there's evidence her killer first used a ligature.

Investigators are also testing evidence for possible DNA and are quick to say they are not ruling out any other possible suspects in the case. They just want to find Kathy Herold's killer.

[samanthajane13]

Investigators: Sanchez Gave Up Nothing During Nine Hour Interrogation
Posted by: Scott Brown (sbrown@wgrz.gannett.com?subject=RE:Investigators: Sanchez Gave Up Nothing During Nine Hour Interrogation), Reporter

Created: 8/15/2007 9:50:21 PM
Updated: 8/17/2007 11:05:29 PM

With Altemio Sanchez receiving his sentence of life in prison earllier this week, members of the task force who arrested and interrogated him are speaking for the first time about that day.

In mid-January, members of the task force had following Sanchez for days, trying to obtain a DNA sample for him.

On Saturday, January 13th, they caught a break when Sanchez and his wife went out to dinner at an Amherst restaurant.

Two investigators, Alan Rozansky of the Sheriff's Department, and Ed Monan of Amherst police, followed the couple in, and then waited and watched them from the bar area.

Scott Brown: "Once you got in there, what was your feeling?"

Alan Rozansky: "I said to Ed, I think we just hit a home run here. We're feet away from him and we're minutes away from getting DNA, we were talking about it at the bar, like I can't believe we're right here."

Sanchez's DNA from his napkin and silverware was tested, and he was then picked up two days later.

Monan: "I asked him, do you know why we're stopping you, do you know why we want to talk to you, and he said he didn't."

Brown: "What did you think at that point?"

Monan: "An innocent person put into a police car is going to react, they're going to say something, he didn't react."

Sanchez kept up that tact through a nine hour interrogation that followed at the Sheriff's Office downtown.

Monan: "He kept his answers very short, he wouldn't admit to anything, and his standard answer for almost all of our questions was 'that's what you say,' he kept repeating it, 'that's what you say.'"

Brown: "So you say look, we know who you are, we've been following you, we've got your DNA, we have evidence against you, and his response was what?"

Monan and Rozansky: "That's what you say."

Brown: "Did he ever say 'I want an attorney?'"

Monan: "Never, as a matter of fact, he said things like 'I could ask for an attorney if I wanted one but I don't want one, I don't have anything to hide basically.'"

Although the investigators told Sanchez they had his DNA, he apparently refused to believe it.

Rozansky: "They brought food in, they set some in front of him and myself, and I said 'go on have something to eat' and he refused to grab the water bottle, he wouldn't even touch it."

Monan: "We think he was probably thinking that we'd obtain DNA from whatever he touched, so he just let everything sit, he didn't touch anything."

Investigator Scott Patronik: "He thought if he didn't leave a DNA sample and stuck to his lies he'd be home that night."

After getting nothing out of Sanchez for nine hours, investigators ended the questioning.

Monan: "I told him specifically he was under arrest for the murder of Linda Yalem and that he wasn't leaving."

Brown: "And what was his reaction?"

Monan: "He really didn't change much, he was very cold."

Investigator Steve Nigrelli: "Altemio stands up, like he's going to go home, and I looked at him and say 'you're not going anywhere, you're under arrest, those guys weren't lying to you.' But I think up to that point, still in his head he thought he was going home."

[samanthajane13]

Victims' relatives tell of shattered dreams as the Bike Path Killer is sentenced

Sister of Linda Yalem, husband of Joan Diver describe their loss

By Gene Warner - News Staff Reporter
Updated: 08/15/07 8:28 AM

One was 22 years old, with her whole adult life ahead of her, an avid runner, a woman who lost her father when she was 6 and later moved to Buffalo to be nearer to her sister.

The other was 45, a nurse looking forward to returning to work, a naturalist, Scout leader and mother who wanted to make the world a better place for her four children — and all children.
Linda S. Yalem and Joan L. Diver can’t speak from their graves, but they got their say in court Tuesday when Yalem’s sister, Ann Brown, and Diver’s husband, Steven, told the court what effect the murders had on their families.
If he was listening, their killer learned a lot about the women he murdered on two suburban bike paths.
Altemio C. Sanchez choked the life out of Yalem and Diver, devastating two families in the process. And he killed them 16 years apart — to the day.
But their memories came alive in a basement courtroom in downtown Buffalo.
State Supreme Court Justice Christopher J. Burns, armies of detectives, reporters and photographers, Sanchez and his family all heard about the two women and their families.
They heard about Yalem’s plans to eat pasta with her sister on the night before the New York City Marathon that she never lived long enough to run in November 1990. And about the two moments when Brown needed her sister the most, including the day before their mother died.
The packed courtroom also heard about the Divers’ plans for growing old together, looking forward to taking some time for themselves to backpack in the Adirondacks and go back to Hawaii for their second honeymoon, while reveling in their children’s accomplishments.
“Now Joan will be deprived of this joy — to see her children become mature adults — and she will never see her grandchildren,” her husband said.
Sanchez’s third murder victim was Majane Mazur, but her pregnant daughter was unable to make it to the sentencing from her South Carolina home.
Brown spoke first, with her husband at her side, in a seven-minute address that never mentioned Sanchez by name.
Yalem came to Buffalo from Thousand Oaks, Calif., to pursue a degree in communications at the University at Buffalo and to be close enough to spend holidays and summers with her older sister, who was studying in New York City.
The sisters, who had ridden Big Wheels and played with Barbie dolls together, learned all about loss when they were young. Their father died at age 46, when they were 6 and 8.
Hearing that her sister was missing after going for a run on the Ellicott Creek bike path Sept. 29, 1990, Brown rushed to Buffalo and soon learned that her little sister had been strangled, her lifeless and partly exposed body left near the bike path.
“How do I live with that [image]?” Brown asked. “It still tortures me.”
So does the thought that her sister never got to live her dreams, to pursue a career and settle down.
“Every time I see sisters together, I feel pain,” she said.
Brown also feels the loss whenever she looks at her two children, a 13- year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter.
“Both kids are named after the aunt they will never know,” she said.
Brown then recounted the two moments when she needed her sister the most.
The first was when Brown’s daughter was diagnosed with autism, the second the day before the two sisters’ mother died, on May 29, 2007. The night before her mother died, Brown stayed with her.
“I kept thinking about my sister and how I needed her there with me that night,” she said.
Before she died, their mother felt some relief that her daughter’s killer had been caught. But there is no closure for Brown.
“Closure will come when I am not here anymore,” she said.
Brown, without naming Sanchez, said she refuses to give him “the right to ruin me.” Then she turned to Burns.
“I respectfully ask that you give him the most severe sentence, so that he cannot mutilate another family or destroy another woman.”
Steven Diver read a 6 1/2-page typed statement that contrasted the goodness and warmth of his wife with his thoughts about the confessed killer seated in front of him.
“Now that I have described the warmth of Joan’s soul, I want to flip everything upside down and talk about the complete antithesis: the worthless A. Sanchez,” he told the court. “Over the past 20 years, he lied and presented himself as normal to his friends and family, while he raped and murdered women.”
Diver spared no adjectives in describing Sanchez, calling him “evil,” “twisted” and a “despicable, lying, worthless shell of a person.”
In contrast, he painted a portrait of his wife as a gentle soul, a naturalist who loved wildflowers, found beauty in an unremarkable plant and loved listening to the birds and smelling the dampness in the deep woods.
She also was a bold and independent woman who interrupted her career as a critical-care nurse to raise her children.
“Can you imagine how many more people she could have helped over another 15 to 20 years of working in the job she loved?” he asked.
Diver then referred to the couple’s four children, ages 15, 13, 10 and 5.
Joan Diver always was there, to listen to their observations, to help them solve problems, to give them advice and to hold them when they needed comfort.
“She was probably thinking about them when she was running on Sept. 29, before she was surprise-attacked and killed,” her husband said.
Asked if they had anything to say to the court, the children said they wanted to pass on their condolences to the other victims’ families.
Diver read a poem, “My Mom,” written by the couple’s daughter, Claudie, for Mother’s Day 2006, just 4 1/2 months before Joan Diver was killed.
“Whenever I am with her, I feel safe,” the young girl wrote. “I feel like I’m holding on the edge of a cliff and the bottom is all rocky. But then out my mom comes and pulls me out.
“My mom is always the best and always will be the best in my book.”

gwarner@buffnews.com (gwarner@buffnews.com)

[samanthajane13]

Killing Spurs Clarence 'Take Back The Path' Run

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - The death of Joan Diver, attacked on the Clarence-Newstead Bike Path last September is spurring a move to fund improvements on the route, with a 5K run this evening.
The "Take Back The Path" Run will start Wednesday evening at the Clarence Center Fire Hall, just miles from where Diver was attacked and killed, as part of a rape and killing spree attributed to the region's "Bike Path Rapist" Altemio Sanchez .
Sanchez, 49, pleaded guilty May 16 to murdering three women since 1990, including two whose bodies were found on bike paths.
"My wife, my 3 daughters, my running club were constantly on that path all year long," said Kevin Patterson, race organizer.
"When we heard about that event we literally watched the depletion and use of that bike path go from hundreds a day to a few. And the people who were using it were putting their heads down, there was no longer the 'Good Morning' or 'How are Ya?'s it was just walking by or riding by someone, and you wouldn't even know they were there. We want to bring the bike path back."
The 5K race will include chip-timing for the serious competitive runners, but walkers and more social runners are welcome, Patterson said.
The race begins at 7 p.m Wednesday, at the Clarence Center Road Fire Hall. Proceeds will help the town buy security cameras for the path, and could ultimately lead to the installation of emergency hotline phones along the route.

[samanthajane13]

Investigators Meet With Tonawanda P.D. Over 22 Year-Old Unsolved Murder
Posted by: Lynne Dixon (ldixon@wgrz.gannett.com?subject=RE:Investigators Meet With Tonawanda P.D. Over 22 Year-Old Unsolved Murder), Reporter
Created: 8/16/2007 4:44:35 PM
Updated: 8/20/2007 7:04:20 PM

Members of the Bike Path Task Force met for two hours on Friday with Tonawanda Police to see whether a 22-year old murder can be tied to Altemio Sanchez.

Following Joan Diver's murder, Tonawanda police noticed similarities between some of Sanchez's attacks and the murder of 15 year old Kathy Herold in 1985.

Herold went over to a friend's house on a Sunday night in July of that year and never came home.

Her bloodied body was found on some railroad tracks in Tonawanda the following morning.

Her sister Jennifer remembers that day. Kathy had begged her mother to allow her to go see a friend for a little while.

"I can't tell you how many times in my mind, if I had just chased her down the street," said Jennifer.

Here are some of the similarities with Sanchez's attacks:

* Kathy Herold's body was found on railroad tracks in the shadows of American Brass, where Altemio Sanchez used to work.
* Her attack came in the midst of the Delaware Park rapes.
* And Herold was strangled.

But there are differences as well:

* It's believed Herold was strangled, perhaps with a single ligature, while Sanchez's trademark was always the use of a double loop ligature,

* Sanchez raped, or tried to rape, all of his victims. Herold was not raped, and was found fully clothed.

Says Task Force member Detective Ed Monan, "I think it's a little too early to tell, there definitely are strong similarities but there are definitely some things that are different about it, so it's hard to tell right now."

It appears now that the key to the case will be evidence that's been sent to the Erie County Crime Lab for testing.

District Attorney Frank Clark is skeptical that Sanchez committed the crime.

"I think it's a good idea to look at it and see, but don't start suspecting him, or anybody else, until you have definitive proof to point to him," says Clark."

Scott Brown: "What sort of evidence would you need to take a look at this case?"

Clark: "I want an eyewitness, I want an admission or I want some forensic evidence, one or the other or some combination of the three, without any of the three we're nowhere."

As for Sanchez, Jennifer Herold says if he killed her sister, then she wonders, "how somebody like that could take away a piece of my family. There's a hole in my life. It never goes away."

Herold's sister says she is incredibly appreciative of the efforts of the Tonawanda investigators. She says she hopes prosecutors explore every possibility and exhaust them. "I think they have an obligation to look at this. Even if there is the most remote possibility. Then take a look at it."

Meanwhile, Tonawanda Police say they're not focusing solely on Sanchez. Also under suspicion are some people who were close to Herold at the time and who came under investigation following the murder back in 1985.

[samanthajane13]

Transcript from the sentencing of Altemio Sanchez

Updated: 08/14/07 3:40 PM

From the sentencing proceedings:


Deputy District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III: Judge, having heard from them, I couldn't really add anything about the suffering and the profound loss that is felt by Ann Brown and by Steve Diver, and the others .

Having seen their passion, their passion, for not only bringing the guilty to justice but also exonerating an innocent man, I couldn't add anything about the dedication of the police officers who worked on this case and the task force.

Having, a little over a week ago, about 10 days ago I guess it was, having spoken to the defendant at length -- whew ---there is little I can say to truly explain his crimes, or to try to shed light to the court, or to the victims' families, or to the police, about why he truly did what he did.

Having set the case, judge, and having lived with it for many months, I think it's my obligation as prosecutor to say a few words about what the defendant did, so the record is clear, since we didn't have a trial in this matter.

The overall impression I have of the defendant, judge, is he is as calculating, as calculating, as he is violent. These weren't spontaneous, spur of the moment reckless acts. The defendant methodically selected his locations, conducted reconnaissance and even practiced his very advanced and signature double-loop ligature technique so he could control his victims while he humiliated them, while he made them suffer and while he killed them.

There's not many people around like that, Judge. You've been in the system a long time, I've been in the system a long time … there's not many people like that.

Linda Yalem was the first woman the defendant murdered. She was 22 years old. She had the rest of her life in front of her. She had the rest of her life in front of her, that is, until the day, that fateful day, that she ran past this guy. September 29, 1990. Mr. Sanchez made the choice to subject this young woman to the terror and humiliation of rape. Mr.
Sanchez made the choice to strangle her with a double-loop ligature wire.

If that wasn't enough, if that wasn't enough, he also made the choice to duct tape her nose and duct tape her mouth. He made the choice to kill her. Intentional murder.

Joan Diver was almost twice the age, 45 years old. Twice the age of Linda. She was in the prime of her life and Steve told me she was raising kids between the ages of 4 and 14. She had the best part of her life in front of her. Because what could be better than watching your kids grow up and watching them prosper?

That was a big thing about what Steve said and that explains a lot of his sense of profound loss. Imagine what that man is going through. Imagine what he goes through every day.

She had the rest of her life in front of her until she had the misfortune of running past Altemio Sanchez, calculating 16 years to the day after Linda Yalem. I don't believe in coincidences, judge.

Joan Diver wasn't raped. She was strangled. She was strangled to death with wire that cost 80 cents at a hardware store. And as Steve said, accurately, it was so brutal, it was so deep, that it cut through the flesh of her neck.

And if that weren't enough, Judge, and if there's any question in the court's mind about how cold-blooded the defendant is, within hours of her murder, as her body lay in a field, as her husband hoped for the best but feared for the worst, Mr. Sanchez was smiling at a party in a bar in downtown Buffalo.

Linda and Joan had something else in common. They fought like hell. They fought like hell. They struggled.

The defendant's other victim, you didn't hear from her family today, Judge, she did not. Her name was Majane Mazur. She was murdered in October 1992. And she was different, because she agreed to have sexual relations with the defendant.

She wasn't struggling against him, for that reason. So, save for enjoying the experience, there was no reason for the defendant to do what he did to her. And what he did to her, again, was double-loop ligature, and then he put a plastic bag over her head and tied the ligature around the plastic bag and suffocated her to death.

Three innocent women, terrorized and brutally murdered. The lives of three families dramatically altered forever.

And by the way, she has a 19-year-old daughter, Majane, in South Carolina. That kid was 4 years old at the time she lost her mother.

All at the hands of one man who decided that he and he alone was going to control their fate. For whatever reason. He decided that he was going to control their fate. And what did he do to them? ... He killed them.
Well, now it's time for the court to decide Mr. Sanchez's fate.

Your honor, the recommendation of the people of the State of New York and Frank Clark, Erie County district attorney, is that the defendant be sentenced to a term of incarceration on each count Having a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of life, and that the court run all three counts consecutively for an aggregate term having a minimum of 75 years and a maximum of life.

Mr. Sanchez should die in prison, Judge.

Judge Christopher Burns: Thank you, Mr. Sedita. Mr. LoTempio, you have reviewed the presentence report. Is there anything you would like to say before sentencing?

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Transcript from the sentencing of Altemio Sanchez-Part 2

Defense counsel Andrew LoTempio: Judge I have very little to say. What I do want to do today is thank you personally and Mr. Sedita personally and all of the court staff, and that means right from the clerk to the stenographer and the court officers for handling this case in a professional manner.

And I say that because when this started it was somewhat of a circus event, and the court and Mr. Sedita and the court staff have reeled it in and allowed everybody to act in a professional manner, and I appreciate that, because I take my job very seriously, I'm very proud of what I do for a living, I'm very proud of my role in the system, and I remain proud of the way I've handled this case, and I think everybody else should be too.

That being said, Judge, there is very little I could say that would come off as being non-disrespectful to the families of the victims here, and I don't want to do that because I do respect them and I respect their position. I also understand, and can't disagree, given the nature of the crimes that Mr. Sanchez should and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

And I understand that's where we're headed here and I can't stand up here with any degree of credibility and argue against that, nor would I.
However, my job continues and I still have to represent Mr. Sanchez's best interest.

I hope that the families of the victims at some point in their life understand the role I play in the system, and I hope some day they understand that I tried to do it respectfully and I didn't intend at any time to do anything but be respectful.

I just ask the court and the record to reflect that it was Mr. Sanchez's request to plead guilty. It took no prodding on my part in any fashion, other than going through the evidence and letting the system work in the fashion it's supposed to without using the media or anything else to push people into things. It eventually worked itself out.

He also without prodding requested to go talk to Mr. Sedita and explain or at least give his explanation and answer the questions.

Many of the members of the media and many members of law enforcement continue to ask questions. Most of those questions have been answered.

They're either in the probation report or have been said to Mr. Sedita.

Unfortunately, the answers don't give fodder for paperback novels or for Lifetime network television shows. They are what they are. We don't know whether Mr. Sanchez did this stuff because something happened to him or he was born this way.

The only ones who will figure that out are hopefully psychiatrists in the prison.

That being said, the last part of my job is to do what Mr. Sanchez would want me to do and what I feel is appropriate and heartfelt, and that is to ask that the media leave Mr. Sanchez's family alone, and law enforcement also.

You're not going to get answers there, and don't use this as an opportunity to attempt to. They'll come forward when they want to.

That being said, Judge, we're ready for sentence. My advice to Mr. Sanchez is not to make any statements at this point, but if he so chooses he's free to do that. I think everything was detailed in the presentence report, and I think he's given the answers that he's capable of giving to Mr. Sedita in his personal interview.

Judge Burns: Thank you Mr. LoTempio. Mr. Sanchez, is there anything you would like to say to the court before sentence?

Altemio Sanchez: Yes.

Judge Burns: Please keep your voice up so I can hear you.

Sanchez: Yes. I just wanted to mention that whatever sentence I get today I deserve. I know I'm going to be spending life behind bars, never to see the streets again. But I committed .. I did these crimes, and I should pay for these crimes.

To Mr. Diver and the other family, I apologize, but I know I can never bring back your loved ones. But what you said today here in court was true about me, and I will pay for this for the rest of my life.

Thank you.

Judge Burns: The court has reviewed the presentence report, read the statements pertaining to these murders, viewed all the photos and listened to all the comments. The court has the authority and the obligation to speak for this community.

I do not believe there is any presence of conscience here or any remorse whatsoever except that you were caught. You were caught be the men and women in the first two rows.

In the case before me, three women have been slain and their families have been hurt beyond repair. All they have now are loving memories and nightmares, and none of them deserved this.

These murders span 16 years. During that time women in our community have been unable to enjoy a simple walk without the fear of being attacked.

But you have been caught and this sentence reflects your unspeakable cruelty in committing these horrible murders.

You showed no mercy and you deserve none.

Regarding count one, for the murder of Linda Yalem, it is the judgment of this court that you be sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment which shall have a maximum term of life and a minimum term of 25 years.

Regarding count 2, for the rape and murder of Linda Yalem, it is the judgment of this court that you be sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment which shall have a maximum term of life and a minimum term of imprisonment of 25 years. Count two by law must run concurrently with count one.

Regarding count three, for the murder of Majane Mazur, it is the judgment of this court that you be sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment which shall have a maximum term of life and a minimum term of 25 years.

The sentence on count three is to be served consecutively to the prison terms imposed in counts one and two.

Regarding count four, for the murder of Joan Diver, it is the judgment of this court that you be sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment which shall have a maximum term of life and a minimum term of imprisonment of 25 years.

The sentence on count four is to run consecutively to the prison terms imposed in counts one, two and three.

The aggregate period of incarceration is an indeterminate term of 75 years to life. You are to be committed to the custody of the New York State Department of Correctional Services to be dealt in accordance with the laws pertaining to your sentence.

It is this court's intention that you never see freedom again.

[samanthajane13]

Murder is a killer in our culture

By Anne Neville NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 08/21/07 6:52 AM

The summer sun streams through the window of his small corner office as UB associate professor David Schmid discusses the darkest of topics – murder.


As he talks about homicide in all its forms, from Altemio Sanchez to “America’s Most Wanted,” Schmid knows he’s not alone in his interest.

In fact, says the British-born author and teacher, through our popular culture, Americans express an interest in murder that borders on obsession – and it’s so pervasive that we hardly notice it.

“An interest in murder is absolutely central to our pop culture, and it has been from the beginning,” says Schmid. “It’s so obvious and ubiquitous, and we’ve grown so used to it, that it never even strikes us how much programming on any given page of the TV Guide is devoted in one way or another to violence or homicide.”

“I love that stuff,” says Maureen Dempsey, a litigation paralegal and member of the Evidence Response Team at the Buffalo FBI office. She watches “‘Forensic Files,’ anything on Lifetime or Court TV, even the crazy ones now about psychics. And I know some of the people on my Evidence Response Team are addicted to CSI.”

Schmid, the author of the 2005 book, “Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture,” is writing a second book, “Murder Culture: Why Americans Are Obsessed by Homicide.” He’s also writing “Mean Streets and More: Space in Crime Fiction.”

After moving from England to California in 1989 to attend Stanford University, Schmid realized that American popular culture is permeated with an extreme interest in crime, particularly murder. Although the many crime dramas and true-crime television shows, along with movies, books and Web sites, support this, he says some Americans aren’t comfortable hearing his analysis.

“When I speak about this, people get a bit defensive,” he says. “They say, ‘Aren’t there celebrity killers, crime drama and crime fiction in other cultures?’ I say absolutely, but it’s different. The scale of it is different — so different as to be almost a difference in kind rather than a difference in degree.”

From the first colonies to the Wild West, the history of the United States is fraught with violence, from slavery to gang warfare in Northern cities. The shootout at the OK Corral and the St. Valentine’s Day massacre loom large in our cultural history.

“I think our interest in homicide in pop culture comes partly because it gives us a way to process this fact and to find ways to cope with it,” says Schmid.

Dempsey says the appeal for her is the solving of a puzzle that the criminal wants hidden. “For me, a lot of it is that Sherlock Holmes sleuthing, that mystery,” she says. “I need to know why it happened and I need to know who did it.”

‘Very vulnerable’

But things change dramatically when crime hits close to home.
Western New Yorkers were shocked when the Bike Path Killer, after 12 years of silence, was found to be the murderer of Clarence mother Joan Diver. And then the killer was identified — and he was Altemio Sanchez, a church-going, suburban husband and father.

“People are shocked when it’s revealed that someone like this has been living among us,” says Schmid, “because it makes them realize how much the social fabric has broken down, that someone can be doing this on their street and they have no idea. You feel very vulnerable.”

People would have been less shocked if Sanchez had fit the public perception of what a murderer should look like, Schmid says.

“That sense of shock or disturbance would have been alleviated if Altemio Sanchez had turned out to be a complete raving looney,” says Schmid. “It would have been less disturbing if he had been completely asocial, if they had found him living in the woods in some kind of hut, if he had looked the part. The fact that he was socially functional, he had a family, the family didn’t know, the fact that he was able to live like this for decades — those are the things that are really scary.”

Sanchez pleaded guilty to murdering three women; last week he was sentenced to 75 years to life.

Although his plea may provide closure, the lack of a trial “denies the local community that process of catharsis,” says Schmid. “Through the trial, we would have a collective opportunity to work out our feelings about this case — how could he do this and how could he get away with it for so long?”

Paul Moskal, supervisory special agent in the Buffalo FBI office, agrees that “it would be educational for people to hear why criminals act the way they do, to find out why people behave in this manner, because it’s so foreign to most of us. And the more heinous the crime, the more egregious the act, the more fascinated we are.”

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Murder is a killer in our culture-Part 2


While Dempsey enjoys TV shows and books about crime, Moskal, her husband, does not.

“Paul will come in the room and I’ll have ‘Forensic Files’ on, and he’ll say, ‘Can’t we just watch the classic movies channel?’ I’ll say, ‘This is real life!’ He’s the FBI agent, he put guys in jail for years, and he has no interest in a crime story.”

The roots of violence

Violence arrived in America with the first settlers — Mayflower passenger John Billington shot and killed a 17-year-old named John Newcomen in Plymouth Colony, and was tried and hanged in 1630.

That hanging would have been a popular event among Billington’s fellow colonists, says Schmid: “Some of the largest public gatherings in the Puritan colonies were for public executions.”

Before the criminal was executed, a minister would deliver a sermon “designed to instruct the crowd about the proper lessons they could draw from what they were seeing.”

But ministers walked a fine line as they told the story. “It’s not to say that the ministers wrote them to entertain, but the audiences did enjoy them,” Schmid says.

The question of how to deliver information “without the criminals turning into folk heroes or objects of sympathy for the crowd” exists to this day. Some criminals, from Bonnie and Clyde to Ralph “Bucky” Phillips, are seen as folk heroes by people who identify with them as wily underdogs or as glamorous outlaws.

“They’re criminals, they’re murderers, and by all rights we should have no sympathy with them whatsoever, but you know what? They’re the little guy,” says Schmid. “They’re the expression of American individualism fighting these big institutions. We have a very, very strong streak in our culture and our nation of anti-authoritarianism, and a strong streak of individualism, and as screwed up as it seems, often that individualism gets attached to criminals and the anti-authoritarianism gets attached to the legal system.”

“There’s something about our culture and society that we want to romanticize these people,” says Moskal.

Moskal says one sign of our society’s fascination with violence and murder is the overwhelming popularity of “The Sopranos.” The show leads viewers to “romanticize death and killing and crime,” says Moskal.

“The phenomenal popularity of ‘The Sopranoes,’ ’ says Schmid, “is one example of how at various stages of American history, we have had a kind of ambivalent attitude toward criminals and violent figures. Are they the scum of the earth and should they be wiped away, or are they, in a sense, just like us and should they be celebrated as folk heroes?”

‘Incomprehensible’

No matter what the era or place, people are fascinated by murderers because they have stepped outside the boundaries of civilization.

“In a lot of cases these people appear to be just like us, and we want to understand how that is possible,” says Schmid.

Moskal doubts whether murderers’ actions can ever be completely understood or explained. “They are outside the normal human experience,” says Moskal. “These people commit violent acts without remorse.”
At the basis of the allure of murder stories is a primal emotion, Schmid says.

“The final answer to the question of where this interest came from is fear — we’re terrified. I think the popularity of a lot of these shows is that they make us feel some kind of control, and they make us feel that something could be done that’s effective.”

Dempsey agrees. “I do think that part of the reason I’m so interested is fear, because I do want the information that will help me to be prepared.” But in her line of work, she knows that things are never as neat and tidy as they are in fiction.

When the crime drama ends with the guilty party behind bars, Schmid says, “The satisfaction is pretty basic.”

aneville@buffnews.com (aneville@buffnews.com)