NY NY - Eve Wilkowitz, 20, Bay Shore, 22 March 1980

[dotr]

Who and where is the murderous man who could do such a thing?
It is a matter of public concern, imo,
rbbm.


CBS New York
Long Is
Her sister was murdered in 1980. New DNA methods could crack the case, but NY won’t allow it.
"Hours earlier, on March 25, 1980, a woman had noticed a barefoot figure lying on a neighbor’s lawn a few miles away in Bay Shore. It was Eve Wilkowitz. She’d last been seen boarding a late-night Long Island Rail Road train from Penn Station in Manhattan, where she worked as a secretary at a publishing house.

Sometime during her journey home, she’d been kidnapped, bound, raped, strangled and dumped. She was 20"

"Suffolk County police say they’ve exhausted every possible lead. They investigated the Manhattan boyfriend who saw Eve last and the ex-boyfriend with whom she lived in Bay Shore. They pored over old crime reports, tracking down people who’d been accused of acting suspiciously in the area. They questioned local parolees and sex offenders. They logged the names of everyone who lived in the neighborhood, and spoke to as many as they could. They traced Wilkowitz’s final route from Manhattan, showing riders pictures of the young woman and interviewing people who recognized her. They looked into complaints of people acting strangely on the train.

The case went cold, but police have revisited it a few times. They collected DNA from many of the people who’d been interviewed in the original investigation, but the profiles didn’t match DNA from the semen found on Wilkowitz’s body. The suspect’s DNA profile was uploaded into a national crime database, but searches came back negative. Police even took DNA from the brother of a dead suspect in a string of 1980s killings to see if any shared DNA indicated that Wilkowitz was one of his many victims.

In 2017, New York made it legal to scour crime databases for people related to an unknown suspect ─ a technique called familial DNA searching. Suffolk County police applied to the state for permission to use it in the Wilkowitz case. They have been approved by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services and are waiting for the testing to be done."

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Because public crime laboratories aren’t equipped to do the advanced DNA analysis required of the newly popular technique, law enforcement authorities must seek help from private laboratories, which are regulated by the New York State Department of Health. Under a decades-old regulation from a time when DNA analysis first became common in criminal cases, private labs are required to obtain permits before they can do such forensics work in New York.

No private lab has this permit for investigative genetic genealogy. That has left New York authorities unable to join the national rush of law enforcement agencies using investigative genetic genealogy to reexamine decades-old murders and rapes.
Her sister was murdered in 1980. New DNA methods could crack the case, but NY won’t allow it.

 

[iulia]

For almost 40 years, Irene Wilkowitz has been haunted by the horror of the crime that took the life of her sister, Eve, who was just 20.
[...]
No one was ever brought to justice for her murder. But now, all these years later, the FBI is joining the investigation at the behest of Eve's family and the Suffolk County Police Department because the federal agency can use new investigative techniques that could help solve the case.
[...]
The FBI involvement is significant because it opens access for Hart to the emerging forensic technique of genetic genealogy, a process through which DNA profiles of an unknown suspect are run through public genealogical databases to find potential family members of a person who may be of interest. Local police agencies don’t have the technology to do the genealogical testing and under current New York State rules can’t farm out the testing to private laboratories. The state is considering licensing private labs.

But if a federal agency is involved in a joint investigation with local police, state officials have said the prohibition on having private laboratories do the testing doesn’t apply.

Fresh look at 1980 Suffolk cold case

 

[dotr]

For almost 40 years, Irene Wilkowitz has been haunted by the horror of the crime that took the life of her sister, Eve, who was just 20.
[...]
No one was ever brought to justice for her murder. But now, all these years later, the FBI is joining the investigation at the behest of Eve's family and the Suffolk County Police Department because the federal agency can use new investigative techniques that could help solve the case.
[...]
The FBI involvement is significant because it opens access for Hart to the emerging forensic technique of genetic genealogy, a process through which DNA profiles of an unknown suspect are run through public genealogical databases to find potential family members of a person who may be of interest. Local police agencies don’t have the technology to do the genealogical testing and under current New York State rules can’t farm out the testing to private laboratories. The state is considering licensing private labs.

But if a federal agency is involved in a joint investigation with local police, state officials have said the prohibition on having private laboratories do the testing doesn’t apply.

Fresh look at 1980 Suffolk cold case

Thanks for the link, so nice to see a fresh article and initiative for Eve!
from link..
"No one was ever brought to justice for her murder. But now, all these years later, the FBI is joining the investigation at the behest of Eve's family and the Suffolk County Police Department because the federal agency can use new investigative techniques that could help solve the case.

Eve's death left her sister with a never-ending sense of loss.

Eve, left, and Irene Wilkowitz outside their Oakdale home during the 1970s. Credit: Wilkowitz Family
“It should have never happened. She had her whole life to live and didn’t get a chance to live it, a chance to be an aunt, a mother, a sister,” Irene Wilkowitz said in an emotional interview with Newsday.

The brutality of Eve's killing — police theorize she was forced to go with her attacker — has left Irene with constant dread, a fear that she could also find herself a victim of such an attacker.

Irene Wilkowitz, even though she has an adult son and a daughter, has faced deep unease after a lonely upbringing. Her mother, Dorothy, died at the age of 50, nearly four years before Eve’s slaying, and her father, Alfred, died at 90 in 2010."

 

[PaulH47]

This case has always bothered me. I worked rotating shifts and would see her along with her group of people when I worked the afternoon shift in Manhattan. I believe the train was the 12:10 am from Penn Station to Babylon with a connecting train at Babylon for stops further out east. The passengers seemed to primarily be people getting off the second shift I got off in Babylon. I felt so bad when I read about her and hope they catch the guilty party. She seemed like a nice young woman. It sounds like the police are at a standstill. I hope the FBI can crack this.

 

[SAMS]

Who and where is the murderous man who could do such a thing?
It is a matter of public concern, imo,
rbbm.


CBS New York
Long Is
Her sister was murdered in 1980. New DNA methods could crack the case, but NY won’t allow it.
"Hours earlier, on March 25, 1980, a woman had noticed a barefoot figure lying on a neighbor’s lawn a few miles away in Bay Shore. It was Eve Wilkowitz. She’d last been seen boarding a late-night Long Island Rail Road train from Penn Station in Manhattan, where she worked as a secretary at a publishing house.

Sometime during her journey home, she’d been kidnapped, bound, raped, strangled and dumped. She was 20"

"Suffolk County police say they’ve exhausted every possible lead. They investigated the Manhattan boyfriend who saw Eve last and the ex-boyfriend with whom she lived in Bay Shore. They pored over old crime reports, tracking down people who’d been accused of acting suspiciously in the area. They questioned local parolees and sex offenders. They logged the names of everyone who lived in the neighborhood, and spoke to as many as they could. They traced Wilkowitz’s final route from Manhattan, showing riders pictures of the young woman and interviewing people who recognized her. They looked into complaints of people acting strangely on the train.

The case went cold, but police have revisited it a few times. They collected DNA from many of the people who’d been interviewed in the original investigation, but the profiles didn’t match DNA from the semen found on Wilkowitz’s body. The suspect’s DNA profile was uploaded into a national crime database, but searches came back negative. Police even took DNA from the brother of a dead suspect in a string of 1980s killings to see if any shared DNA indicated that Wilkowitz was one of his many victims.

In 2017, New York made it legal to scour crime databases for people related to an unknown suspect ─ a technique called familial DNA searching. Suffolk County police applied to the state for permission to use it in the Wilkowitz case. They have been approved by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services and are waiting for the testing to be done."

Who’s lawn was her body found on? What neighborhood?

 

[dotr]

This case has always bothered me. I worked rotating shifts and would see her along with her group of people when I worked the afternoon shift in Manhattan. I believe the train was the 12:10 am from Penn Station to Babylon with a connecting train at Babylon for stops further out east. The passengers seemed to primarily be people getting off the second shift I got off in Babylon. I felt so bad when I read about her and hope they catch the guilty party. She seemed like a nice young woman. It sounds like the police are at a standstill. I hope the FBI can crack this.

Welcome to Ws PaulH47, thanks for chiming in, local insight is always helpful!

 

[PaulH47]

The Bay Shore Station is in an area that I would not walk alone at night, and I was a late 20's, 6 foot 1, 190 lb guy that people wouldn't ordinarily mess with. If I was living with someone, I would pick them up when they got off the train.

 

[SAMS]

The Bay Shore Station is in an area that I would not walk alone at night, and I was a late 20's, 6 foot 1, 190 lb guy that people wouldn't ordinarily mess with. If I was living with someone, I would pick them up when they got off the train.

I know the area and have to agree, but what was this stop like back in 1980? This perp held her for 3 days before brutally murdering her. This could have been his first but not his last. This perp was prepared to take her. Planned. Probably stalked her for some time. One of the “men” she complained would follow her home...Had a place to keep her, lived alone, probably unemployed or abruptly quit working afterward. Could have even rode the same train and had a brief convo with her before. Sadly it seems she was afraid to walk home and that is when she was taken. MOO

 

[PaulH47]

I lived in Bay Shore from 1976 to 1999. The station area was about the same back then. In fact it may be a little better now. I drove to Babylon from Bay Shore as RR service was better there, and I did work some crazy hours (I worked for CBS). I probably wasn't working the PM shift when she was abducted. Gosh if things were different, I would have been happy to give her a ride,

 

[PaulH47]

Who’s lawn was her body found on? What neighborhood?

IDK AFAIK it was never reported. I guessed that it was somewhere in the area'

 

[SAMS]

IDK AFAIK it was never reported. I guessed that it was somewhere in the area'

This perp seemed to have a plan so he most likely wouldn’t dump her anywhere near his home but you never know. (Ugh hated typing that.)

 

[SAMS]

I lived in Bay Shore from 1976 to 1999. The station area was about the same back then. In fact it may be a little better now. I drove to Babylon from Bay Shore as RR service was better there, and I did work some crazy hours (I worked for CBS). I probably wasn't working the PM shift when she was abducted. Gosh if things were different, I would have been happy to give her a ride,

Thank you for sharing...No wonder she didn’t like walking. Did the bf have car? Thought I read something earlier in thread I’ll go back.

 

[SAMS]

Apparently the ex is who she lived with in Bayshore. The current BF seemed to be concerned with her walking. Scary.

 

[SAMS]

Fresh look at 1980 Suffolk cold case

According to this article, she only lived 3 blocks from the train.

Eve Wilkowitz’s killing remained a big story for a while, and detectives ran down as many leads as they could find. They checked local bars and a strip club near the train station and investigated reports of suspicious characters. Eve’s boyfriend and a former boyfriend she had been living with at the time in Bay Shore were all cleared through DNA testing, as was a man who Eve had once complained had followed her from the train station, police said.

 

[SAMS]

Wonder if Eve would’ve gotten off at a stop prior to hers for some reason? Food? Groceries? If she didn’t, I can’t imagine someone luring her off the train since she was already on high alert. Had to have been grabbed at the Bayshore stop. Merely blocks from safety. Omg Eve, so sorry...MOO

 

[SAMS]

LI woman cries for justice in 1980 murder of sister who took last train home from Penn station

“Three days after she caught the train at Penn, her body was found not far from the Bay Shore station.

Detectives told Eve’s family she had been held captive for three days, before she was killed.”

So he drops her body back by the station? No witnesses? This guy revisited that scene and frequented this station often IMO. Now I think he either lived nearby or drove there to remain somewhat discreet. MOO

 

[PaulH47]

Wonder if Eve would’ve gotten off at a stop prior to hers for some reason? Food? Groceries? If she didn’t, I can’t imagine someone luring her off the train since she was already on high alert. Had to have been grabbed at the Bayshore stop. Merely blocks from safety. Omg Eve, so sorry...MOO

Bay Shore was the first stop on the connecting train heading out east. I considered Babylon very safe as it was well lit and there was activity even at 1:30am. There were a couple of bars near the RR Station. Bay Shore OTOH was almost deserted at that time of night. There is a 7-11 in the area but I don't know if it was near where she lived.

 

[PaulH47]

The travel time from Babylon where she would have been on an elevated platform with a number of people getting on the train to Bay Shore was maybe 10 minutes. I think Eve probably got off at Bay Shore. - The poor girl, Her father and sister had to be devastated. As someone (maybe you) mentioned, he could still be out there.

 

[SAMS]

Bay Shore was the first stop on the connecting train heading out east. I considered Babylon very safe as it was well lit and there was activity even at 1:30am. There were a couple of bars near the RR Station. Bay Shore OTOH was almost deserted at that time of night. There is a 7-11 in the area but I don't know if it was near where she lived.

I have transferred at Babylon several times and I couldn’t agree with you more. Unless she was lured off of the platform with a hidden weapon or otherwise, I think she was taken at the Bayshore stop. Incredibly sad.