New investigation of student Lisa Thomas' 1974 Nanuet slaying focuses on DNA
Thirty-seven years ago Friday, Lisa Thomas' father found his daughter's body — blindfolded and lying face up, her head bludgeoned — in a wooded area behind the Nanuet Mall and about 700 feet from her home....
...Police still hold many of the original theories.
Those include that she was killed by people she knew from school or the neighborhood over a dispute.
Her family's house had been burglarized by three young men and her father's guns stolen three months before her death. They were arrested, and the case was resolved....
...The mall's rear parking lot and her house were separated by a field and woods.
When she didn't return for dinner, her parents called her friends and eventually the police just before 11 p.m. Police patrolling the area didn't search that night.
The next morning, police began searching the area, known as a hangout with drug use, some crime and other teenage activities.
Her father came upon her body about 11 a.m. in the high grass in the woods near the ballfield, about 75 yards from the mall parking lot and 700 feet from her house. ...
...Medical Examiner Dr. Frederick Zugibe found Thomas died from blows to the top of the head, the bridge of her nose and behind her left ear. She was blindfolded with a red cloth she carried on her pocketbook. She was not sexually assaulted.
Zugibe didn't find any evidence that her body was dragged but theorized she was hit while standing up. Her red socks were covered with dirt while her white shoes were found near her body. ...