Family fights for Kim Montelaro's killer to remain behind bars

The family of a young New Jersey woman raped and murdered in 1976 is fighting to keep her killer behind bars, after a quirk in state law has allowed him to “slip through the cracks” and appear before a parole board next month.
Kim Montelaro was 20 years old when she was abducted at knifepoint from a popular shopping mall and forced into woods near the Pine Lake Swim Club in Washington Township, N.J., where she was left to die after being raped and stabbed six times in her chest.
Her killer, Christopher Righetti, a then-16-year-old high school student from nearby River Vale, N.J., was convicted of murder in 1977 and sentenced to life in prison, though he has appeared before a parole board five times since 1991.

In his last hearing before the board in 2009, Righetti was declared ineligible for parole until 2022. But two bills passed in 2010, during a lame-duck session of the New Jersey state legislature, allowed for prisoners, such as Righetti, to receive a new parole hearing every three years. The state legislature later repealed the law, but the 52-year-old Righetti is still eligible to appear before the 15-member board as early as next month, three years after his last hearing, according to an official with the New Jersey State Parole Board.
“He slipped through the cracks,” the woman’s father, Tony Montelaro, told FoxNews.com from his home in Fort Myers, Fla.
Montelaro, who in 2009 traveled with his wife to the parole hearing in Trenton, has fought to keep Righetti – a prison powerlifter who officials claim tattooed the word “animal” on his body – from ever being released.
“He’s a monster and there’s no question he would do it again,” Montelaro said.
“Kim was beautiful. She smiled a lot, she was smart, she was personable. She would always fight for the underdog,” he said of his daughter, an honors student at the University of Rhode Island who was planning to attend law school. “We’ll never know what she could have become because her life was taken away from her for no reason,” he said.
Police say Montelaro was abducted on Aug. 31, 1976, as she got into her car parked outside the Paramus Park mall in Paramus, N.J., in broad daylight.
Township of Washington Police Chief Randy Ciocco, who was a young officer on patrol the day she disappeared, recalled spotting a suspicious vehicle parked at the Pine Lake Swim Club shortly before 3 p.m.
“I was turning around my car to check it out,” Ciocco said, “when I got a theft call,” forcing him to leave the scene. When Ciocco returned later that day, the car – later determined to be Montelaro’s – was gone.
Ciocco said a group of boys playing in woods near the swimming hole discovered Montelaro’s bloodied body the next day.
“There was every indication that she did not die right away,” said Ciocoo, who added that the knife used to kill Montelaro was later found in the mud.
New Jersey State Rep. Robert Schroeder, among other state and local lawmakers, is circulating a petition throughout northern New Jersey to keep Righetti behind bars.
“In my opinion, he will not be granted parole, but anything is possible and it’s unfortunate that we have to put the Monteleros through this every couple of years,” Schroeder, a longtime resident of Washington Township, told FoxNews.com.
“It was a horrendous crime that affected the entire community,” he said. “He was an animal then and he’s an animal now.”


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Montelaro's Murderer Denied Parole
New Jersey State Parole Board denies Christopher Righettie parole.
By Ann Piccirillo June 25, 2012

Christopher Righetti, the man who raped and murdered 20-year-old Kim Montelaro of New Milford in 1976, was denied parole today. This was the fifth time since 1976 that Righetti has been up for parole.

Righetti kidnapped Montelaro from the Paramus Park Mall on Aug. 31, 1976, and brutally raped and stabbed her to death in a secluded area of the Pine Lake Swim Club in Washington Township.

Speaking on behalf of Assemblyman Robert Schroeder, who was in a voting session, Chief of Staff, Lisa Yakomin, said that Righetti appeared before a two member parole board panel at Northern State Prison this afternoon where they denied his request for parole.

According to Yakomin, today's decision goes to a three member parole board panel that will set a future eligibility date for Righetti.

"Righetti has 30 days to send a letter of appeal to the parole board," Yakomin said.

"It will take approximately two to three weeks after that for the parole board to render a decision regarding his future eligibility date," she added.

Taking that process into consideration, Yakomin said, "We're looking at a decision being handed down in August which marks the anniversary of Kim's murder."

Schroeder is currently working on a letter to submit to the three member parole panel urging them to set a future parole eligibility date for 35 years so that the Montelaro family does not have to go through this process again and relive the painful events of 36 years ago.

In speaking with Kim's mother, Alice Montelaro, about today's decision, Yakomin said that she is relieved by the parole board's decision denying Righetti parole.

"When she heard about the decision, Alice said, 'Today it's good news,'" Yakomin said, acknowledging that the waiting begins again for the panel to make its determination regarding Righetti's next parole eligibility date.

In a March phone interview with Patch, Kim's father, Tony Montelaro, said, "He should have been executed when this happened, when he murdered our daughter."

"He'll do it again. ... He's already taken our daughter's life and now we've got to relive that every time that son of a bitch comes up for parole," he added.

(As of the time of printing, Tony Montelaro has not returned a phone call placed by Patch.)

Righetti, a Northern State Prison inmate whom officials said has the word "animal" tattooed on his body, is a champion prison powerlifter who can squat 1000 pounds. He was denied parole in 2009 and declared ineligible until 2022.

However, in January 2010, the state Legislature passed two bills during its lame-duck session under Gov. Jon Corzine, mandating that inmates who have been denied parole receive a new parole hearing every three years. The bills, A4201 and A4202, called for a panel to review prisoners who had served 20 years or more on their sentences.

Gov. Chris Christie repealed these laws; however, according to Tony Montelaro, Righetti "fell between the cracks."

Righetti, who was a 16-year-old, 200 pound teenager from River Vale when he killed Kim Montelaro, had served 13 months in a state juvenile correctional facility for rape, and shortly upon his release had attempted to rape another woman.

Tony Montelaro said that it was revealed during Righetti's trial that he learned from other prisoners in juvenile detention that when you rape someone "you kill them so you won't get caught."

Montelaro said that the coroner's report indicated that Kim had suffered a "slow, agonizing death" over a period of 15 to 20 minutes.

Yakomin said that Schroeder will be urging the parole board panel to heed the voice of 3000 people who signed his petition to deny Righetti's parole and set the next parole hearing date for "at least 35 years from now, maximizing the chance that he will remain in prison for the rest of his life and will never again pose a threat to society."

Upon hearing today's decision of the parole board, New Milford Chief of Police Frank Papapietro told Patch, "I'm relieved that this is over for the Montelaro's."

"I hope that they never have to go through this again," he added.

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:cheering: :cheering: :cheering: :cheering:

Thanks again, lisette!!