Late every August when most people are thinking about school, there last beach trips, Labor Day weekend, Football and BBQ's Sara is not far from my thoughts. Henderson, Chester County lost a Warrior 12 years ago this year and although gone I will not forget.
We were getting ready to start High School, Most of us anyway. It was late August 1998 and we were trying to get in our last moments of summer before we were freshmen. Summer School was barley over and there was not nearly enough time for all the fun that had to be had, Bomb Fires, BBQs, Beers, Concerts, Car Trips, Friends, and Boyfriends.
It was one of these nights that Sara (then 14) walked outside late at night to have a cigarette and was murdered. We all found out the tragic news a year later, however. West Chester went back to school without Sara while her friends worked with detective Catov to find her.
Life immediately became a dark funnel cloud without peace. I could not tell you much about a teacher, grade, boyfriend.. Anything that happened for approximately the next six months. I was asked to leave Henderson High School in October after being involved in a fight in the sophomore wing.
August 30, 1999 a routine maintenance worker found 90% of Sara's skeletal remains in a sewer after lifting a man hole to perform routine maintenance. The man hole was yards from her home.
February 13, 2004 Detectives received a confession from Matthew Gianboi (18 years old at the time of the murder). He was a neighbor and acquaintance and confessed to strangling Sara during what he proclaimed to be 'consensual sex' (we all know that’s a lie) and put her body in the man hole.
During prosecution in August 2004 Heather and I sat in the front holding hands. Judge MacElree asked Giamboi to tell Sara's friends and family what happened that night. He asked him to turn and face the court. Giamboi looked us in the eyes so cowardly and still lied and 'apologized for our loss'
The Judge proclaimed -" You are clearly responsible for her death," MacElree said. "It’s hard to imagine one human being can be so callous toward another. For the rest of your life, her face, her memory should be etched in yours."
Heather and I did not need words. We cried for all that Sara will never experience. We cried tears of pure anger for the lies, deceit and selfishness. We cried for each other for what we had been through for so many years, for all it did to change us and so many others that were not there that day.
Sara was book smart, street smart, artistic, gorgeous 5" 5' with blond (sometimes black) hair and blue eyes. She was funny rebellious and losing her so young was a definite loss to so many that never even had the chance to know her.
Due to little evidence and no witnesses the detectives were pushed to a third degree murder charge with the confession and Giamboi is serving a 10-40 year prison sentence upstate.
Sara is buried in West Chester.
http://missing87975.yuku.com/forums/52/t/PENNSYLVANIA.html
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2004/08/26/frontpage/12783016.txt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwC0RTAC2Pg
