THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 6, 1994 TAG: 9408060223
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Long : 176 lines
Nearly a year has passed since the partially clad body of a New Jersey vacationer was found slumped against the sand dunes behind an oceanfront hotel.
Police know someone slashed Janet Siclari's jugular vein on Aug. 28 between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. A coroner is certain the 95-pound, 35-year-old ultrasound technician had sex during the last 24 hours of her life. Friends who had been at the beach with Siclari said the brunette danced at the Port-O-Call Restaurant & Gaslight Saloon shortly before she was killed.
But that's about all officials and family know about the most recent murder on the Outer Banks.
Despite assistance from the FBI, the State Bureau of Investigation, and experts ranging from a hypnotist to psychics to convicted Watergate burglar-turned-radio-talk-show-host G. Gordon Liddy, detectives have not been able to come up with a motive, murder weapon or witness - much less a viable suspect in the mysterious murder.
Family members hope a reward might help.
On Friday, relatives announced a $20,000 reward for anyone providing information leading to the arrest of Janet Siclari's killer.
``We always felt that the Outer Banks was a safe place. We'd been vacationing here since we were children,'' Janet's brother, Robert Siclari, said Friday from the Nags Head Fire Station. ``No family should have to go through what we have during the past 12 months.
``We just want to get this person - who ever did this to my sister - off the streets,'' Siclari said. ``We lost Janet and we can't bring her back. But we don't want something like this to happen to someone else.''
On Aug. 20, 1993, Janet and Robert Siclari and three female friends arrived at Southern s for a weeklong vacation. They rented a cottage for six days. When their lease expired, they decided to spend another night at the beach.
One woman went home to Alexandria. The Siclaris and their other friends booked two rooms at the Carolinian Hotel in Nags Head. They had been drinking at the establishment's oceanfront deck bar earlier in their stay, so it seemed the perfect place to spend the last night.
Janet, her friends and brother played on the beach most of that Friday afternoon. That evening, they ate dinner at the hotel. Janet and her two girlfriends decided to go out for the evening.
Robert Siclari stayed behind to visit the Carolinian's Comedy Club.
``It was the first time that whole week that I hadn't been with Janet,'' said Siclari, 38, who owns an environmental consulting firm in Alexandria and put up most of the reward money. ``We were much closer than normal brothers and sisters. We were less than two years apart and we did everything together. We were inseparable.
``I know that I'm not responsible,'' Siclari said of his sister's murder. ``But I can't help but feeling that none of this would've happened if I'd been with her that last night.''
About midnight, police said, Janet's friends left the saloon and walked back to the hotel. Janet stayed to hear the band. She sat at the bar until last call - 2 a.m. - then got into her turquoise Ford rental car and headed down the beach road.
A Port-O-Call employee remembers watching Janet dance with one ``kind of ordinary-looking guy,'' but said she did not leave the saloon with him.
Police said Janet gave the hotel's male bartender a ride from Port-O-Call. The bartender told investigators Janet dropped him off at his house.
``There was a question as to whether she came back to the hotel alone that night,'' said Nags Head Police Lt. Cliff Midgett, who has helped interview more than 200 people about the slaying. ``There were beer cans in the parking lot on both sides of that car the next morning. We're still trying to identify anyone who had contact with her that night.''
Siclari said he heard his sister come into his hotel room between 2:30 and 3 a.m. The oceanfront room had a separate entrance to the outdoor bar. Guests could get to the beach without passing through the hotel lobby.
``I was asleep. But I woke up briefly when I heard the key in the door,'' said Siclari, who had been sharing the room with his sister. ``Janet took off her shoes, left her purse on the dresser and lit a cigarette.
``Her last words to me were something like: `It's only me. I'm just going outside to smoke a cigarette.' I said: `OK, Janet,' and went back to sleep.
``When I got up the next morning and saw her bed hadn't been slept in, I knew something was wrong. When I saw all the police out on the beach, I screamed as loud as I could.
``I knew something horrible had happened to Janet.''
At 6:50 a.m. - less than nine hours before Janet was scheduled to return to her North Arlington, N.J., home - a cleaning crew found her body about 20 feet east of the Carolinian's oceanfront deck. Wearing only a cropped blue tank top, she was curled in a fetal position on her left side. She clutched her white denim shorts - with underpants folded inside - against her chest.
Blood stained the sand for about 25 feet in either direction of the 5-foot body.
An autopsy showed small knife wounds on Janet's palms and fingers. Her blood alcohol content was .08 - North Carolina's legal limit for intoxication. Blood covered her face, chest and neck - where a ``small- to medium-sized knife'' had stabbed and slashed at least a half-dozen times. But there was ``no evidence of injury about the genital area.'' Her shorts and underwear were not torn.
``She had her room key in her pants pocket. Earrings, rings and bracelet were still on,'' said Nags Head Police Detective Tom Gilliam, who has worked on the case almost every day for 11 months. ``Her watch was even still keeping time that morning.''
Other than fresh semen that the coroner found inside Janet, police have no evidence that she was raped. Friends and her brother said Janet did not sleep with anyone during the vacation. Detectives did not find any birth control devices at the scene.
``Right now, we believe the person who had sex with her was involved in the killing,'' Gilliam said. ``It could've been more than one person, though. And we haven't ruled out the possibility that it could've been a woman.
``There are still some leads we have to check out,'' the detective said. ``But there is no one now that I would consider a viable suspect in this case. There weren't any witnesses that we could find. Except for a few bonfires, the beach was dark and deserted that night.''
An athletic woman who enjoyed nude sunbathing and motorcycle rides, Janet had never married and had no children. Friends said she wasn't seriously dating anyone. And her brother said she never did drugs.
``I don't know why anyone would've wanted to do this to my sister,'' Siclari said. ``She was so sweet, so friendly. I think somebody must've been with her when she came back to the hotel that night.
``It was weird that she would light a cigarette and go outside to smoke it - unless someone was with her or out there waiting for her. She could've smoked in the room. But she didn't seem alarmed or anything. I thought she was still with her girlfriends. I didn't hear voices, specifically, but it sounded like there might've been someone else out there in the hall.''
Police took blood samples from seven suspects - including Robert Siclari and the hotel bartender. But none matched the DNA information gleaned from Janet's autopsy. Without fingerprints, a weapon or other physical evidence, the sperm sample is the detectives' best clue.
``We can't tell the person's race from the DNA strains. We couldn't tell if they were left- or right-handed from the direction of the slash wounds. And we found a utility knife during our investigation, but there was no way the crime lab could tell us whether it was used in the murder,'' Midgett said. ``All those fantastic things you see them do on TV - we got none of that.''
The day after Janet was murdered, officials evacuated the entire Outer Banks in preparation for Hurricane Emily. The Category 3 storm struck two days later. The disaster made an already difficult police investigation almost impossible.
``We had to postpone interviews for several days. But we didn't lose any real evidence from the beach,'' said Midgett, who serves with 16 other officers on the Nags Head police force.
``The timing was particularly bad for us, though. Everyone checks out on Saturdays anyway.
``If you don't develop a suspect real quick, everyone packs their bags and leaves. A lot of times, the victims, criminals and all witnesses leave at once,'' Midgett said. ``That's one of the problems working in a resort town.''
Janet Siclari was the last person murdered on the Outer Banks - the seventh since 1990. A 1989 hit-and-run killing and 4-year-old case involving a dead infant in a South Nags Head Dumpster are the area's only other unsolved deaths, Midgett said.
``We have never worked a case as difficult as this,'' Midgett said of Janet Siclari's murder. ``We've worked through all the most obvious possibilities. Now, we're onto the `What Ifs?'
``We're grasping at straws,'' Midgett said. ``But in most cases, people talk about their crimes. That's what we're hoping for here. That's what the reward is for. That's how most criminals get caught.'' ILLUSTRATION: DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Robert Siclari, brother of Janet Siclari, who was slain last August,
wipes his eyes at a news conference announcing a $20,000 reward for
information that will lead to the arrest of Janet's killer.
Janet Siclari
THE MURDER
On Aug. 28, 1993, New Jersey ultra-sound technician Janet Siclari
was slain while vacationing on the Outer Banks. Her partially clad
body was found on the beach behind the Carolinian Hotel in Nags
Head. Her jugular vein had been slashed with a knife.
Police have no suspects in the 35-year-old woman's death. Family
members are offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the
killer's arrest. Tipsters need not give their name.
If you were in the vicinity of the Carolinian late Aug. 27 or
early 28 - or have any information about Janet Siclari's slaying -
contact the Dare County Crime Line at 800-745-2746 or 919-473-3111;
or call the Nags Head Police Department at 919-441-6386.
KEYWORDS: REWARD MURDER STABBING DNA INVESTIGATION by CNB