By Kevin Deutsch and Sasha Gonzales
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Investigators probing the 2007 Boca mall murders and abductions have pursued more than a dozen new leads this year – in addition to more than 20 fresh leads generated in 2018 – renewing hopes that some of South Florida’s most haunting crimes may yet be solved, Bronx Justice News has learned.
“We continue to actively investigate this crime, leaving no lead unturned,” Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander said in a written statement about the investigation into the murder of Bronx-born mom Nancy Bochicchio, and her 7-year-old daughter, Joey. “Leads continue to come in and we continue to investigate those leads and look at past ones. To date, we have looked at thousands of leads.”
News of the fresh leads comes on the heels of a Bronx Justice News investigation into the ritualistic crimes, based on a trove of court and law enforcement records not previously seen by the public. The documents shed new light on the mall attacks, revealing previously unknown details about detectives’ pursuit of the killer or killers, the lives of the victims, and security lapses at Town Center at Boca Raton mall in the lead-up to the abductions and murders.
The crimes – among the most high-profile, unsolved murders ever committed in the region, and part of a series of abductions and killings of mall patrons that year – had an outsized impact in New York, where the rest of the Bochicchio family, and some of Nancy’s friends, still reside.
The mother and daughter are interred in the Rosewood Mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery in Westchester County, just north of the Bronx.
Another mother and her 2-year-old-son were also kidnapped, taken from the same mall before the mother was ritualistically bound with goggles and zip ties in August of 2007—the same year as the other attacks. Goggles and zip ties were also used in the Bochicchio murders, police said.
The abductor later returned the mother and son to the mall, where he left both victims – terrified but alive – inside the mother’s luxury SUV.
Investigators believe the same man carried out the Aug. 7 attack and the Bochicchio murders, but are uncertain whether there is any connection to Randi Gorenberg’s murder—or to an armed robbery that occurred at Mizner Park on Aug. 10, 2007.
The 2007 spree spurred authorities to offer the largest reward in Florida’s history, but the killer or killers have never been found.
Boca police have jurisdiction over the investigations of the Bochicchio murders and the August 2007 crimes, which occurred within Boca’s borders. Gorenberg’s murder, meanwhile, is being investigated by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, which patrols the public park where the 52-year-old mom of two was shot and left for dead, just outside Boca.
Alexander, who is departing the police department in December to begin a new job as director of school police for Palm Beach County schools, has been chief during the entirety of Boca’s probe of the attacks.
He said tipsters should come forward and help close out the cases.
“We continue to ask anyone who has any information to come forward and call Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 1-800-458-TIPS or the Boca Raton Police Department’s anonymous tip line at 561-416-3350,” Alexander said.