THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409140445
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Detectives from the FBI, the State Bureau of Investigation and at least two Outer Banks town police forces have studied the slaying for more than a year.
Psychics, hypnotists, and even G. Gordon Liddy - convicted Watergate burglar-turned-radio-talk-show-host - have helped.
Family members are running advertisements in local newspapers. Crime Line is featuring the case on television. And five weeks ago, relatives offered a $20,000 reward for any information that might help convict the killer.
But no one has been able to determine who murdered Janet Siclari.
``We're following up on some new angles, but most everything we've checked out so far has been a dead end,'' said Lt. Cliff Midgett of the Nags Head police this week. Midgett has helped interview more than 200 people about the slaying. He is coordinating the investigation - which began in August 1993.
``Nothing looks very promising right now,'' Midgett said. ``But who knows? Some of these dead ends might just open into doors.''
Siclari, an ultra-sound technician who was vacationing on the Outer Banks with her brother and two girlfriends, was last seen alive on Aug. 28, 1993, at the Carolinian Hotel.
The 35-year-old New Jersey resident had been drinking at the Port-O-Call Restaurant & Gaslight Saloon earlier that evening. She returned to her room at the Carolinian - which she shared with her brother - about 2:30 a.m. Shetold her brother that she was going outside to smoke a cigarette.
At 6:50 a.m. - less than nine hours berfore Siclari was scheduled to return to her North Arlington, N.J., home - a cleaning crew found her body about 20 feet east of the hotel'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.
An autopsy showed a ``small- to medium-sized knife'' had stabbed and slashed her throat at least half a dozen times. But there was ``no evidence of injury about the genital area,'' although the autopsy report concluded that she had had sex within the last 24 hours of her life. Her shorts and underwear were not torn.
As of Aug. 5 - when relatives announced the reward - police had tested blood samples from seven suspects, including Siclari's brother and the hotel bartender. But none matched the DNA information gleaned from Siclari's autopsy. Without fingerprints, a weapon, or other physical evidence, the sperm sample is the detectives' best clue.
``We're working under the assumption that whoever she had sex with is our primary suspect,'' Midgett said.
``We've talked to about 20 or 30 more people since that press conference, and identified two or three more suspects to be blood-tested,'' Midgett said. ``We plan to go to New Jersey soon. And we're following up on everything.
``We've gotten six or eight calls as a result of that reward,'' he said. ``A lot of them, though, are just speculation.
``Psychics have called us. Three people said God told them to call us. Some calls weren't even connected to this case. You've got to check it all out, though,'' Midgett said. ``It's all we got to go on.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Siclari
Graphic
SICLARI CASE
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: MURDER STABBING by CNB