10 years later, police asking for public’s help in solving mall homicides
BOCA RATON — In Boca Raton Police Capt. Matthew Duggan’s office, Joey Bochicchio’s picture is there among images of his own children. He thinks of all the milestones his kids have passed: communion, homecoming, going off to college. All things 7-year-old Joey Bochicchio will never get to do because she and her mother, Nancy, were killed in 2007.
Ten years after their bodies were found bound and shot at point-blank range in the back
of their SUV at the Town Center of Boca Raton mall, their killer remains unknown.
Joey’s picture “will stay there until we solve this,” Duggan said.
This December will mark a decade since the killings shook the community. Though investigators have combed through more than 2,000 leads during that time, they believe there’s someone out there who can remember something new.
In a video summarizing the case on their public Facebook page, Boca Raton police are asking anyone who knows anything to come forward. Officers said they hope this video compilation can either jog someone’s memory or let them know they can come forward now if they’ve been holding on to information all these years.
“While the investigation is ongoing and the following up on leads as they come in is ongoing, there’s also a strategy as far as the public goes,” Duggan said. “We need to keep this in the mind of the public.”
The story of the Town Center at Boca Raton homicides starts in August 2007, when a woman approached a parking valet, saying she and her child were abducted at gunpoint as she left the mall. She said she was driven to a bank, where she was ordered to withdraw $500.
Later, she said she had been tied with zip-ties and handcuffs, and even forced to wear sunglasses and goggles with sponges inside them to prevent her from knowing where she and her abductors were going.
Four months later, just before midnight on Dec. 12, 2007, a security guard found a 2007 black Chrysler Aspen with its engine running parked near the Sears store at the mall. Bochicchio, 47, and her 7-yearold daughter were found bound and shot at pointblank range inside their own car. Their eyes were covered with swimming goggles that had black cloth covering the lenses.
“As soon as we responded to the scene, there were some parallels to the August case,” Duggan said. “We immediately knew that there were definitive links between that case and the August case.”
Because carjacking is a federal crime, the Federal Bureau of Investigation became involved.
Within hours of the carjacking, Bochicchio’s phone and credit cards were found in Miami. Additionally, the zip-ties and duct tape used to bind Bochicchio and her daughter were also bought in Miami. Investigators also found that much like the first mall incident, Bochicchio was forced to withdraw $500 from a bank.
JoAnn Bruno, Joey Bochicchio’s aunt and Nancy’s sister, said she wakes up every morning saying “this is going to be the day” that her family’s killer is caught.
“She would have been going off to college. She missed her time to drive,” Bruno said of Joey.
“She missed everything that brings joy to a mother. I hope every day he goes through what I go through, that his mind is never at peace.”
In 2015, the reward for any information leading to a conviction was raised to $400,000.
Duggan reflected on the time passed in the last 10 years and watching his own kids growing up, knowing 7-year-old Joey Bochicchio would never experience those same milestones.
“I look at my own kids. I have kids basically the same age,” Duggan said. “(Bruno) will call me during the holidays or call me not just Joey’s anniversaries or birthday, she’ll call on my kids’, because at this point she knows what they are. And that’s what motivates you: You’re doing it as much for her as anybody.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Scott Hanley at 561-3381344 or Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 800458-TIPS (8477).
JoAnn Bruno, Joey Bochicchio’s aunt and Nancy’s sister, said she wakes up every morning saying ‘this is going to be the day’ that her family’s killer is caught.