04-06-2011, 12:13 PM
HYDE PARK — More than a week after her death, the shock remains for residents and business owners over the unsolved homicide of Kathryn Filiberti.
For many, the slaying of the 18-year-old graduate of Franklin D. Roosevelt High School seems so out of character for the Town of Hyde Park, known for its rich history and breathtaking views of the Hudson River. The homicide was only the second in at least five years.
"You don't hear things like that happening in Hyde Park — a violent crime like that," said Ron Wheeler, who lived in Hyde Park for two years until he moved this year. He was eating ice cream Monday afternoon at Dairy Queen on Route 9.
The only other recent homicide in Hyde Park, population 21,571, was a brutal case of domestic violence. On July 29, Linda Riccardulli, 47, was shot to death by her husband, Anthony Riccardulli Sr., 55, at their home on South Quaker Lane. Anthony Riccardulli then fatally turned the gun on himself.
In contrast, the City of Poughkeepsie, with a population of 32,736, had six homicides in 2010 and two so far this year, city police said Tuesday.
Hyde Park is noted for its historic sites, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt home and presidential library. Much of the northern part of town, including the Staatsburg hamlet , is rural.
The southern area of Hyde Park, bordering the Town of Poughkeepsie, shows some of the economic blight many of the communities across Dutchess County are afflicted with due to the lingering economic downturn.
Many storefronts along Route 9G are boarded up and a former gas station is vacant. It was in this area that Filiberti, known to her friends as "Katie," was apparently last seen at a house party off Route 9G in the Greenbush neighborhood March 18, an unseasonably warm Friday. This is where Mike Delarm, who identified himself as Filiberti's boyfriend, said he was the last to see her alive.
Filiberti's body was found the following day in the woods off Greentree Drive — at least four miles north on Route 9G of the Greenbush neighborhood.On Saturday, paramedics responded to a report of a 21-year old with a possible drug overdose at the Delarm house on East Market Street in Hyde Park.
An official at Saint Francis Hospital said someone with the last name Delarm was in the emergency room that morning.
The turn of events has been the talk of the town for those eating at Angelina's Pizza and Pasta in the Haviland Shopping Center on Route 9G.
"That's all they talk about," said John Siragusa, the co-owner of the business.
Among those talking, he said, are teachers from nearby Haviland Middle School, where Filiberti attended sixth through eighth grades.
"They say she was such a nice girl," Siragusa said.
More recently, Filiberti herself ate with friends at Angelina's, he said.
Stu Davis, owner of S&S Appliance on Route 9G, near Greenbush Drive, called the homicide a "black eye for Hyde Park."
He said Hyde Park already gets a "lot of negative publicity" due to the political turmoil caused by the election every two years of all five Town Board members — causing frequent shifts in the majority political party.
Davis said he thinks the Hyde Park Police Department is "doing a great job" in investigating the case.
But the lack of details about the homicide has fueled a lot of rumors, he said.
"There's too much misinformation," he said.
Loni Siggelkow, a Hyde Park resident, said she fears the rumors about the homicide, particularly about possible suspects, are a rush to judgment.
Siggelkow, mother of two teenagers, said she feels bad for the parents of Katie Filiberti.
"I could not imagine losing a child like that," she said.
Tim Mahan, son of the owner of the Mahan Agency, an insurance agency on Route 9G in the Oakwood Plaza, called the slaying of two women in Hyde Park in less than a year sad and a shame.
He said he was a close friend of Linda Riccardulli's.
"I was pretty devastated by that," Mahan said.
Brenda Hernandez, who works at Hyde Park Pizza on Route 9, said Katie Filiberti was an occasional customer at the pizzeria and said she was shocked to hear of her death.
She also was a "Basic Math" classmate of Filiberti's this school year at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie.
"She was very quiet," Hernandez said.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/artic...ng-lingers
For many, the slaying of the 18-year-old graduate of Franklin D. Roosevelt High School seems so out of character for the Town of Hyde Park, known for its rich history and breathtaking views of the Hudson River. The homicide was only the second in at least five years.
"You don't hear things like that happening in Hyde Park — a violent crime like that," said Ron Wheeler, who lived in Hyde Park for two years until he moved this year. He was eating ice cream Monday afternoon at Dairy Queen on Route 9.
The only other recent homicide in Hyde Park, population 21,571, was a brutal case of domestic violence. On July 29, Linda Riccardulli, 47, was shot to death by her husband, Anthony Riccardulli Sr., 55, at their home on South Quaker Lane. Anthony Riccardulli then fatally turned the gun on himself.
In contrast, the City of Poughkeepsie, with a population of 32,736, had six homicides in 2010 and two so far this year, city police said Tuesday.
Hyde Park is noted for its historic sites, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt home and presidential library. Much of the northern part of town, including the Staatsburg hamlet , is rural.
The southern area of Hyde Park, bordering the Town of Poughkeepsie, shows some of the economic blight many of the communities across Dutchess County are afflicted with due to the lingering economic downturn.
Many storefronts along Route 9G are boarded up and a former gas station is vacant. It was in this area that Filiberti, known to her friends as "Katie," was apparently last seen at a house party off Route 9G in the Greenbush neighborhood March 18, an unseasonably warm Friday. This is where Mike Delarm, who identified himself as Filiberti's boyfriend, said he was the last to see her alive.
Filiberti's body was found the following day in the woods off Greentree Drive — at least four miles north on Route 9G of the Greenbush neighborhood.On Saturday, paramedics responded to a report of a 21-year old with a possible drug overdose at the Delarm house on East Market Street in Hyde Park.
An official at Saint Francis Hospital said someone with the last name Delarm was in the emergency room that morning.
The turn of events has been the talk of the town for those eating at Angelina's Pizza and Pasta in the Haviland Shopping Center on Route 9G.
"That's all they talk about," said John Siragusa, the co-owner of the business.
Among those talking, he said, are teachers from nearby Haviland Middle School, where Filiberti attended sixth through eighth grades.
"They say she was such a nice girl," Siragusa said.
More recently, Filiberti herself ate with friends at Angelina's, he said.
Stu Davis, owner of S&S Appliance on Route 9G, near Greenbush Drive, called the homicide a "black eye for Hyde Park."
He said Hyde Park already gets a "lot of negative publicity" due to the political turmoil caused by the election every two years of all five Town Board members — causing frequent shifts in the majority political party.
Davis said he thinks the Hyde Park Police Department is "doing a great job" in investigating the case.
But the lack of details about the homicide has fueled a lot of rumors, he said.
"There's too much misinformation," he said.
Loni Siggelkow, a Hyde Park resident, said she fears the rumors about the homicide, particularly about possible suspects, are a rush to judgment.
Siggelkow, mother of two teenagers, said she feels bad for the parents of Katie Filiberti.
"I could not imagine losing a child like that," she said.
Tim Mahan, son of the owner of the Mahan Agency, an insurance agency on Route 9G in the Oakwood Plaza, called the slaying of two women in Hyde Park in less than a year sad and a shame.
He said he was a close friend of Linda Riccardulli's.
"I was pretty devastated by that," Mahan said.
Brenda Hernandez, who works at Hyde Park Pizza on Route 9, said Katie Filiberti was an occasional customer at the pizzeria and said she was shocked to hear of her death.
She also was a "Basic Math" classmate of Filiberti's this school year at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie.
"She was very quiet," Hernandez said.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/artic...ng-lingers