Valentina Francesca Suriani was 18 when she was shot dead while sitting in a parked car on a service road along the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Bronx late on April 16, 1977. She and Alexander Esau were together as the hour neared 3 a.m.; a nearby resident heard gunfire and called police. Suriani was pronounced dead at the scene and Esau was gravely wounded and later died.

Investigators found a letter at the scene addressed to NYPD Captain Joseph Borrelli that introduced the name Son of Sam. Ballistics linked the gun used in this attack to earlier shootings around the city, and the case became part of a pattern targeting couples in cars at night. On August 10, 1977, David Berkowitz was arrested and later pleaded guilty to multiple murders in the spree; he was the person convicted in connection with Suriani’s killing.

Did anyone who knew Valentina or Alexander have information about where they had been that night or who might have seen them on the Hutchinson River Parkway?