The Murder of Donna Bocklet
For this case I watched another episode of Betrayed. It’s season 4 episode 5, titled ‘One Way Ticket Out.’
A mother of two is killed in her own home by someone she trusted.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any pictures of anyone involved in this case.
Background
Donna Lambolgia was born on July 3, 1956, and raised in East Islip, New York. She met her husband Richard Bocklet in high school, and they eventually married and had two kids.
Donna was a stay at home mom when her kids were young, but had just recently gone back to work delivering groceries to the elderly. Richard worked as a nurse at a VA hospital.
Donna was described as soft spoken, caring and helpful. Donna and Richard had been planning to move to Florida, and had put their home up for sale just before Donna was killed.
Donna Bocklet
The Murder
On January 22, 1998, Donna took her kids to the school bus stop around 8:25am.
Around 9:30am, Donna’s sister Terry tried calling her, but there was no answer. Terry tried calling a few more times, but there was still no answer. Terry said she knew that something was wrong around 3pm, when the kids arrived home from school to find that Donna wasn’t home waiting for them. Terry said she immediately booked a flight to New York.
Donna was supposed to delivery groceries to a usual customer around 12pm, and her customer tried to reach her on her cell phone. Donna again didn’t answer. Richard arrived home around 6pm that night, and called their friends to help him search for Donna and her minivan, which was also missing.
The Discovery
Richard and Donna’s close friends Babe and Tony Libardi, and their daughter Danielle and her fiance, all split up to look for Donna. In this episode they saw that they made a discovery around 10pm, but in one article it says 9pm, but anyways, Donna’s 1994 Plymouth Voyager minivan was found in a grocery store parking lot.
The van was locked, but when it was confirmed by Ricky to be Donna’s van, they smashed the window to enter. Donna was found dead in her backseat, and the searchers called 911.
The police said they arrived to the scene a little after 11pm. Donna was found laying facedown, wearing a black jacket, green sweatpants, and white socks. The police immediately knew that Donna had been attacked at her home, and then placed in the van and dumped. It was very clear that Donna had been strangled, she had noticeable ligature marks on her neck.
The police notified Richard, and asked him if they could search his home.
The Investigation
The police arrived at the Bocklet home in the early morning hours, and began their search. There was no sign of forced entry or of a struggle.
The police did find some twine on the floor of the laundry room, and believed that Donna had been attacked there. There was also a palm print found on top of the washing machine. It was tested and sent in for evidence.
The police believed that Donna knew her killer, but her husband was immediately eliminated, he had been at work.
An Infatuation
The first suspect was Joe, the fiance of Danielle Libardi. His fingerprints were found inside of Donna’s van. Joe said that his fingerprints were in the van because he had been the one to break the window. It didn’t go into much detail about how he ruled out, but he was.
The next suspect was a friend of Donna’s named Sal Longo. He had a prior convictions for sexual abuse, and Donna’s customer reported that Sal had stopped by her house when Donna was leaving her home. The police questioned Sal, and he said he had an alibi. His alibi was that he took his wife to an appointment around 9am on the day Donna was killed, and he was ruled out.
The police had one more suspect to speak to. This was Tony Libardi, and he told the police something strange. He said he and Donna had been having an affair for years, but Donna’s sister denied this. She said Tony had become quite obsessed with Donna. Tony had also told Donna that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and asked if he could spend time at her house because he didn’t want his wife to find out. Donna said yes, because she didn’t know that Tony was full of shit. Tony didn’t have cancer, and lied to get closer to Donna.
Arrest and Conviction
On January 26, 1998, the police received the report back from the testing on the palm print. It was a match to Tony Libardi.
The police went to arrest him, but he wasn’t at home or at Sal’s house. Sal told the police that he had seen Tony just before he left, and that Tony confessed to killing Donna. The police put out an APB (all points bulletin) for Tony.
On February 11, 1998, Tony was arrested at the Frontier Casino in Las Vegas. When the police questioned him, he said it was an accident, and he refused to say anything else.
The police believed that Tony planned to kill Donna when she told him that she was moving to Florida. Tony didn’t take the news well because he loved Donna, and believed she felt the same way. It was also discovered that one the day of the murder Tony called Richard at work from a payphone, and then called Donna asking if he could come over. Donna said yes, but Tony came in through the laundry room. Donna tried to get away and fight back, but he overpowered her, and strangled her from behind. It didn’t say this in the episode, but it was also suggested that Donna rejected Tony’s advances, so he killed her.
In January 1999, Tony was found guilty of second degree murder. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. However, he died seven years after his conviction.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I didn’t even mean to do another case where a woman was killed simply for being nice to someone. However, this case is different because Donna had known Tony for a long time. She trusted him to watch her kids, and spend time with her and her husband. Meanwhile, Tony was a thief, a liar and now murderer.
Donna and her family did get the justice they deserved, but Tony was only rotting in prison for a few years. It’s heartbreaking that Donna lost her life because she didn’t have the same feelings for someone that they had for her.
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/25/nyregion/woman-41-is-strangled-and-left-in-minivan.html
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1998/02/02/LI-strangle-suspect-arrested-in-Vegas/9785886395600/
https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/donna-m-bocklet-birth-1956-death-1998/9901245
