The killer or killers wanted for the 2007 slayings of a mother and her 7-year-old daughter outside the Boca Raton Town Center mall may have bought items used in the attack in Miami-Dade County.
The FBI and the Boca Raton Police Department on Tuesday released new information in the killings of Nancy Bochicchio, 47, and her daughter, Joey, 7 — considered one of the biggest unsolved homicide cases in Boca Raton history.
On Dec. 12, 2007, Bochicchio and her daughter — at least one of them wearing blacked out swim goggles and both bound with plastic ties and duct tape — were found by security guards shot to death in their still-idling SUV in the parking lot of the Boca Raton Town Center mall.
And detectives have reason to think the killer or killers bought the plastic ties and duct tape used to bind the two in their SUV at a “major retailer” in Miami-Dade, Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander said Tuesday.
Alexander didn’t elaborate on which store the items were bought from or why they think the items came from a specific store, but said police have known this information since 2010.
“We want to be careful about what we release,” Alexander said. “But we feel like with this opportunity with the reward and this information centering on the Miami-Dade area, it was advantageous for us.”
The information was released at a news conference where the FBI announced it would be adding $50,000 to the reward for information resulting in the arrest and prosecution of those involved in the slayings. The total reward now stands at $400,000.
FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Michael D’Alonzo said Tuesday both the FBI and Boca Raton police are doing all they can to keep this case fresh in the minds of South Floridians. He said by increasing the reward, the agency hopes to motivate someone with information about the crime to come forward.
Investigators “are leaving no stone unturned and the FBI is supporting their investigation in any way we can,” he said. “Someone saw or heard something that can assist investigators. Please come forward. You will be rewarded for your efforts.”
At the news conference, investigators reiterated that another piece of evidence also points to a Miami-Dade connection: Police found Nancy Bochicchio’s credit card and cell phone in the 1500 block of Northeast First Avenue in Miami a “short time” after the killings.
Two homeless men found the purse belonging to Nancy Bochicchio, and used at least one of her credit cards. Police interviewed the men about week after the murders and cleared them of any wrongdoing.
Police think the mother and daughter were snatched from the mall at gunpoint, and then driven to an ATM where Nancy Bochicchio took out $500 cash. They were then shot and killed.
The murders gained national attention after being featured in shows such as “America’s Most Wanted” and “Dateline.”
Peter Sosin, an attorney representing the Bochicchio’s surviving family members, said they hope the increased interest and information will bring forth new leads in the case.
The Bochicchio incident was the third in 2007 connected to the Town Center.
Another woman, Randi Gorenberg, 52, was shot and killed after she left the mall on March 23, 2007, just a few months before the Bochicchio slayings. Her body was found at a park in Delray Beach.
Gorenberg’s murder also remains unsolved.
Finally, a similar crime happened in August, when a man kidnapped and bound a woman and her 2-year-old son, forced the woman to take money from an ATM, and then left them alive in the parking lot also at the Town Center.
Police said Tuesday that while they have no forensic evidence to support the claim that the Bochicchio and Gorenberg murders were committed by the same people, they think they are connected. The incidents sparked increased security details at the mall.
Off-duty officers patrolled the parking lot in 2008, additional surveillance cameras were placed in the parking lot later that year and the department added a substation in October 2008.
kjacobson@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6547 or Twitter @katejacobson
