Thursday, December 20, 2012
Family members thank Westfield Police Department, the Homicide Task Force and the Union County Prosecutor's Office in seeking justice for aunt.
Lena Triano's niece, Joan Polese (nee Triano) of Scotch Plains, and her grand niece, Christina Freitas, of Atlanta, Ga., are grateful that justice has finally been served. Triano was murdered in her home on Ripley Place in Westfield in 1976 but it wasn't until the case was reopened that a suspect, Carlton Franklin, was arrested in April 2012. Franklin, 52, was found guilty of her murder it was announced today by Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow. "We are very pleased to hear that Carlton Franklin has been found guilty of this horrific crime," said Freitas, who was 1-year-old at the time of her great aunt's murder. "When Aunt Lena was murdered, the loss to our family was very traumatic and the not knowing all these years left an …
Franklin was arrested in April 2012 after 36-year-old cold case was re-opened.
- POLICE & FIRE
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Thursday, December 20, 2012
Earlier today a 52-year-old man was found guilty of the murder of a Westfield woman, Lena Triano, in 1976, announced Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow. Because of the nature of the crime and facts that existed at the time of the crimes, the case was presented in Union County Juvenile Court. Carlton Franklin was arrested in April 2012 after the cold case unit of the Union County Homicide Task Force reopened the 1976 homicide of Triano. Agent Vinnie Byron and Sgt. Harvey Barnwell of the Homicide Task Force uncovered forensic evidence that could be tested with modern investigative techniques. That led investigators to Franklin, who was arrested quickly after the Prosecutor's Office Forensic Laboratory identified him as a suspect, …
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
In a letter to the editor, the brother of Martha Moxley, who was murdered by Ethel Kennedy's 15-year-old nephew Michael Skakel in 1975, discusses why Lena Triano's murderer should also be tried in an adult court.
- GOVERNMENT
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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
In 1975 my sister Martha was murdered in Greenwich, Conn. She was beaten and stabbed with a golf club and although she was not raped there was a frustrated sexual element to the crime. Twenty-seven years later Michael Skakel, who had been our neighbor in 1975 was arrested and charged with murdering Martha. Michael, who was 15 in 1975 was prosecuted and convicted in 2002 as an adult and is now serving a 20-years-to-life sentence in prison. When Michael was arrested in 2000, it was assumed he would be prosecuted as a juvenile and that assumption was a fundamental aspect of his early defense as it has been throughout his subsequent appeals to the Connecticut Appellate and State Supreme Court. However, the Connecticut State Attorney …
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Carlton Franklin identified as suspect in the murder of Triano, who lived at 616 Ripley Place.
When the Westfield Police Department and the Union County Prosecutor's Office announced the arrest of the suspect in the horrific murder of Lena Triano, the officials said that, because the suspect was a minor when he allegedly committed the homicide, he couldn't be identified. He would be tried as a minor and would be treated as a minor. Overnight, however, a source close to the investigation told The Star-Ledger that the then-teenager who committed the crime is named Carlton Franklin, a man who eventually served a 20-year sentence for home-invasion robbery of a family. Franklin, who was released from prison in 1999, was arrested Monday at the oil company where he drove a truck. He was arrested without incident. As Patch learns more …
40.64898
-74.33795
616 Ripley Pl, Westfield, NJ
/articles/star-ledger-former-westfield-resident-killed-lena-triano
/locations/6727190
40.64831
-74.33877
617 Stirling Pl, Westfield, NJ
/articles/star-ledger-former-westfield-resident-killed-lena-triano
/locations/6727191
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
A 51-year-old man, arrested Monday in connection with the Ripley Place murder, can't be identified because he allegedly committed the act as a minor.
The Union County Homicide Task Force arrested a 51-year old man Monday, April 2 in connection with the 1976 murder of Westfield resident Lena Triano. Triano, 57, was discovered hogtied inside her 616 Ripley Pl. home on Monday March 15, 1976, after having been stabbed, bludgeoned and raped. Westfield Police were sent to her home after receiving a call from her brother when she failed to report to work that morning. Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow said Tuesday morning that the 51-year-old man arrested yesterday at his place of business can't be identified to the public because he was younger than 16 at the time of the murder. "The protection that is offered this defendant will continue in that the individual will be tried in …
40.64898
-74.33795
616 Ripley Pl, Westfield, NJ
/articles/arrest-made-in-1976-murder-of-westfield-resident-lena-triano
/locations/6748768
Captain Ed
11:21 am on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
It sounds like he may also be responsible for the 1975 Manoff murder in Springfield which is unsolved. He worked for her husband at his office! more ›