55 years later, her sister is still seeking answers
Cynthia Farino was just 10-years-old when her beloved older sister, Carol Ann, was murdered. Carol Ann’s parents naively believed that the police would quickly find their daughter’s killer. Instead, the case went cold and stayed that way for over five decades.
Background
17-year-old Carol Ann was a pretty brunette who worked part-time as a waitress at Milt’s Cup and Saucer, a restaurant in the affluent neighborhood of Maplewood, New Jersey.
On November 3, 1966, Carol Ann finished her waitressing shift at 7:30 pm. After stopping for a soda at a nearby restaurant and chatting with the restaurant’s owner, she headed home around 8 pm. She would never be seen alive again.
At 8:35 pm, a couple leaving their house found Carol Ann lying in their driveway. She had been strangled with a stocking, and her body was still warm.
Carol Ann’s friend and fellow waitress told police of a young man who had followed Carol Ann to work that day and tried to convince her to get into his car. When Carol Ann told him to “get lost,” he ominously replied, “Okay, I’ll catch up to you some other time.”
Police believed that the mystery man pounced on Carol Ann after she left the restaurant and forced her into a car with the intention of raping her. The buttons on her waitress uniform were torn open, and her undergarments were jumbled.
Police further theorized that the attacker panicked when he accidentally killed Carol Ann, forcing him to hastily dump her body in the nearest driveway.
Police eventually moved on, but Cynthia could not forget
Despite the police interviewing hundreds of Carol Ann’s friends and Maplewood community members, they failed to identify Carol Ann’s killer. Eventually, the police moved on to the next case. But Cynthia could not forget.
