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The breakthrough came after investigators reopened the cold case and reexamined preserved evidence using modern DNA technology
NEED TO KNOW
- Authorities identified the man responsible for the 1995 killing of Celestina Perez through advances in DNA testing, closing the 31-year-old cold case
- Perez was 24 and the mother of four when she was found dead in a Springfield, Mass., park after a violent assault
- The identified suspect died in 2013, preventing a prosecution, but investigators said the case is “no longer unresolved”
For 31 years, the family of Celestina Perez lived without knowing who killed the 24-year-old mother of four. Now, thanks to advances in DNA technology, investigators say they finally have an answer.
On Tuesday, July 22, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced that Joseph James Ceravolo Jr. has been identified as the man who assaulted and killed Perez in Springfield, Mass., in 1995. Ceravolo died of natural causes in 2013, meaning he can no longer be prosecuted, but prosecutors said the evidence establishes that he was responsible for the killing.
“If Ceravolo were alive today, he would be charged with the murder of Ms. Celestina Perez,” Gulluni said in a statement.
Before making the public announcement, Gulluni and members of the investigative team met privately with Perez’s family.
“Today, my family closes a chapter that has remained open for 31 years. During all this time, we lived with questions, pain, uncertainty,” Perez’s nephew, Jose Reyes, said in a statement shared by Western Mass News.
“We never stopped remembering our dear Celestina, our aunt, our sister, our mother, our friend and we never stopped hoping that, one day, the truth would come to light,” Reyes continued. “Today, that day has arrived.”
“Although nothing can bring her back to us, erase the suffering we have lived, or deliver the full accountability in court that should have happened years ago, knowing the truth allows us to take a final step towards justice and begin to find a little peace.”
Perez was found dead on the afternoon of June 2, 1995, after two men walking through Gurdon Bill Park discovered her body in a ravine near Genesee and Warwick streets in Springfield’s Lower Liberty Heights neighborhood, according to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators determined that a violent struggle had begun near the top of the ravine and continued down the slope, where Perez’s body was ultimately found. An autopsy later determined she died from manual strangulation and blunt-force trauma to the head, and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the district attorney’s office.
Despite interviewing Perez’s loved ones, canvassing the neighborhood and pursuing leads, detectives were unable to identify her killer at the time.
The breakthrough came decades later after the Hampden District Attorney’s Office Unresolved and Unidentified Case Investigation Unit reopened the case, believing advances in forensic science could provide new answers.
Investigators reexamined blood evidence preserved from Perez’s clothing and developed a male DNA profile that matched Ceravolo, according to the district attorney’s office. Independent testing by a second laboratory produced the same DNA profile, while investigators also determined Ceravolo lived within walking distance of the park at the time of the killing and documented a history of assaultive behavior.
Although Ceravolo died in 2013, Gulluni said investigators continued working to independently confirm the evidence before publicly identifying him.
“Even when a suspect cannot be prosecuted, we have an ethical obligation to the victim’s family, to the public, and to the person identified to ensure that our conclusion rests on a thorough investigation and reliable evidence,” Gulluni said. “Because Ceravolo is deceased, there can be no courtroom verdict. That is a painful limitation, and it is not the outcome Celestina or her family deserves. But there is now an answer. There is no longer any mystery. And after 31 years, the murder of Celestina Perez is no longer unresolved.”
Gulluni acknowledged that identifying Perez’s killer cannot undo the loss endured by her loved ones.
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“Nothing we announce today can return Celestina to the children who grew up without their mother or erase the grief her family has carried for 31 years,” he said. “We remain sorrowful with them, but we hope that this work brings some measure of peace and closure.”
He ended by reflecting on why investigators continue pursuing cold cases, even decades later.
“This case and the conclusion we reached validates why we do this work. Why we dedicate days, weeks, months, and years to these victims and their cases and the justice they so deserve,” Gulluni said. “Celestina Perez was a mother, a daughter, a sister, and an aunt. She was loved. Her life mattered. Today, after 31 years, we can finally say that the person responsible for taking her life has been identified. This is why we never forget. Why we never quit.”
PEOPLE reached out to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office for additional comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Read the original article on People
