I found Cecilia!
SECTION: SUBURBAN; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 543 words
HEADLINE: MOM'S ALL-CONSUMING QUEST OUT TO SOLVE DAUGHTER'S STRANGLING
BYLINE: BY TONY SCLAFANI DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU
BODY:
CECILIA Tagliaferri was never much for watching cop and court shows on television.
That was before her 31-year-old daughter, Leah, was choked to death in her Queens apartment on April 5, 2002. The killer has yet to be caught.
"It's like a cloud over my head, and I don't want to do anything else," Tagliaferri, 64, told the Daily News this week. "I have to find out who killed her. If I gave up, I would be abandoning her."
When she's not viewing hours of fictional and documentary crime shows, the retired airline worker searches for any clues, or criminals, that may help crack a case that has stumped detectives for nearly three years.
(...)
Her hunt for Leah Tagliaferri's killer has bordered on obsession, even as she tries hard to focus - if only for a moment - on other tasks, like solving crossword puzzles.
"I don't do anything all day but think of this," Cecilia Tagliaferri said. "It's my life. The whole time I'm awake, I'm thinking of who killed her and why."
Leah Tagliaferri was found dead at 5 a.m. April 6, faceup in the bathroom doorway of her one-bedroom Woodside railroad apartment, where she had just moved with her boyfriend from another place, blocks away.
A handkerchief, the weapon used to kill her 10 hours earlier, was still wrapped around her bruised neck. Unopened boxes lined the flat.
(...)
With no sign of forced entry or a robbery, it appears Leah Tagliaferri probably knew her killer. Death by strangulation typically signals something personal between the victim and the killer, cops say.
In January 2004, the case was reassigned to the Queens cold case squad, whose detectives started the probe from scratch.
"The case has not been solved not for a lack of effort," the squad's Detective Mark Valencia told The News. "The assistance in the community is a necessity in this case."
But Cecilia Tagliaferri is not waiting.
She organized two vigils in her daughter's memory and has gone on TV herself, talking to reporters and psychic Sylvia Browne on "The Montel Williams Show."
A $30,000 reward, including $10,000 from Mayor Bloomberg, is being offered in the case.
(...)
"The waiting and not knowing . . . It's killing me every day," she said. "I'm hoping maybe one day they'll find out who did it."
Anyone with information about this case can call Crimestoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
tsclafani@nydailynews.com
GRAPHIC: COREY SIPKIN DAILY NEWS Cecilia Tagliaferri displays snapshot of her daughter Leah, who was slain in her Woodside apartment in April 2002. Police are stymied; they say Leah probably knew her killer.
LOAD-DATE: January 12, 2005
My homegirl. I was raised in Woodside.
