Charlotte Fimiano ////// Part 1

Summary

True Crime Garage – Episode: Charlotte Fimiano Part 1

Release Date: January 13, 2025

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of True Crime Garage, hosts Nick and The Captain delve into the unsettling case of Charlotte Fimiano, a successful realtor whose life was tragically cut short over 25 years ago. The episode meticulously unpacks the circumstances surrounding her murder, the subsequent investigation, and the lingering questions that have left this case unsolved.

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Case Overview

Charlotte Fimiano, a 40-year-old realtor from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was brutally murdered on Thursday, September 11, 1997. She was found dead in a vacant home at 2147 Chelsea Lane, a property listed for sale by her firm, Weickert Realtors. The home was situated in a quiet, secluded neighborhood, making the brutal nature of the crime even more perplexing.

Nick sets the scene vividly:

[04:03] Nick: "All right, everybody, gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. A violent murder takes place in a large home that sat empty and silent."

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Timeline of Events

1. Wednesday, September 11, 1997:

   • Charlotte receives a cold call from a prospective buyer interested in the vacant property at Chelsea Lane. She schedules an appointment to show the home the following day at 1 PM.

2. Thursday, September 11, 1997:

   • Charlotte attends the scheduled appointment but never returns home. Her disappearance is noted by her family later that evening.

3. Friday, September 12, 1997:

   • Charlotte's body is discovered at 7:10 AM by responding to an anonymous 911 call directing authorities to the property. She had been shot twice and strangled with a ligature.

4. Post-Discovery:

   • The police establish a command post, search the neighborhood, but fail to locate the murder weapon. A reward of $100,000 is offered for information leading to the perpetrator.

Nick provides a detailed breakdown:

[17:08] Nick: "Before we get into the crime scene details, I think there are some important times to highlight on this timeline... The body is then removed from the scene at 11:30 AM taken to Easton Hospital where the autopsy was conducted."

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Investigation Details

The investigation was marked by significant secrecy from law enforcement, raising questions about their findings and methods. Key points include:

• Cause of Death: Charlotte was shot twice and strangled with a ligature, likely an object found within the home.

• Evidence Collection: Despite extensive searches, no weapon was ever recovered. Personal items were found at the scene, but nothing was reported missing.

• Suspect Identification: No suspects were publicly named. The investigation remained open, categorized as a cold case.

The Captain emphasizes the mystery:

[12:51] Nick: "It makes you wonder what they were finding out and when they were finding it out because they would start to release some other information as this investigation would drag on."

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Theories and Potential Suspects

Several theories emerge regarding the motive and perpetrator:

1. Access to the Property:

   • Property Owner: Gary Peters, a successful dentist, owned the home but had no apparent motive linked to Charlotte.
   • Listing Agent: Sharon Adams, the listing agent, had access to the property. However, the motive related to commission disputes appears weak.

2. The Cold Call:

   • The mysterious caller who scheduled the appointment is a primary focus. There are conflicting reports about the nature of this call:
     • Some sources suggest the caller was specifically interested in the vacant property, indicating premeditation.
     • Others believe the caller had a general interest in secluded properties, suggesting a less targeted approach.

Nick explores the complexities:

[46:21] Christian: "Okay, so tell me if I'm crazy. Doesn't seem to me that this killer is choosing his victim, but he's choosing the location. The location seems to be more important."

3. Internal Conflict within the Real Estate Firm:

   • Potential rivalries or professional conflicts within Weickert Realtors could provide a motive, though concrete evidence is lacking.

4. Transfer Theory:

   • Nick introduces the concept of transfer theory, suggesting that the killer may have inadvertently left clues or taken items from the crime scene.

     [21:26] Nick: "Transfer theory is the simple thought that a killer likely leaves something at a crime scene knowingly or unknowingly..."

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Key Insights and Unanswered Questions

• Unresolved Motive: The primary stumbling block in the investigation is the elusive motive behind Charlotte's murder. Without a clear motive, narrowing down suspects remains challenging.

• Secluded Location: The choice of a vacant, secluded property raises questions about whether the murderer planned the crime in advance or chose an opportune moment.

• Police Transparency: The lack of detailed information from law enforcement has hindered public understanding and potential leads from emerging.

Nick reflects on the investigation's challenges:

[38:45] Nick: "And I think that this case is rather complicated. And I think that the part of the complications involved in this case is again going back to the motive."

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Conclusion

The Charlotte Fimiano case remains a haunting example of a cold case with numerous unanswered questions. The combination of a secluded crime scene, lack of concrete motives, and elusive evidence has left investigators and the community searching for answers. True Crime Garage sets the stage for a deeper dive into this mystery in the subsequent episodes, promising to explore new angles and potential breakthroughs.

Nick wraps up the discussion:

[55:20] Nick: "And until tomorrow, be good, be kind, and don't litter."

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Notable Quotes

• "A violent murder takes place in a large home that sat empty and silent."
  — Nick, [04:03]

• "It makes you wonder what they were finding out and when they were finding it out because they would start to release some other information as this investigation would drag on."
  — Nick, [12:51]

• "Transfer theory is the simple thought that a killer likely leaves something at a crime scene knowingly or unknowingly..."
  — Nick, [21:26]

• "What turned into preventing a lovely lady from going home that day. Why? What was the motive?"
  — Nick, [10:24]

• "She's a homebot. She was an at-home person."
  — Nick, [51:32]

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Next Episode Tease

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Charlotte Fimiano case, where True Crime Garage will unravel more intricate details, explore new evidence, and discuss emerging theories that could bring us closer to understanding what truly happened on that fateful day in 1997.

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This summary captures the essence of the True Crime Garage episode on Charlotte Fimiano, providing a comprehensive overview for both new listeners and longtime fans interested in revisiting this unresolved case.

Transcript

[Nick]

What was that? From the director of the Invisible Man.

[The Captain]

What's wrong with Daddy?

[Charlotte]

He got infected.

[The Captain]

And Blumhouse, producers of the Black Phone.

[Charlotte]

Something's happening to him.

[Nick]

Can you hear me?

[Charlotte]

I can't understand you.

[Nick]

Mommy, he's changing. Wait. Daddy, is that you? That's not Daddy anymore.

[The Captain]

Wolfman Directed by Leigh Whannell.

[Charlotte]

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[Nick]

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always, is a man who is on a long journey to the middle. Here is the Captain.

[The Captain]

It's good to be seen and good to see you.

[Christian]

Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Nick]

This week we are very happy to be featuring Lazy River Pills by the good folks over at New Trail Brewing Company. This is a good one for both Oktoberfest and my favorite time of year September and what I am sure that we all hope for some lazy late summer days. Lazy River Pills is a traditional German pilsner that is dry hopped with hand selected Citra hops from the Pacific Northwest brewed in the great city of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, birthplace of Little League Baseball and host city of the Little League World series garage. Grade 4 out of 5 bottle caps and captain, let's give some thanks and praise to our friends for helping us fill up the old garage fridge for this week's shows.

[The Captain]

Yeah good, we like your jib goes.

[Christian]

Out to Sarah from Bloomington, Indiana.

[Nick]

And last but not least, we have a shout out to Scribe in Annapolis, Maryland. Shout out to scribe band. Everybody we just mentioned went to true crimegarage.com clicked on the pint glass and helped us out with this week's beer fun.

[Christy]

Yeah.

[Christian]

BW Double R U N Beer Run. If you need more True Crime garage for your earballs, we have two options for you. One, sign up through Apple Podcast Subscription through the Apple Podcast app or go to truecrimegarage.com and click on our Patreon link. And you can now follow us on Patreon. And that's enough of the business.

[Nick]

All right, everybody, gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. A violent murder takes place in a large home that sat empty and silent. The home is located at the very end of a quiet street, a road that sees no through traffic. In fact, the road here, in this case officially titled Lane, to give it that certain neighborhood charm, dead ends and then splits off into two long driveways at the end of Chelsea Lane. If one were to go to the left, they would travel a driveway that extends approximately 500ft. And then you would be standing right in front of 2149 Chelsea Lane. If one were to go right instead of left, well, then you would travel a driveway that extends approximately 200 or so feet up the driveway. And now you are standing in front of 2147 Chelsea Lane. Inside of this single family four bedroom home, a successful woman and mother at the very top of her game was murdered there. As the story goes, she was there on that rainy day to meet a prospective client. That opportunity sadly turned into the woman's tragic demise. Instead of landing a buyer for the home that sat quiet and empty, the successful saleswoman met her death in the middle of a secluded neighborhood in an area where at the time, crime consisted of traffic violations and child pranksters. Was the killer someone she knew or a complete stranger? The killer remains unknown more than 25 years later. Some of the very important details in this case remain a mystery as well, unknown to all of us. All of these years later, a realtor was found shot and strangled. And throughout most of the investigation, the authorities were almost as mysterious as the murder itself, refusing to divulge the time of death, the caliber of gun used, and the important details that their investigation would uncover. Was it necessary to keep this information secret over 25 years later? And where the case sits today is firmly in the unsolved and open filing cabinet. She was killed on a rainy workday on that Thursday afternoon by someone out there, and for reasons that remain unknown as well, it was not about looking at the home. It was not about contemplating one of life's biggest purchases. It was what turned into preventing a lovely lady from going home that day. Why? What was the motive? From everything that I can see, this is a cold case. And as our longtime listeners know all too well, cold cases present many investigative challenges. There is no perfect investigation, regardless of the jurisdiction or the law enforcement entity conducting the investigation. But as we all know, there is no perfect murder. And this murder certainly is not the exception to that rule. During the course of a murder investigation, means and opportunity are often easily determined. The motive for murder is more elusive. Means and opportunity are some of the best dividing factors when separating the suspects from all other possibilities. In this case, I believe the motive could separate the prime suspect from all others. This is the still unsolved homicide case of Charlotte Fimiano, and this is true Crime Garage. As the Morning Call newspaper put it, it didn't matter that the house on Chelsea Lane stands in the middle of a secluded neighborhood in a location where crime is akin to speeding citations and vandalism rather than murder. But 40 year old Charlotte Fimiano was killed there anyway. This is in the Hellertown, Lower Saucon Township area of Pennsylvania, so not terribly far from New Jersey and just east of Allentown and Bethlehem, two larger cities in Pennsylvania. This is a murder that took place on Thursday, September 11, 1997. This is a cold case that is very solvable in my opinion, and you know how much we love to be able to put those words together in such close proximity. Charlotte Fimiano was born Charlotte Christie Edinger in 1957 to parents Donald and Anna May Edinger. At the time of the murder in 1997, Charlotte was married and was the mother of one. Her husband is Christian Fimiano and her daughter is Christy Everett Fimiano. Her daughter Christy is older. She's grown up. She's a senior in college, still living at home with mom and her stepdad, who from my understanding, raised her as his own. In 1997, Charlotte was a very successful realtor. In fact, she had been quite successful in this line of work pretty much from the time that she started in the business. She worked for Weickert Realtors in Bethlehem for about 10 years. And I do want to give a little bit of clarification here. Captain Weickert is a larger company. They have several offices. In fact, she worked at the Easton office for many years before transferring to Bethlehem to that location where she had only been for about a year, year and a Half prior to the murder. So she worked for weiker for about 10 years and then as said, only about a year and a half. At the Bethlehem office. She was a member of their Million Dollar Sales Club, a repeat member. I think that's an annual club or annual award that they give out. In 1990, Charlotte was named Woman of the Year by the American Businesswoman's Association. Starburst chapter. Now, an overview of the case is pretty much the same as the information that was released in the early goings of this investigation. Early on, the information was coming out from primarily three sources, the coroner, a detective and a fellow realtor. So let's go through the overview and include all of the known early information and after that we will see if we can add some additional details. There are some very interesting theories here, and while we don't have any publicly named suspects, I think we will be able to conjure up a few to discuss and see if the puzzle pieces fit.

[Christian]

Early on, law enforcement was very tight lipped on what they were sharing with the public in this investigation.

[Nick]

It makes you wonder what they were finding out and when they were finding it out because they would start to release some other information as this investigation would drag on. But let's go to the beginning. Okay, so one of the more well known headlines here in this case is From a Saturday, September 13, 1997 newspaper, the morning call out of Allentown, Pennsylvania. The headline reads, bethlehem Realtor found Slain in Lower Saucon Home for Sale. Immediately one's mind starts to fill in the blanks. This information is from the Northampton County Coroner, Zachary Lak, telling us that the realtor, Charlotte Fimiano, age 40, who lived on Allen street in Bethlehem Township, died from a gunshot wound to the head and strangulation. He very quickly ruled the death a homicide. However, he would not release the suspected time of death or the caliber of gun used in the murder. Charlotte's body was found just after 7:10am on Friday, February 12. The police also would not confirm nor comment if Charlotte went to the property to meet a client or a prospective buyer. Later, we would get some better clarification as to what their investigative efforts would uncover. But as anyone can understand, in the early stages, the detectives are going to be looking to see if they can confirm who was the last person she was with, why was she there and who was she meeting with. And here they don't want to show their hand, right? This is a Pennsylvania State Police case, by the way, a state police investigation. They may not want the person to know that they are able to identify or have a lead on who that person may be that she was going to meet. So that's why you keep that secret. The manager of the Weiker office where Charlotte worked out of did talk to the newspaper as well. So this is the manager. Her name is Marcy Carter. She fills in some more details from which we learned that Charlotte Fimiano was reported missing right around midnight on Thursday. Remember, the body was recovered the following morning, Friday after 7am and the newspaper that is giving out the first details of the case is from that Saturday, September 13th. Her co workers describe Charlotte as plucky and aggressive. The manager of the Weiker office, Marcy Carter, says, quote, everyone is so sad. And that Charlotte was well loved. And the real estate Firm is offering $100,000, a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Charlotte's death. Marcy tells the newspaper that Charlotte's husband Christian was the one to report her missing around midnight on Thursday, the night before her body was found. The home where she was found was listed for sale and was vacant at the time. Now, it said the police were not going to comment on if Charlotte went to the home to show the place to a prospective buyer. And Marcy very wisely did not want to jam up their investigation. So she didn't comment on that either. However, the newspaper reporters, Kathleen Parish, Denise Seaman and Phil Boyle were doing some dogged investigative work themselves and discovered that the Lehigh Valley Board of Realtors left voicemail messages for area members. One, to inform them of Charlotte's murder and two, to warn them, warning them to be extra careful when showing properties.

[Christian]

So law enforcement is being very tight lipped to the public. But then we have these Realtors coming out saying, hey, hey, we have to be careful because we don't know if this is going to be a repeat event, if this is somebody targeting real estate agents. So let's dive into a couple events on the timeline.

[Nick]

Yeah. Before we get into the crime scene details, I think there are some important times to highlight on this timeline. Remember, around Midnight on Thursday, September 11, Christian Fimiano reports his wife Charlotte missing to the authorities. At 7:10am on Friday, her body is found at the for sale residence, 2147 Chelsea Lane. There was a news conference with members of the state police that same Friday night. At this conference, the police stated that Charlotte was reported missing when she failed to return home from work. They also stated that what they would refer to as an anonymous 911 call came in Friday morning, directing police to the 2147 Chelsea Lane property. They go out there immediately after getting this 911 call. In fact, there's indicators that the police were at the Property in about 10 minutes time after receiving that call. There they find Charlotte's vehicle parked in the driveway. The body is then discovered inside the home. The body is then removed from the scene at 11:30am taken to Easton Hospital where the autopsy was conducted. Later, we're going to learn that Charlotte was shot twice and strangled. And it was ligature strangulation, meaning that she was strangled with an object, not someone's hands.

[Christian]

Right.

[Nick]

At the time, police would not say what room in the house that the body was found. And from my understanding, Captain, there's been some speculation thrown out there and there's been a source, at least one source says that she was found at the top of a stairs. I was trying to figure out if this home had a basement or not, because top of the stairs could mean second floor or ground level. I want, I want to be straight up here. That, that's not information that we've been able to confirm and it's also information that I don't believe has been publicly released by the police themselves.

[Christian]

And you said there's gunshot wounds and strangulation. Do we know if she was strangled and then shot or shot then strangled?

[Nick]

We don't. But when we get to our speculation to our suspects and to our theories portion, I'm going to, I'm going to have some comments on and thoughts on that those actions that, that we know did take place.

[Christian]

Well, we know you're never short of comments.

[Nick]

So police are saying that she shot twice, manual strangulation at the time. Again, they won't say what room inside the home that the body was found. They will not comment on the condition of the body, the caliber of gun that was used or what was used to strangle her and would not comment on possible suspects. They did say that police recovered some of Charlotte's personal items at the residence and did not know if anything was missing at this time. They did say that they set up a command post at a nearby driveway. They lined the streets of the neighborhood with cop cars, blocked off a two block area of the neighborhood, searched the neighborhood, especially all wooded areas near the home, maintained that post until late in the afternoon and recovered no weapon. The state police captain, Theodore Kohuth, said police do not have a motive for the murder. Now this is, this is all very interesting here to me, Captain, because not only are they keeping it Tight lipped. But what we do know, what we can decipher from what they are saying is that they recovered no weapon. So, one, we know that they were searching the area. They very likely were searching for the gun itself, wondering if maybe somebody ditched the gun, tossed the gun on their way out of the neighborhood, or if the killer lives in the neighborhood on a retreat back to their own residence.

[Christian]

And there's two weapons that we're looking for. Law enforcement is looking for one, a gun into some object that would be used for this triangulation.

[Nick]

And we always talk so much here in the garage about transfer theory and transfer theory. To me it's not a theory, it's a real thing. And it's a very investigative, very great investigative tool. Transfer theory is the simple thought that a killer likely leaves something at a crime scene knowingly or unknowingly, and the killer also will take something from the crime scene with him or her, knowingly or unknowingly. This can be any form of physical evidence, could be a weapon, what have you. What, what's really interesting to me here when we talk about this. Of course they're going to be searching the wooded area for a gun. Of course they're going to be searching the neighborhood for the gun. But as you bring up, Captain, ligature strangulation, we know that she was strangled with an item, a rope, a cord, a wire, what have you. This makes me really wonder if that item came from inside the home or they had reason to believe that that item would have come from inside of the home. One obvious sign of that to police would be if somebody used a phone wire or phone cord taken from one of the phones inside the murder house.

[Christian]

And out of the two weapons being left. To me, I would think it's more likely that you would leave the weapon that was used as a strangulation device because that possibly wouldn't have as many ties back to that individual as much like a firearm would.

[Nick]

Yeah, especially if that item came from inside the home. Again, they could have recovered that item from inside the home and just flat out lied to the newspapers. I don't believe that to be the case here. And we can go through that more when we get to the suspects. But again, think about this scenario. It's, it's a vacant home. It sat vacant for some time and she is there. And I know that we're saying early on that police won't say, the firm that she worked for won't say that she was there to meet a potential client or if she was meeting somebody she knew or didn't know. That's all well and good, but you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that she's in the business of selling homes. This home is for sale and we know at least one other person was there with her because the killer was there with her. So it's not much of a leap early on and later we would in fact learn that that was the case, that she was there under the ruse of showing the home to a prospective buyer.

[Christian]

A lot more details to get into after this Quick beer.

[Nick]

Foreign.

[The Captain]

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[Marcy]

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[Christy]

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[The Captain]

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[Christian]

All right, we are back. Onwards and upwards. Cheers mates. Cheers to you, Colonel.

[Nick]

I say upwards and onwards. Cheers to you, Captain. All right, Captain, here's the thing. One Key player in this murder investigation, of course, is going to be the crime scene, the murder house, the, the home that was listed for sale. And to me, this is what is so intriguing about this case. This is one of those added elements that you don't get in other murder investigations. Right. The home does not belong to the person that was killed there. And as far as we can see, I don't think there's any reason to believe that the home belonged to the person that owned it or the killer owned the home. That would seem like a pretty quick fix for law enforcement to solve this case. And Here we sit 25 more than 25 years later with an unsolved case. So let's go through that key item here, that home and what we do know about that home. So this house was owned by Gary Peters and he is from my understanding, or was at the time a successful dentist that lived in a neighboring city or not too terribly far away from where this home was. I don't know why they moved out of the home. From everything I could see, this is a, was a beautiful home. But you know, people, people go through separations. Maybe he wanted to live closer to his practice. There's any number of reasons why this individual or his family would have moved out of the home.

[Christian]

But obviously if you're in law enforcement, you have to vet anybody that owns the home, correct?

[Nick]

Because one, they, they would have access to the home, into the property.

[Christian]

Right.

[Nick]

And so you're looking for a suspect here and you're also going to be going through what you find on your victim in her car or inside that residence that she brought with her to help lead you to a suspect. And we'll get into some of that here in a minute. We do know, per police, they did say we did recover some of her belongings inside the residence and we did find her vehicle parked in the driveway out front of the home. Now, one thing we need to be very clear here on, and we talked about this a little bit in the trailer today is this house is very secluded. We did talk about it being in a neighborhood, but it's kind of on the fringe of that neighborhood. And this would be an ideal place for many people to live because you at this location in 1997 and if you look up this on any map app, you will still see this today. This home and property offers the feel of like country living, secluded retreat, country type living. But you would have all the amenities of living in a city. You know, you're nearby, all of your places to work. It would Be a short commute to schools or to. To work. But you would also feel like you're kind of out in the middle of nowhere. So the properties actually I seen it listed multiple different ways and that is because we talk about the house being vacant. It had been listed from as far as I could see starting in January of 1997. Charlotte Fibiano is killed in this home in September of 1997. And the home, the listing would typically run in the Sunday newspaper and it would give a price and a description. And it had run fairly regularly during the months that it was for sale. And some of the listings would say over three acres. Well the, the. The closest I get could get to an exact acres specifications on the. The dimensions of this property. Several of the listings say 3.5 acre lot and several say 3.6 acre lot. So you can tell from that that you have this country feel living but with all the amenities of the city. The other thing too is the positioning of this property on the road itself. As we talked about in the trailer you would have to go, one would have to go to the dead end of Chelsea Lane and then from there it splits off into two driveways. And both of these driveways are not only lengthy, but they're leading to large properties. So the. One of the best listings that I could find. It's a little short here, but it said that this home had a indoor jacuzzi or hot tub, several fireplaces, has a great view. Again over 3 acres lot it was listed. This is another interesting little tidbit here, Captain. This home was listed with Weikert Realtors but it's not listed by Charlotte Fimiano. She's not the listing agent.

[Christian]

Right.

[Nick]

In 1997, Sharon Adams is the listing agent who also works for Weikert Realtors.

[Christian]

Answered I don't know a ton about the real estate business or being a real estate agent. But if you're the listing agent, you're responsible obviously for the contracts for staging the house. If it's going to be staged, for the photographs that are taken, it being listed and the details in which it's listed. So as far as what Charlotte is doing is mainly she's just going to be showing that to clients.

[Nick]

Yeah. So it's very common for to have two people, both parties represented. The the seller is often represented by a realtor unless it's a fsbo. Right. For sale by owner or and you also have the buyer who is typically represented by a realtor. Now if you are a first time homebuyer do not know much about the housing market. And you are looking for a home and you're thinking, well, I'll just go it alone. No, get a realtor because you, as the buyer, do not pay any commissions to the realtor. The seller always pays the commissions. So you get free advice, free advisory on your big decision on making one of the biggest purchases of your life. So, but what's weird here, and I think a lot of people are going to latch onto this rather quickly. Could we have a scenario where the listing agent gets upset with Charlotte for showing her listed property? Right. The. The listing agent would get 100% commission, 100% of the commission if the buyer is not represented by a realtor. So it does cut into their money. However, they don't lose the commission. They split the commission with the buying with the buyer's realtor. So back in 1997, you know, commissions have changed over the decades. I don't know what they would have been in this area in 1997. I'm guessing what was popular here in the late 90s was between like a 4 and 6% commission.

[Christian]

Right.

[Nick]

So if you're splitting that two ways, it's. It's two each, two and a half each, three each, somewhere in that neighborhood. So this property, as said, was listed for approximately eight to nine months before the murder takes place. It was eventually sold even after the murder. I don't recall when, but they did drop the price over the course of that time period that it sat and did not sell. It was originally the first price that I could find listed here, captain, was for $279,000. And at the time of the murder, it was listed at a selling price of $259,000. Now, why is that important? Because again, we are talking about people's livelihoods, people that are in the business of working off of commission. And so it is important to know that this, at the time in 1997 in this area, this is considered to be a higher end property to have as a listing. Also higher end property to be showing to a potential buyer.

[Christian]

Yeah, I understand that, but it's not like you're cutting out their commission completely. So this seems like a kind of a weak motive to be looking at the listing agent as a possible suspect.

[Nick]

And I think that this case is rather complicated. And I think that the part of the complications involved in this case is again going back to the motive. Motive is elusive in many of these investigations. In fact, there's oftentimes where a case will go to trial and you will get a conviction and still nobody is certain of what the exact motive was here in this case. I really believe that if you could figure out the motive, then you could separate your prime suspect from all these other people that are just kind of jamming up your investigation. Right. The listing agent is somebody you should look at why they would have reason to cut somebody out. But like you said, it's not. It's not. You don't have to make much of a leap to get to the listing agent and to start looking at that person.

[Christian]

Yeah, I think, like I said, it's a very weak motive and you have to look at the owner of the property because they have access. So the same goes for the listing agent because they have access to the property as well.

[Nick]

The other thing we should keep in mind as well is that really, truly, because the property is listed with, with her real estate firm, anybody that works for that real estate firm would have access to that home right into that property. Now, we do know that, you know, today, often you will see the lock boxes on the, the doors that will you punch in a code, and every realtor has a very specific unique code to get that key out and unlock the, the home. In this case, from my understanding, I don't know if there was a lockbox, but what I do know is that at the real estate office where they worked, there was a key there. And this is interesting. So this is how we're going to. We got to start filling in some of the blanks here because there's some really interesting phone calls that take place and it would take a very long time for police to release this information. And in fact, some of the information ends up coming out from her real estate office. So at the time, there's approximately a little more than 50 people that work at this office. It's located about five and a half to six miles away from the listed property. What they did back then, and I'm sure this is fairly common in different lines of work where you're primarily paid in commissions. What they did was they would have a rotation where you would get the. You would be the person that would be assigned the cold calls. Right. So what this is is calls that would come in or people that would. Potential clients that would drop into the the building unannounced with no appointment scheduled. And from my understanding, captain, they actually had two agents that would do this task for a one for one week period. To many that have never worked in a line of work where you're paid solely on commission, you would think oh, well, this is annoying. Busy work. Who would want to do that? You'd want to keep all of your appointments. Well, I think that's why they would assign two agents so that if you did have some appointments, you could keep them and make arrangements with the other agents so that there was always somebody to answer the phone and also somebody to greet any walk ins that they may have. And in fact, if you work on commissions, you. You want to catch this task periodically because this is an opportunity for you to get new clients by them just calling in or just walking into the office. So from my understanding, Captain, Charlotte and another agent were put on this task for that week. Now remember, we know the murder takes place on a Thursday and the body's found on a Friday. It's been reported that the appointment, if you want to, let's call it an appointment, but it's kind of a happened, it's kind of a last minute appointment. Right. She catches this appointment by answering the phone that week. So she's answering the phone for the office that week. A call comes in the day before the murder. And I hate. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be straight up with everybody right now because I think there's some devil in the details here. And the problem is the details are a little shaky.

[Christian]

Right.

[Nick]

And part of that is because police have not released information and still haven't all these years later. The details that are shaky is that one, it seems across the board, everybody agrees that the call came in the day before that. Somebody called and said, hey, I want to see this property. I could be there tomorrow at 1pm that's the way that it's reported most of the time. We're going to dive into that a little bit more, but let's stick with that for now. Okay. Wednesday, Charlotte receives a cold call. She writes down this individual's name, writes down the property, and agrees to meet them there at 1pm on Thursday.

[Christian]

Okay, I have a question.

[Nick]

Yes, sir.

[Christian]

So when she is getting this call, is this coming into her own private line or like a line that's dedicated towards her or is it just coming in to the real estate company and she just happened to be the one that answered the phone.

[Nick]

All indicators are, was that this was not a call that where somebody asked for Charlotte Fimiano or that somebody was calling her direct line? Every, every source says that she was working these cold calls along with another agent and that's how this appointment was set up.

[Christian]

Yeah, because if you want to target Charlotte. Right. I'd go, well, what Listings does Charlotte have? I'll set up appointment to see one of those houses so I can make sure I'm getting my target. I think there's evidence to show that possibly the person didn't care who showed up to show them the house.

[Nick]

Right. And here's the other problem with this information. Okay? I believe this information to be good information. The problem is it's not detailed enough. Again, the devil is always in the details, right? The information is that she catches this cold call that comes in, and she agrees to meet an individual the following day at 1pm out at this property. And the thing here, though, is when you start looking at source information, the sources report this differently. Several sources state that the caller, a male caller, called asking to see a secluded vacant property. Now, we don't know the details of that conversation. And I don't believe for a second that that conversation was one or two sentences long. I think this was probably a lengthier conversation because a good salesperson. And what do we know about Charlotte? She was a great salesperson. Is going to try to get as much information from the potential buyer, their potential client as possible. And so we don't know the details of that conversation. But again, several sources are saying that the mail caller asked to see a vacant secluded property.

[Christian]

Okay, so tell me if I'm crazy. Doesn't seem to me that this killer is choosing his victim, but he's choosing the location. The location seems to be more important.

[Nick]

Well, that could also go along with the other. The other source information. The other source information is very different. To me, it says that the mail caller was asking specifically about this property.

[Christian]

Right.

[Nick]

2147 Chelsea Lane. But to me, Captain, those are two very different conversations. Right? If somebody calls and says, I want to look at 2147 Chelsea Lane, that means they are aware of a couple things. They're aware of the property, and they're aware that it's for sale. And in this case, we now know that there's a murder there. Then they also knew that it was vacant. Now, this doesn't mean that anybody has to have a great knowledge of this real estate company, their firm and their listings. I mean, they could have just seen this property in the newspaper on a Sunday and decided to drive out there and go, yeah, that. That. The paper says it's vacant, and that looks pretty secluded.

[Christian]

Right?

[Nick]

So it could be a complete stranger. And you're right, it could be somebody that's not targeting Charlotte at all, just targeting female realtor. But the problem here is, again, the other source Information saying that the mail caller asked to see a vacant secluded property, which sounds very nefarious. Right? It sounds like, why wouldn't Charlotte pick up on, oh, this is probably not a great appointment to take. I have a male caller who wants to see a vacant secluded property. It's the conversation. The caller likely would never have called up and said, yo, I want to see a vacant, empty, secluded property. They probably had a conversation where the, the, it's a ruse where the caller says, you know, I'm looking for something that's kind of out of the way. I don't like to be in a busy neighborhood. I also want something that I can move into right away. Also means vacant. Right? Right. So that, that seems like a much less nefarious conversation. Again, I don't have any, I don't fault any of this source material because a lot of it's coming from newspapers and very good newspapers at that. But it's reported two different ways. And I think that, to me anyway, I think that that separates some of the theories and some of the possibilities. In the case if perpetrator was calling specifically about a property and giving the address versus oh, this is what I'm kind of looking for. And she, she would have pointed out, she would have known about this property. It's listed with her firm.

[Christian]

Right.

[Nick]

She may have suggested it. So that's a little bit tricky. So we have that phone call that takes place. Everything says that that phone call takes place on Wednesday. We don't know what details police were able to decipher from the notes that she took from that phone call, other than they have said that they did have a name in her appointment book. And it sounds to me like they've confirmed that that is a fictitious name. Now that's Wednesday. So Thursday she goes out and shows the property and again the appointment is for 1pm this is information that has come from the real estate firm and I believe later police have confirmed this. But I, I want to get into why. I have a problem with the timeline too, especially on this Thursday. Now some more details here, Captain, that are, are very interesting. Christian Fiano and his wife Charlotte Fimiano. Obviously they live together, but remember, the daughter lives there as well. Christie lives there and from my understanding at this point, starting in August of that year, her boyfriend lives with them. Christie is a senior in college, so she's grown. Christian works a not so typical work schedule. He works 10 hour days. Around 6 or 7pm on Thursday, the day in question, Christy, the daughter, calls her stepfather Christian at Work and says, you know, it's 6:30, it's 7:00pm, mom's not home yet. This is a little weird. Usually she's home by now. And from my understanding, while this woman stayed very busy with her work and she was an extreme professional and extremely good at her sales job, she was also very much a creature of habit once her workday was done. She was an at home person. She was a homebot.

[Christian]

Yeah, you can work hard and play.

[Nick]

Hard, and you can also not play hard and just sit at home.

[Christian]

The playing hard could be work hard, relax hard.

[Nick]

That's right. So Christian says to Christie on the phone, you know, I understand your concern, but also keep in mind when. When you work in the sales business, if you want to be really good at it, your schedule is whatever your client's schedule is. If a potential buyer can only go and look at a home at 7pm on a Thursday, well, if you want to be successful, you better take that 7pm appointment. And Christian and Charlotte have been together for well over a decade. I think they got married in. In the early 80s, like 80, 81. And so this is 1997. He says to Christy, you know, she's probably just out on a late appointment, showing a house to potential buyer, or maybe she's taking a listing. I'm sure it's nothing, and I'm sure she'll be home soon. Okay, so that phone call ends. Christian gets home from work after a little after 11:30. This is why the missing persons report comes in so late. He gets home and his stepdaughter Chrissy's like, she's still not here. Okay, Now Christian's concerned, so he calls into police to just before midnight, shortly after arriving home. Hey, my wife is missing. And an interesting thing too about this line of work. Realtors are not like, completely unknown in their towns, right? You. You're used to. Sometimes you'll see their. Their face and name on their listings, on the signs in front of the properties. And it's not uncommon too, to see their names and faces on billboards.

[Christian]

Yeah. Or in the newspaper.

[Nick]

In the newspaper, exactly.

[Christian]

So, yeah. Yeah.

[The Captain]

Or on urinal cakes.

[Christian]

My favorite.

[Nick]

We have this person who's now missing. She's officially missing, reported missing, so by her family. I found this detail to be very strange because you know that I love the. Anytime that there's a communication from a killer or anonymous person to the media or to law enforcement, remember, it's reported that an anonymous call comes in to 911 on Friday morning. That leads them to that property where they ultimately find her car and then her body. That call, actually, while it's listed as anonymous in the newspapers, I think they may have done this for safety concerns. That 911 call actually came from her husband. So what he does, Captain, is very early Friday morning, he starts calling her office and other people that she worked with, and he's like, look, she didn't come home last night. I reported her missing. We think that this might be work related. And whoever gets the office rather early, they're able to determine a couple things. One, that the key for 2147 Chelsea Lane is still gone from their keyboard. And two, it was Charlotte Fimiano that was scheduled to show that property.

[Christian]

I have a question. Do you know if there was other properties that were pulled to show this individual or was it just this house? Because sometimes when you're looking for a house, the real estate agent will take you to multiple properties.

[Nick]

From my understanding, this was the only property that she was showing to this caller. So police, armed with this information, they now drive out to that property and immediately again, they find her vehicle, then they find her dead inside. Those. All those phone calls are very important. It shows some movement and communication and an appointment set up by the likely killer. Right. The. The person that called and set up the appointment doesn't 100% have to be the killer, but would seem to be the most likely of persons to be responsible for the murder.

[Christian]

Want to thank each and every one of you for joining us here in the garage.

[Nick]

And until tomorrow, be good, be kind, and don't litter.