NANUET —Barbara Thomas died without seeing the person arrested for beating to death her 15-year-old daughter, Lisa, in 1974, one of the county's most infamous unsolved murders.
Thomas, 81, died in her sleep on July 27 at the home of her daughter, Maryann, of New Windsor. She was buried with her daughter Lisa and her husband Stanley at St. Anthony’s Cemetery. Her survivors include sonStanley Thomas III and multiple grandchildren.
Thomas lived nearly 50 years in pain, advocating and constantly pressuring Clarkstown police and other authorities to find justice for her daughter by arresting her killer.
Her cause will not die with her, as her supporters and friends for decades have vowed to continue advocating for Lisa Thomas and her survivors.
"We are still continuing to carry on the fight," saidMavis Dugan Ronayne, an attorney from Pearl River."That was a promise made to Barbara. The fight for justice continues and the (Facebook) page remains to honor Lisa."
Ronayne is joined by Donna Jacaruso and Laurie Villafranco, a teacher who grew up next door to the Thomas family. They oversee the Facebook page, "Justicefor Lisa Thomas."
Jacaruso lost her daughter Brianna in 2011 and still does not have answers as to what went on in the hours leading up to her collapse and what led to her death.
"To lose a child defies all laws of the natural order of life," Jacaruso said. "To lose a child and not have answers surrounding the circ*mstances of our child's' death, is an indescribable nightmare.
"I've walked this journey of child loss with Barbara. She would often tell me that, no one else understands what we go through," Jacaruso said.
She said Thomas showed an instinctual need to find justice for Lisa and the truth about Lisa's murder, with her saying that'sher primary goal "until she takes her last breath."
"We have agreed that without closure, our lives have become a debilitating journey of just pure survival in search of answers until our dying day," Jacaruso said.
Lisa Thomas was killed on Oct. 7, 1974. She came home from Nanuet High School, spent time with her mother, and walked across the field to the Nanuet Mall, intending to buy a blouse with her babysitting earnings.
When she didn't come home for dinner, her parents called her friends and theClarkstown police. The next morning her father found Lisa's body in the woods behind the mall, about 700 feet from their Nanuet home.
Her head was bludgeoned and she had been blindfolded with a red cloth that she carried on her pocketbook. She was not sexually assaulted.
Clarkstown police say there's never been a definitive answer to where she was killed and by whom. The police re-investigated using DNA testing to help identify a suspect. DNA was not available in 1974.
Her death remains a cold-case.
Thomas and her friends have theorized the high school sophom*ore was killed by someone she knew from school or the neighborhood,There's also been talk of the slaying being carried out by a stranger.
Barbara Thomas preserved her daughter's room as it was in 1974 as she pushedfor a resolution to the case. Her husband, Stanley, died in 1987.
"One of the many things this investigation has revealed to me is just how many of you know what happened to Lisa that day," Thomas wrote. "As her mother, I cannot tell you what this does to my heart. So many are walking around with information that could have solved this case 40 years ago. ... How I wish I knew what was stopping you from coming forward. I would imagine it must be fear of some kind. Unless you were the person who inflicted those fatal blows upon my daughter, you should not be afraid to come forward."
Thomas worked for years as a council worker at Letchworth Village Developmental Center. She also worked for St. Agatha Home and cared for the mentally ill, retiring in her 70s.
Her friends recall her askind and compassionate to those who needed it most.She would invite the young people from St. Agatha's Hometo swim in her family’s pool at a time when doing so would invite criticism.
"She knew these young men had a tough upbringing and she showed them compassion at a time when others would have just brushed them aside," they wrote on the Facebook page Justice for Lisa Thomas. "Barbarawas ahead of her time."
They called her "afierce and determined warrior-mother seeking justice for her child."They wrote that over the years she sufferedwhen people seemed to want her daughter’s murder to be swept under the rug, not to be spoken of, because it made them uncomfortable.
"They wanted her to come to terms with it, to come to terms with people brutally murdering her daughter and getting away with it," they wrote. "She would not acquiesce."
Ronayne said Thomas was part of a group of mothers who lost their children. She'd write the parole board to oppose early release for the two men who killed Paula Bohovesky, 15, in 1981in Pearl River.
Lois Bohovesky, 89, who is Paula's mother, felt empathy for Thomas. Bohovesky has fought against her daughter's two killers being released from prison, though one of the men has been released.
"I remember that aneighbor who knew her said that they knew who killed Lisa but were never able to prove it," Bohovesky said of Barbara Thomas. "How difficult that must have been for her family. It's so disturbing to think that her mother died without knowing who killed her daughter and never seeing them brought to justice."
Thomashad spiritual ties with thefamily of Michael Falcone, shotdead in Chestnut Ridge after a carjackingin the Nanuet Mall parking lotby a Bronx man who stole his Jeep. His friend survived.
She always thought about Joan D’Alessandro. who was killed in 1973 in Hillsdale, New Jersey, Ronayne said.
"I will be forever grateful for having become friends with Barbara, for viewing her battle from a front-row seat, as painful as it was at times," Ronayne said."I witnessed a wounded warrior get up every day ready to seek justice undeterred.
"I will, however, forever carry the enormous pain of never being able to walk up her front steps to bring her the answers as to what happened to Lisa that day,"she said. "I carry a permanent wound as a result of not being able to do so. And quite frankly, Rockland County also carries that permanent wound of not being able to obtain justice for Lisa and her family."
Steve Lieberman coversgovernment, breaking news, courts, police and investigations.Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.Read more articlesandbio.Our local coverage is only possible with support from our readers.Sign up today for a digital subscription.
