When your a child, you are not aware of your surroundings. Your told by
your parents that you should not talk to strangers, you should not get
into the car with someone you do not know, my mother always said to run
and scream fire! if i was ever in a situation where I was in danger. We
are told not to trust people that we do not know, they are not to be
trusted. But what about the people that we do know? Can we trust them?
As children our sense of perception is not as keen as when we get older,
we dont sense danger as we would at an older age. This to me has so
much to do with the tragic story of Lorraine Pacifico, she knew her
killer. Her brothers knew her killer, he was a local boy that hung out
on the block and was considered to be quiet. In fact all his neighbors around his Oakwood home said they
were sorry but that they really could not say anything bad about him.
He was respectful and never caused any problems on the block. But this
is all on the outside, in front of people who were older, his family was
well off and presumably worried about appearances. But Lorraines older
brother, Anthony Pacifico remembers Kieth Vischio, he remembers what he
was. He was a loner who had never had a girl friend by the age of 20, he
had few friends mostly just the kids that hung out around the Oakwood
Train Station. Anthony recalls a time when he ran into Keith when he,
Anthony was only 12 years old, Keith said to him " Why dont we go get a cat
and put it in the barb wire on top of the fence and watch the birds eat
it." He said no, that it wasnt a good idea. So at the very least the
Pacifico's knew Keith for about 6 years prior to the murder of their
baby sister.
On July 7th 1980, Lorraine Ann Pacifico was on her way home, It was about 5 pm on Monday afternoon when she walked into her house and called her mother as she always did to inform her that she was home and that she was going to go out and play with a few kids out on "the block". She had told her brother the same thing and went out to play. Her mother came home less then a half hour after the phone call and looked for her daughter to no avail. Around this time Lorraine's oldest brother Pete was waiting for the train in Oakwood, on his way to a concert in Central Park. He later said he had seen Keith at the station talking to a few girls. He got on the train and went to his concert, something I am sure haunts him to this day. Because by the time he got home later that night around 11 pm, his baby sister was no where to be found. Lorraine's mother called the cops and they had started to look for her asking around to the local kids, even back tracking to the Our Lady Queen of Peace school yard that was near by. A massive search was under way by the next day. Lorraine had never ran away, she excelled in school and she was by no means a "problem child", she was the apple of her mothers eye, her only baby girl. By the 9th of July there was still no leads in her disappearance and there was no motive as well. The people of Staten Island were shaken to the core, this event rocked the community. There was a kid napper out there at the very least. Parents kept their kids inside and watched the news every night thankful that they had their kids safe at home, but sick of the thought of what could have happened to this bright eyed 10 year old. The local police started asking around, even her killer had helped out with the investigation. A few kids has told the police that they should look in to Keith, that he had a loose mouth and was saying he knew a few things about it. But when asked about weather or not he saw her that day he said no, that he was not in the area on that day. This they knew was a lie because not only had Pete, Lorraine's older brother, seen him at the Oakwood station, but the two girls he was talking to had gone into the Guyon Market and told the store clerk that a man was bothering them. She then went outside to check it out and saw Keith who she knew as a local boy, and told him to leave the girls alone. He then went into the liquor store and bought 2 bottles of wine and drank one bottle while his friend, Mooch, drank the other bottle. Lorraine's brother had asked Keith, since he saw him in the area, if he had seen the young girl at any point, Keith in return said that he had not but that it was terrible that the family could not locate her and that if he heard anything he would be sure to let them know, as he hoped for her safe return.
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| Confession. |
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| crime scene |
On July 11th, while the search was underway, 3 auxiliary cops made the gruesome discovery. While searching under the overpass of the Oakwood train station, they found human remains. They were sure that it was Lorraine though the body was so badly decomposed due to the heat of this July, as well as the nature of the crime that dental records where needed to make the ID. When they found it was her it was plain to see the terror that she had endured, for Lorraine was beaten in the head over 20 times with a rock, leaving 6 fractures in her skull. Her clothes were removed and her body was slashed with a broken beer bottle from under her waist up to her neck. After it was determined that it was the young girl they needed to start looking for a killer. After sending evidence to the lab for results, they discovered that prints on the bottle belonged to Keith. The cops drove to the Oakwood neighborhood to pick up the suspect, when they saw him they simply asked him to come over to the car where they said he was under arrest for murder and to get into the car. Keith replied "what?", and the cop just repeated himself. After he got into the car the men told him they would explain everything when they got to the stati
