Photo Courtesy of Google
Christine’s body was discovered near an LIRR overpass around 89th Avenue and 121st Street in Richmond Hill.
By Michael V. Cusenza
The hunt continues.
Thirty-five years later, detectives assigned to one of the coldest of city homicide cases remain vigilant in their search for the man who brutally murdered 14-year-old Richmond Hill resident Christine Diefenbach.
Law enforcement officials haven’t given up on her.
“It is never too late for justice,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said on Monday.
File Photo
Christine Diefenbach, 14, was found bludgeoned to death on Feb. 7, 1988.
Christine ventured out of her 125th Street home early on Sunday, Feb. 7, 1988 to buy the paper at a newsstand that was roughly a quarter-mile to a half-mile from the Diefenbachs front door. Four hours later, her badly bludgeoned body was discovered near a Long Island Rail Road overpass around 89th Avenue and 121st Street that was a popular shortcut for kids at the time.
“She was savagely, savagely beaten to death,” Det. John Roberts told the New York Daily News in 2019. “That’s evident. The cause of death was clearly blunt force trauma. I’m sure she fought. I’m sure she tried to scream. She was skinny and young. She was a child.”
Detectives looked into an anonymous tip called into the 102nd Precinct stationhouse from a defunct bar a few months after the murder. The caller pointed their finger at a neighborhood character known simply as “Tennessee,” claiming that the man told friends that he “f—ed up a girl,” and might have even killed her.
The tip didn’t pan out and “Tennessee” maintained that he has always had an alibi for the crime.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8477). All correspondences are strictly confidential.
