There will be no new arrests in Costanzo murder case at least none stemming from an Elko County Sheriff’s report, according to sources close to the case.
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According to those sources Elko County District Attorney Marc Torvinen found nothing in a report compiled by Sheriff’s Detective Kevin McKinney a month ago to warrant any new charges or new arrests in the murder of 16-year-old Micaela “Mickie” Costanzo.
Working on a tip that there could be a third person involved in the crime Elko County Detectives were in Wendover in early September interviewing potential witnesses about the events on the night of the murder of Micaela Costanzo, March 3.
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“We conducted several interviews,” McKinney confirmed last month. “They are being typed up and our report will be delivered to the District Attorney’s office. It is up to them if they want to press charges.”
While McKinney’s report met a dead end at the DA’s office, it may have spurred a flurry of activity from the Toni Fratto defense team.
While it was not known whether Fratto’s lawyers have yet received a copy of McKinney’s report both attorneys and investigators from the fratto team were in Wendover as late as this Wednesday scouring the area for new leads in their clients cause.
Fratto and boyfriend Kody Patten confessed to the murder of Mickey Costanzo but at different times and there statements were at least partially contradictory.
Patten confessed first, three days after the murder and just hours after the Costanzo’s body was found in a ravel pit about three miles west of Wendover.
Patten did not mention Fratto being involved in the crime at all and in fact in a throw away line to detectives interviewing him said he left the crime scene “to go pick up, Toni”. Fratto had been attending a meeting of the West Wendover Recreation District where her mother Cassie is a member of the board.
Patten may have told police that he committed the murder within 30 minutes of abducting Micaela “Mickey” Costanzo.
Patten’s time line of the killing is at least superficially at odds with Fratto. In her confession the 19 year old Wendover girl said Costanzo was alive and with Patten when Patten picked up after the meeting at around 7 pm.
Neither of the two confessed killers admitted that Mickey Costanzo was at any time restrained or bound before they killed her.
Where the two confessions agree is in their portrayal of a panic murder when a verbal argument progressed into a physical shoving match that lead to the actual killing.
In Patten’s confession, the young man instead he dealt the killing blow, shovel blade across the neck after Costanzo went into a seizure after striking her head against a rock. In Fratto’s confession, it is she who kills Costanzo by cutting the unconscious girl’s throat with a folding knife.
Speculation that Patten or Patten and Fratto had help at least after the murder had long been rumored. While most reports were simply idle gossip there is some evidence that has fueled the rumor mill.
With the exception of tire tracks belonging to the borrowed SUV that Patten or Patten and Fratto used to get to the gravel pit, there is virtually no forensic evidence linking the Fratto to the crime and there is no forensic evidence linking Mickey Costanzo to the vehicle.
“She was a 16 year old girl, she got out of the shower from track practice,” said a source close to the investigation. “She was in the car for any where from 20 minutes to two hours. It should have been full of her DNA.”
Police, prosecution and both defense teams have already commented on the tremendous lake of forensic evidence linking either Patten or Fratto to the crime scene or even the SUV.
“You don’t expect that from a so called panic murder by one or two teenagers,” said a source close to the case. “But the car was almost spotless. There was no trace of Fratto at the scene not even a footprint and very slight DNA evidence putting Patten there either. It just doesn’t fit the knocked drag out fight account in their confessions.”
According to as yet substantiated reports the reason for the lack of evidence is that the killers may have had help after the murder but before Patten’s confession to clean up by an adult who may or may not have known about the killing three days before Micaela Costanzo’s body was found.
If true, and that is a big if, that helper could find him or herself facing murder charges. According to Nevada law there is no lesser charge of aiding and/or abetting after the fact.
“If one is a principal before during or after the fact in a murder one is a principal in the murder,” said Fratto’s attorney John Springgate.
However, despite their ages Kody Patten and Toni Fratto may have had enough knowledge on how to clean a crime scene without adult supervision. According to teachers at west Wendover High School Kody Patten’s senior English report was on modern American serial killers.
Of the two the arrest or even open speculation of a third accomplice would be more beneficial to Fratto.
Her lawyers have long contended that her confession was simply made out of whole cloth and have pointed out details in it that simply could not have happened when she said they did.
The most glaring example was Fratto’s account of hiding from a passing train. According to records the only train passing through the area came at around 5:30 pm, a time when Fratto’s whereabouts are known at the time Fratto admits to killing Costanzo the track was empty.
Depending on who and if a third accomplice is a identified the case against Fratto could collapse.
There is also clear proof that at least one person in Wendover still holds a tremendous amount of enmity toward the murdered young girl and her family.
In July perhaps during Toni Fratto’s preliminary hearing a hand mad wooden cross that marked the girl’s shallow grave at the gravel pit was stolen.
The cross was placed by family friends Tracy and Todd Woofinden where she was killed and buried. The cross was erected on what would have been Micaela Costanzo’s 17th birthday on May 3rd.
The cross was stolen between July 11 and July 14. Coincidentally the preliminary hearing of Toni Fratto was held on July 13 and July 14.
In a related development the parents of Mickie Costanzo are exploring the possibility of filing a wrongful death suit against the Elko County School District and or the parents of Toni Fratto and Kody Patten.
Even if a third suspect is not criminally he or she could also be named in such a suit.