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Fiocco, a 19-year-old freshman at The College of New Jersey, has been missing for more than a week.
An examination of the Tullytown landfill -- one of two Pennsylvania dumps where the college’s trash is deposited -- was prompted by the discovery of blood and blood-soaked material inside a trash bin at Fiocco’s dormitory.
Fiocco of Mantua Township was last seen around 3 a.m. on March 25 after attending an off-campus party. He was last seen on the fourth floor of his Wolfe Hall dormitory inside a room that wasn’t his, police said.
Fiocco’s roommate reported him missing about 36 hours later.
Authorities still don’t know whether Fiocco is dead or alive, but began concentrating their investigation on a trash chute inside his dormitory last week.
Their efforts shifted gears after the state police’s forensic lab in Hamilton concluded that the blood in the trash bin was in fact Fiocco’s.
Investigators have been searching at the landfill since Saturday. The digging hasn’t turned up any clues, police said yesterday.
Investigators also checked Fiocco’s bank and credit accounts -- they have not been active since his disappearance, said state police Capt. Al Della Fave.
With little to go on from investigators, students yesterday expressed deep concerns and yearned for answers in the hopes of finding their classmate.
"I just don’t know what to think at this point," said Michelle Martin, a senior at TCNJ. "You hear all these rumors and keep thinking of different scenarios. But it’s been over a week and I don’t know what to think now. All you can do is keep praying for his family."
In an effort possibly spur a tip in the case, the college has offered a $2,000 reward along with Crime Stoppers of Greater Trenton for information about Fiocco’s disappearance.
Despite all the rumors surrounding the case of the missing art major, students said they still feel that their campus community is safe and secure.
"I don’t think there’s anyone going around killing people," said one student. "I do feel safe, it’s just a mystery because we don’t know what happened to him."
Police said TCNJ had a number of trash pickups during the hours between the last sighting of Fiocco and when he was reported missing.
Collected trash from the college is moved to a transfer station on Olden Avenue, where it is weighed. Officials said the trash is then compacted with other loads and placed into a tractor trailer to be hauled to either Tullytown or the G.R.O.W.S. landfill in Falls Township.
"(Compacting) is a way to save money," said Phil Miller, executive director of the Mercer County Improvement Authority, which operates the transfer station. "We’re running to the landfill with only one truck instead of six."
Della Fave said the landfill’s operator, Waste Management, was contacted soon after the blood was discovered at TCNJ.
Since the company uses Global Positioning System technology to track its bulldozers and onsite trash compactors, Waste Management was able to stake out two 1-acre, 20-foot-deep areas that should contain the March 27 trash pickup from Fiocco’s dorm.
Seagulls circled overhead around mounds of trash heaps at the Tullytown landfill yesterday as the smell of rotting fish clung to the air.
Detectives have been dissecting heaps of garbage there, looking for personal items, clothing, jewelry or paper identification that may be linked to Fiocco, Della Fave said.
The painstaking work could take weeks, he said.
The Tullytown dump is more likely to contain the garbage from Wolfe Hall, Della Fave said, and unlike the G.R.O.W.S. site, there’s no asbestos in the trash.
Each day for nine hours, the task begins with a Waste Management backhoe operator scooping up small amounts of trash, which is then feathered across the back of a dump truck.
When the dump truck is full, it’s taken to another location at the landfill and spread out on the ground.
About 20 crime scene investigators attack the mound with rakes, shovels and hands, Della Fave said. After the trash is searched, it’s removed and process repeats.
Authorities said once the Tullytown site is searched, work will begin at the G.R.O.W.S. landfill.
Anyone with information on Fiocco’s whereabouts is asked to call TCNJ police at (609) 771-2167 or the state police Missing Persons Unit at 800-709-7090.
-- The
