People and incidents
Arthur Luciani (1979)
Sources compared and paraphrased
Three-year-old Arthur Luciani was reported missing from Pemberton Township; days later detectives found his body near a Mount Holly church and charged his mother and her boyfriend.
Search and recovery
Arthur’s mother, Linda Luciani, 23, reported him missing January 8, saying he had gone through the back door of their duplex development to take out trash. He was about 3 feet tall, weighed 30 pounds, and had curly black hair. His grandmother Dorothy Luciani believed abduction more likely than wandering. Police said he had a one-year-old brother and five-year-old sister and initially found no kidnapping evidence.
As many as 300 people and more than 150 Fort Dix soldiers searched. Ocean County bloodhounds briefly followed scent around the property; Pennsylvania Trooper John Preston and his German shepherd Hustler searched unsuccessfully, while firefighters drained a ditch and officers checked vacant buildings.
Detectives later found Arthur in a brown bag in a shallow grave behind Mount Nebo Holy Church of the Mount Sinai Church of America, 243 Chestnut Street, Mount Holly. Assistant Prosecutor Ralph Tolomeo said statements from the adults, neighbors, and Linda’s five-year-old daughter led to the discovery. Linda and boyfriend Brian Still, 21, were charged with murder and child abuse. Tolomeo’s preliminary account alleged Still abused Arthur on January 7 and that the boy died in a bathtub used for punishment. The body went to Rancocas Valley Hospital for autopsy; the clippings do not give the final findings or court outcomes.
Sources
Associated Press missing-person report, a local follow-up on the tracking search, and a Courier-Post staff report on recovery and arrests, January 1979. One early line gives Arthur’s age as eight, but photographs and later reports consistently identify him as three.