DA reopens Tinyes Valley Stream murder case

Twenty years to the day after the notorious murder of Kelly Ann Tinyes, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice has announced that she is reopening the case to investigate whether the man serving 25 years to life for the slaying might have had an accomplice.

Rice said she, together with police, reopened the investigation into the murder of 13-year-old Kelly Ann Tinyes of Valley Stream two years ago at the request of the slain girl's parents, and has now established a hotline for tips in the case: 516-870-2813. The Tinyes family has always suggested Robert Golub, the neighbor who was convicted of killing their daughter, might have had help from his younger brother John in committing the crime.

Rice said her investigators have retested the DNA evidence in the case using modern technology and interviewed dozens of witnesses. Now she said they need the public's help to find crucial evidence they believe may still be out there.

Rice would not say whether John J. Golub, now 34, is a target of the new investigation. Nor would she discuss whether the investigation has uncovered any new evidence. But she said the facts don't add up.

"The family has questions, and their questions are legitimate," Rice said yesterday.

John Golub's lawyer, John Lewis of Farmingdale, said there has never been any credible evidence against his client.

"They don't have it, and they're never going to have it, so why are we still here?" he said. "These allegations have destroyed his life."

John Golub could not be reached for comment. His mother, Elizabeth Golub, answered the door at her home Saturday but declined to be interviewed. Twenty years later, Robert Golub still insists he's innocent.

"I didn't see anything. I didn't hear anything," he said in a prison interview Monday. He said he and his younger brother have not spoken in years because of a falling out they had over the case.

Murder is the only crime that a person could still be charged with in the case, because the 5-year statute of limitations has expired for all other crimes. Prosecutors would have to prove that another person knowingly assisted in the murder.

According to prosecutors, Tinyes was baby-sitting for her 8-year-old brother, Richard, when someone identifying himself as John called the house and asked for her. Tinyes walked down the block to the Golub house, prosecutors said. One witness, a 6-year-old boy who never testified at trial, said he saw John Golub answer the door and let her in, prosecutors said.

The next day, Tinyes' mutilated body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag under the Golubs' basement stairs, prosectors said. Robert Golub turned himself in to police about two weeks later. No one else was ever charged.

John Golub, who was 14 at the time, was at home smoking marijuana with two friends at the time of the murder, prosecutors said. At the trial, prosecutors presented no evidence that John Golub knew Kelly Ann had entered the house, and his friends later passed lie detector tests saying that John left their presence only for a few minutes at a time.

But Kelly Ann's parents, Richard and Vicky Tinyes, who still live on Horton Road, said they have lived 20 years believing that one of the people responsible for their daughter's death is still free.

"We believe John J. called the house," Richard Tinyes said. "We believe John J. opened the door. If it wasn't for John J., we'd still have our daughter. We believe wholeheartedly that he was involved."

Staff writers Laura Rivera and Andrew Strickler contributed to this story.