Sister of slain 1980 victim says she couldn't believe authorities had solved the case

For more than four decades, the elusive answer to a vexing mystery — who raped and strangled a 20-year-old secretary in Bay Shore — kept the young woman's sister on edge and out of sorts.

Over countless sleepless nights since the killing of Eve Wilkowitz on that night in March 1980, Irene Wilkowitz had lived with the wrenching pain of losing a sibling and the fear that she would be the next target.

So when she joined Suffolk prosecutors and police Wednesday in Riverhead at a news conference to discuss the 42-year-old case and display a poster-sized photograph of a Bay Shore man they now believe ended her sister's life, Wilkowitz got a first look at Herbert Rice, who died of cancer in 1991.

“I didn’t Google him, even though I knew his name for a couple of months now,” Wilkowitz, a Rhode Island resident, said as she choked back tears during the news conference with Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney, Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison and other law-enforcement officials.

“I didn’t want to see the last face that Eve saw while she was still alive,” she said.

 Wilkowitz, who learned earlier this year that investigators had used DNA evidence to link Rice to the crime, thanked Suffolk police and the FBI for solving the cold-case homicide that has haunted her for decades.

“I still can’t believe that I heard the words, ‘We‘ve identified the person responsible for the death of Eve,' ” she said, with Tierney, Harrison and others standing nearby.

Wilkowitz thanked the group who helped cops crack the case — Rice's relatives.

Authorities said his family cooperated throughout the investigation and helped with a key piece of evidence — a DNA sample voluntarily provided by Rice’s son — that linked the long-dead man to Eve Wilkowitz's killing.

“His family didn’t know anything about it so I feel badly for them as well,” said Irene Wilkowitz, wearing a purple shirt with the word “Love” on the front. “I am sorry that they have to learn that their family member did this.”

Along with Wilkowitz at the news conference was her 25-year-old son, Evan Brociner, named in honor of his late aunt.

Tierney praised Wilkowitz for pushing investigators to solve the case from the very beginning.

“She was persistent, she was steadfast, she was dignified and she always advocated for her sister and for the case," Tierney said. "Doing that, she not only honored her sister and her family, but all of the families and all of the victims of violence."

Rice had followed Eve Wilkowitz in Bay Shore on the night of March 22, 1980, after she got off a Long Island Rail Road train from Manhattan, where she worked as a publishing company secretary, Tierney said. Rice sexually assaulted and strangled her, the district attorney said. Wilkowitz's bound body was found three days later, on March 25, just four houses from the residence where Rice stayed with his mother.

Suffolk police and prosecutors told Newsday earlier this week that advances in forensic techniques and genetic genealogy, and an assist from the FBI, helped investigators identify Rice as the killer.

Tierney and Harrison praised the investigators — past and present — who pushed to find the person responsible for the death of Wilkowitz, described Wednesday by her sister as an outgoing person who had lots of friends.

“These types of investigations are never easy, but the relentless work and partnership helped us bring closure to the Wilkowitz family,” Harrison said.

Suffolk police detectives pursued the case in the months and years that followed the killing, but the investigation got on the fast track when then-Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart, previously an FBI agent, brought in the agency, which analyzed the DNA samples. Harrison thanked Hart for her role in cracking the case.

“It speaks strongly about the value of partnership,” Hart said at the news conference. “I am so happy for the family.”

Investigators got a big break when they found Rice’s son’s DNA on a public genealogical website. The son voluntarily submitted a DNA sample to police, an official told Newsday. Based on a comparison with DNA found on Eve Wilkowitz's body, police grew confident it was Rice who killed her.

By early 2022, both Harrison and Tierney sought to get an exhumation order of Rice's remains to firm up the genealogy link. Earlier this month, investigators secured a search warrant to retrieve his body.

The exhumation allowed investigators to collect genetic material, and further DNA testing determined it matched DNA found on the victim, police said.

Rice had a criminal record, according to Tierney, that did not include any violent offenses. The district attorney said it was not clear what might have turned Rice into a sexual predator or killer. Rice is not a suspect in any other investigations.

“Eve and all other murder victims are not just stories for the media, She was a real person,” Wilkowitz said. “She loved to go horseback riding. She was outgoing and social. She had a lot of friends. She loved music and reading and writing and drawing, and mostly, she liked being a big sister to me."

“She never got a chance to fulfill her dreams," Wilkowitz said of sister. "She never got to be a mom, a wife, an aunt or a friend to me.”