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Curio: Criminal case backlog dire. A-5
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Vol. 264, No. 2
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Special to The News/Drew Eskridge
Police on the scene of Tuesday night’s fatal shooting at Delsea Village.
Murder in Delsea Village
VICTIM MICHAEL VALERO
Coatimundis predict early spring
Staff Photos by Cindy Hepner
Coatimundi Floriemel did not see her shadow during Coatimundi Day at the Cohan-zick Zoo in Bridgeton.Lucas Stevens, a frequent visitor to the Cohanzick Zoo, visits the neighboring exhibit
before the coatimundis are brought out for Coatimundi Day Wednesday.
By Jim Cook [email protected]
According to a Facebook post from the Notre Dame Regional School Board, a meeting scheduled for this Friday, Feb. 3, with the Camden Diocese to discuss the school’s closure was canceled.
On Friday, Jan. 20, the Camden Diocese announced it would close Notre Dame Regional School in Newfield and Landisville.
Supporters, staff and board members, however, have protested the announced closing, and have formed an advisory committee to propose a five-year sustainability plan with the diocese.
A Facebook page named “Keep Notre Dame School Open,” notified its 434 followers that Leo Hagerty, board president, received a phone call from Father Allain Capa-ras confirming the cancellation of the meeting.
“Leo was told that his duty as a school board president is to ‘prepare our students and families for the closing
of the school in June,’” the post read. “We, as a school board, do not accept this decision without having our voices heard.”
According to the letter, the school board is still compil-ing data to be presented to the Camden Diocese.
“We are still planning to deliver this information high-lighting our strong case on Friday, February 3rd,” the letter stated.
Officials from the school did not respond to voicemails
Notre Dame BOE meeting with diocese off
(See SCHOOLS, Page A-3)
By Lauren T. [email protected]
BRIDGETON — An early spring was the official, unanimous prediction made by Carmella, Margarita and Floriemel at the 17th Annual Coatimundi Day, held in unseasonably mild weather at the Cohanzick Zoo on Wednesday morn-ing.
“Sorry, snow girl. I think we’re skip-
ping winter this year,” curator Kelly Shaw said to zookeeper Alison Bohn, who wore a sign representing “Team Snow.”
Bohn said she had a chat with the “coatis” to try to sway their prediction toward at least one major snowstorm this year, but they let her down by insisting an early spring was coming to Bridgeton.
(See COATIS, Page A-5)
“I just want him found. I just want for him to go to jail. That’s it. And I want to know why he did it. Why?”
— Joaquina Maria Mora-Rodriguez, Michael Valero’s mother
By Stephen [email protected]
MILLVILLE — The mother of a 21-year-old man shot and killed in the Delsea Village apartment complex Tuesday night said that she still does not know why someone murdered her son, who was only in the area briefly to attend his younger brother’s graduation from military school.
Michael Valero, who had been staying with his father and brother in Minotola for the past two-and-a-half weeks, was declared dead at the scene of the shooting
shortly after 8 p.m., Tuesday.Valero’s mother says she knows who did it. She was in Boise, Idaho, one day ago and flew to New
Jersey when she found out her son was killed.She said she spoke to Valero’s girlfriend and friend
who were in the car at the time of the shooting, and they described the scene to her.
“They said they drove to Delsea Village because this one guy kept calling him to come over there and talk to him,” said Joaquina Maria Mora-Rodriguez, Valero’s mother.
The guy, she said, was Valero’s best friend’s older brother.
“When they got there, the one guy came and put a gun on my son’s chest and shot him. My son looked at it and said, ‘What’s this?’ and the guy just shot him,” she said.
The murder occurred outside building 15 in the apart-ment complex.
Valero’s friends told his mother that he and his alleged killer had been hanging out the day before with-
(See MURDER, Page A-8)
