Donna Bocklet was a mother of two from Long Island, NY. when her body was found in her car in the parking lot of a nearby supermarket. The 41-year-old had been strangled by her longtime neighbor Anthony Libardi.
Bocklet had been last seen on January 22, when she dropped her two small kids off at school. Later in the day, her children returned home to an empty house and raised the alarm. Her husband, Richard, called police to report her missing.
Police launched a search for the missing woman with the help of the Bocklet and Libardi families. Her killer Anthony Libardi was one of her searchers. However, on the prompt discovery of her corpse in the parking lot, the case turned into a homicide.
At first, police were baffled by the case. They suspected robbery might have been a motive. They also believed she’d been murdered somewhere else and then brought to the parking lot.
Friends and family were completely baffled as to why Bocklet was murdered. However, longtime friend Donna Cowan showed some prescient thinking when she said, “I can’t believe someone would kill her for jewelry.”
Donna Bocklet had babysat for her killer’s children
Because as it happened, Bocklet knew her murderer very well. She had been a babysitter for the Libardi family when she was a teenager, so when Anthony Libardi knocked on her door, she let the familiar neighbor into her home.
It transpired that 56-year-old Libardi had developed a sexual interest in his 41-year-old neighbor, and had decided to act upon his desires.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelBocklet fought back when Libardi forced himself upon her, so he choked her to death. He then put her body in her car and drove it to the supermarket parking lot.
Libardi fled the state when he realized police suspected him. Fortunately, he was quickly tracked down to a hotel in Las Vegas, where he was arrested before being extradited back to New York. He was later found guilty of second-degree murder.
More from Betrayed
Follow the links to read about more murders profiled on Betrayed.
Last week on Betrayed, Carol Ege gruesomely disemboweled her 7-month pregnant love rival Cindy Thompson in Michigan in 1984. Ege managed to avoid justice was nearly ten years until the law finally caught up her to her.
Jason Ragland was due to marry his 19-year-old girlfriend Claudette Ficik when instead he murdered the aspiring architect and dumped her remains in the Oconee River in Georgia.
Betrayed airs at 9/8c on Monday, April 13, on Investigation Discovery.