It’s been over a year since Dawn Sentanni lost her mother Carol Reiff. But the emotions and memories remain fresh.
“To carry on, that has helped me immensely,” Sentanni said on Monday while in tears. “She was a good friend. She had jumped out of airplanes. She had run half marathons. She was many things.”
Sentanni and other family and friends gathered in Cherry Hill Monday afternoon to celebrate the life of the 59-year-old woman while reminding the public that her death is still unsolved.
Sentanni says she last spoke to her mother the night of June 20, 2013 after she claimed she had plans to travel to Manahawkin, New Jersey to visit other family members. She was reported missing the next day from her home at the Lakeview Apartments on Lower Landing Road, in Blackwood, NJ.
Three days later, her body was found near the apartment complex. Her car was still in front of her apartment.
While police were able to identify the body, an autopsy was unable to determine a cause of death. While Reiff's death was not ruled a homicide, officials still considered her death as suspicious and treated it as a criminal investigation.
No arrests have been made in her death a year later.
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“There’s progress that’s being made,” said Jason Laughlin of the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office on Monday. “I can’t really talk about it right now. It’s an investigation that’s ongoing. It’s not a cold case.”
As officials continue to search for the person responsible, loved ones say they’re still hoping for closure.
Sentanni says she wants justice not only for her mother but other potential victims.
“Whoever did this awful thing could have done this to someone else,” she said. “We don’t know. I do want that closure, more so that this doesn’t happen to someone else. We were a loving family, she told me every day. I felt loved and she knew I loved her.”
A $25,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information on Reiff’s death that leads to a conviction.
If you have any information, please call the Camden County Prosecutor's Office at 856-225-8653 or Gloucester Township Police at 856-228-4500.
