By ANTHONY BOTTAN
Twenty years after 13-year-old Valley Stream resident Kelly Ann Tinyes was found murdered in the basement of a neighbor's house, the case has been reopened by Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and authorities are investigating whether there was an accomplice in the murder.
Kelly's neighbor, Robert Golub, was convicted in 1990 of murdering Tinyes and is serving a sentence of 25 years to life in Green Haven Prison in Stormville.
Eric Phillips, a spokesman for the D.A.'s office, said that the two-decades-old case was reopened at the request of the Tinyes family, and that new information has been obtained, though he could not comment on the specifics. "The D.A. believed that there were several unanswered questions and chose to reopen the case," Phillips said. "The progress made in the last couple of years has added to the mystery."
Phillips added that investigators have not identified any new suspects, but Richard Tinyes, Kelly's father, said he always thought Golub had an accomplice. "I said it since day one, I believe that John [Golub] was involved," Tinyes said. John Golub, Robert's younger brother, was a classmate of Kelly's at Woodmere Middle School.
On March 3, 1989, Kelly was baby-sitting her younger brother when she received a phone call at around 3 p.m. Phone records showed that a call was placed from the Golubs' home to the Tinyeses' home. Donna Callahan, a young neighbor who testified during the eight-week trial, said she saw Kelly enter the Golub house at around 3:10. The Golubs lived only a few doors down from the Tinyeses on Horton Road.
After Kelly went missing for more than a day, police followed Donna Callahan's tip, searched the Golub home -- and discovered a parent's worst nightmare. Kelly had been murdered, wrapped in a plastic bag and hidden in a storage space beneath the basement stairs. According to police testimony, she had been strangled and then stabbed to death with a bayonet.
Next to her body, police found two blood-stained attache cases filled with her clothes, various knives and hypodermic needles. A bloody bayonet was also found in the basement, along with a bloody handprint on the basement door.
Robert Golub was later arrested and volunteered to undergo blood DNA testing and a polygraph. Polygraph examiner Anthony Kosier testified that Golub had failed the polygraph, and DNA analysis of the bloody handprint and blood stains on Kelly's clothes by a Westchester laboratory proved that the blood found on her jacket was Golub's. Bite marks found on her body also matched a dental impression Golub gave to authorities.
Golub never testified during the trial, but told police during a 14-hour interrogation that he had awakened early that morning, gone to a local supermarket to buy a magazine, and then fallen asleep when he got home.
On April 3, 1990, it took the jury eight hours to convict Golub of second-degree murder.
According to authorities, his brother, John, was hanging around his house with two friends -- Steve Bataan and Glenn McMahon -- that afternoon, smoking marijuana, playing video games and listening to music. The boys said they left the house around 3:30 p.m. to play basketball at a nearby court. Bataan and McMahon told police that John Golub was with them for the entire time, and only "left for five seconds." Golub told police he never saw Kelly, even though Donna Callahan testified that she saw John let Kelly into the house that afternoon. Neither John nor the two boys were ever charged.
Richard Tinyes said he always thought that John Golub was an accomplice in his daughter's murder. "John called my house," Tinyes said. "Kelly didn't know Robert, and she would have known John's voice. She never talked to Robert. He was 21 years old."
John Golub's lawyer, John Lewis, did not return several messages left by the Herald.
Richard Tinyes said the pain of his daughter's death will never subside, but knowing that Robert didn't act alone could offer his family some closure.
Two decades later, the two families still live in the same houses on Horton Road.
The D.A.'s office is asking for the public's help, requesting that anyone with information call (516) 870-2813.
Comments about this story? ABottan@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 246.
