Fairfield Woman Convicted of Murdering 81-Year-Old Mother

A Fairfield woman was convicted Friday of strangling her 81-year-old mother with a necktie in 2009, according to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office. 

Tina Lunney, 45, was found guilty of murdering her mother Marie Zoppi after a three-week trial in Newark. The jury convicted Lunney of murder after a day and a half of deliberation. 

Lunney will be sentenced on July 26 in Newark. Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Dimonetti said she will seek a life sentence based upon the heinous nature of the murder, according to a press release. 

“This case was all about the money,” Simonetti said in a press release. “Tina Lunney is a heartless killer who crushed her frail mother’s ribs and brutally strangled her with her husband’s necktie. Why? To pay off the tremendous debt she, and she alone, created.’’

Lunney strangled Zoppi with a necktie on July 22, 2009, in Lunney's Fairfield home. 

After killing Zoppi, Lunney used her mother's credit cards to pay off debts to a collection agency, PSE&G and to pay for a family vacation to the Outer Banks, N.C. She then fled to Atlantic City. 

It was revealed that Lunney also spent $37,000 of her husband's inheritance and had a three-year affair with a Fairfield police officer. 

Soon after the murder, Lunney was arrested and gave a confession admitting she strangled her mother. Lunney also confessed to the crime in a suicide note found in her pocketbook when she was arrested.

Lunney maintained her innocence during the trial, and claimed she was suffering from a mental illness brought on by stress when she murdered her mother.