3 Years After The Day He Died, Thomas Valva Remembered

CENTER MORICHES, NY — Tuesday, Jan. 17, marked three years since 8-year-old Thomas Valva died of hypothermia after being forced to spend the night, one of many, many nights, in his father's frigid garage.

The temperature yesterday in Center Moriches ranged from the mid-30s to the low 40s — unlike January 17, 2020, when it was an icy 19 degrees. Many likely found themselves wishing, wondering, asking themselves why it couldn't have been warmer on that dark January day. Thinking about what it would have been like, if Thomas had lived, been able to grow, to be a spirited, smiling 11-year-old today.

In November, jurors convicted former NYPD police officer Michael Valva of second-degree murder and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child for the death of his son in 2020. Next month, jury selection in the trial for Valva's then-fianceé Angela Pollina, is set to begin.

Witnesses took the stand during Valva's trial, painting an image of what Assistant District Attorney Keriann Kelly called a "house of horrors," where Thomas and his brother slept on the cold garage floor with no blankets or pillows, and ate their meals in the garage alone while the rest of the family, including the dog, were gathered in the warmth upstairs.

Teachers recalled the boys coming to school in urine-soaked clothes, wearing pull-ups and cold, always cold, their hands and faces red and chapped. And, they said, the boys were starving, crying in hunger and searching the trash and floor for crumbs.

This week, those who have followed Thomas' story from the first day, remembered, the moments as clear as a heartbeat away.

Journalists remembered that first press release, on Jan. 18, 2020: "Suffolk County Police said homicide squad detectives are investigating the death of a boy, 8, in Center Moriches Friday.

"According to police, the incident took place on Bittersweet Lane at 9:40 a.m. Seventh Precinct police officers responded to a report of an 8-year-old boy who fell in the driveway of a residence; the child was transported to Long Island Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The Suffolk County Medical Examiner is performing an autopsy, police said."

Since that day, there have been hours and hours of testimony, pages of words written, vigils and memorials, Thomas' funeral, his small coffin, and the photos — so vivid they remain forever seared on hearts and in minds. A photo shown of Thomas, on his last day, his hands unthinkably red and chapped from bitter cold, smiling up at his teacher. Smiling, ADA Keriann Kelly said, because despite what he'd endured, in school, Thomas still believed there was hope.

In school, his teachers said, Thomas was a bright little boy who loved to read, who was engaging and also, believed in doing what was right. In school, teachers fed Thomas and his brother, wrapped them in warm sweatshirts and hugs, kept them safe, if only for a few hours, from what they'd find in the garage of 11 Bittersweet Ln., where they were cold and hungry, sleeping on an icy floor and, not allowed to use the bathroom, woke up soiled and soaked with urine.

Three years ago, on Jan. 17, it was 19 degrees. According to prosecutors, Valva marched Thomas outside naked in the frigid air to wash the feces off his small boy with icy water.

On the three-year anniversary of that brutally cold day, a florist reportedly donated flowers and ribbons to the bench that now stands outside his elementary school in his memory.

Inside the school, Thomas' classmates have grown taller, their voices likely deeper, their faces more defined and less rounded by childhood. They likely gathered with families around Christmas trees, opened brightly wrapped presents, took vacations to Disney World and sang loudly and with abandon along with videos. At night, they were wrapped in warm blankets, as they slept soundly in the knowledge that they were safe and loved.

On Christmas Eve, those who will never forget him visited Thomas' grave, cold in the winter air. They left flowers and gifts and a trail of tears that's long enough now to endlessly feed rivers and streams, tears cried by the many who've mourned his loss for 36 endless, aching months.

For the many who knew Thomas, their hearts are forever hardened, a bit, by the agony they witnessed, by the outcome too impossible to bear. And for those who didn't know Thomas, those hearts are still broken and forever changed, as the face of that small, smiling boy with the violently red hands lives forever, inside.

Many of the jurors who stood outside the courtroom after Valva's sentencing told Patch, their voices broken, that the way they look at life, at children, at everything, will never be the same now.

They want to fight for change. They want to create a world that's safe for all the children in their lives.

And they want, more than anything, to keep Thomas' memory alive, so that no other little boy ever has to shiver uncontrollably in the frigid night air, crying out for help, knocking on doors and walls with the faint hope that someone, somehow, someday, will come to help.

On every birthday, on every cruel anniversary of Thomas Valva's death, when he was just 8 years old, they will remember his sweet, smiling face, light and radiant with hope — their own lives forever darkened by the ending of his story, a story that no one was able to rewrite.