5 Years Since Boy Froze To Death In Father's Garage, A Cry For Change

The following column is commentary from Patch editor Lisa Finn regarding the Thomas Valva case on its 5-year anniversary.

CENTER MORICHES, NY — Five years ago, on a frigid January morning, editors received a press release at about 9:40 a.m. Like any normal morning, I opened the email, and the words were few: "Suffolk County police homicide squad detectives are investigating the death of a child that occurred in Center Moriches yesterday."

The press release continued: "Seventh Precinct police officers responded to a report of an 8-year-old boy who fell in the driveway of a residence, located on Bittersweet Lane, on January 17 at approximately 9:40 a.m. The child was transported to Long Island Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner is performing an autopsy. The investigation is continuing. "

The boy was Thomas Valva.

I wrote up the story, like so many other stories, troubled that a child had died, hurting for his family — reporters have a job to do, yes, but we are also human. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers. The death of a child, always, stills the heart.

As I wrote up that story, there was no clue, yet, of all that was to unfold. No idea that Thomas Valva's father, ex-NYPD Officer Michael Valva and his then-fiance Angela Pollina, would be arrested and charged with his death — after Thomas and his brother had spent an icy, 19-degree January night in his father's garage, sleeping on a frigid cement floor with no blankets or pillows, soaked in urine and starving for food and love. He died of hypothermia.

Valva and Pollina were both ultimately convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life.

During those trials, testimony revealed the horror-filled lives that Thomas and his brother were forced to endure — sent to school bruised, hands chapped and raw from the cold, and so hungry that they desperately searched the trash for food.

During those trials, a photo was often shown of Thomas, smiling at school, his tiny thumb, so red from the icy nights he'd spent in the garage, giving a thumb's up. Happy, because school was the one place where he found love and warm jackets, hugs — and hope.

In the years since Thomas' death, officials have advocated for reform.

But those who fought fiercely for him are crying out, five years later — pleading for concrete change so that no other child ever dies in a frigid garage despite months of calls to CPS.

The memories haunt.

"I can still hear you in my thoughts and see the smile on your face," Renee Emin, East Moriches Elementary School psychologist — one of the many teachers and administrators who fought tirelessly for Thomas, for years — wrote on Facebook Thursday.

"You are always on my mind — it’s just a matter of are you towards the front or back of my mind. I carry you with me in everything I do. I hope to one day see changes in your name because something positive needs to come out of something so horrible. Say his name, tell his story, Thomas Valva. It will be five years on Friday."

Emin said three bills she has advocated for, to implement concrete change, have been reintroduced, including legislation that would open sealed, unfounded CPS cases with a court order for the purpose of a grand jury investigation or charges.

To read about those bills, click here.

Her overall focus is on the civil trial and deposition, which are expected to begin in March, Emin said on Facebook. She also said that she hopes the bills will pass this year.

Until then, the grief is still heavy. Bows will adorn Thomas' bench by the school. Each year, Emin said on Facebook that she ties two large blue bows with baby's breath on that bench, both on Thomas’s birthday and on the anniversary.

On Friday, teachers at the elementary school will be wearing blue in memory of Thomas and the fight against child abuse. The tower of the elementary school will be illuminated in blue in his memory.

Reporters, court officials, teachers, administrators, his family — including his heartbroken mother who begged on social media for someone, anyone to help her boys in the months before Thomas died — friends, and the many, many in the public who came to love Thomas through his story, will remember that Friday marks five years since a tragedy rocked souls forever.

It has been five years, Thomas. You would be 13 now, all your dreams still to unfold. Who would you have grown up to be? We remember today — and forever. Five years ago seems just a heartbeat away.