Robert Zarinksy — New Jersey’s first murder conviction without a body — is dead.

Zarinsky’s death
came as he was nearing trial for the 1968 murder of 13-year-old Jane
Durrua of Keansburg. He consistently denied committing the murder, and
only in recent years, in his bid for early parole, admitted killing
Calandriello. Then, he claimed, she died when he accidentally backed
over her with his car.

A Dec. 10 hearing was scheduled in Superior Court in Monmouth
County in which the prosecutor’s office was seeking the court’s
permission to use testimony about Zarinsky’s alleged attempts to lure
four other Monmouth County teenagers into his car to buttress the
Durrua case. Those alleged incidents took place nine months after
Durrua’s death.

Authorities also believe Zarinsky had a long list of victims,
most of them teenage girls. Among the unsolved murders for which he was
a suspect are that of Linda Balabanow, 17, of Union in 1969, and Joanne
Delardo, 15, and Doreen Carlucci, 14, of Woodbridge in 1974.

Obviously, confession isn’t good for the soul. It’s too bad some sort
of deal couldn’t have been struck between the killer and the
prosecution to give the Durrua family some everlasting peace. Offer him
a day of freedom in exchange for an accurate confession!

Now
that Zarinsky is dead, how long with the authorities wait before
assigning the deaths of Durrua, Balabanow, Delardo and Carlucci to him
anyway?