BOCA RATON, FL -- One year ago a suburban Boca Raton mother and her young daughter brutally lost their lives after a simple trip to the mall.
Nancy Bochicchio and her daughter Joey, 7, were abducted, robbed then found murdered outside the Town Center at Boca Raton.
Nancy and Joey's house has not changed.
Their Christmas tree still stands.
Nancy's touch. Joey's touch. Everything from that December day is still in place, even Joey's Christmas card for Mom.
"My sister had it out on the counter, just like this... With the envelope like that and that's the way it stays," says Nancy's sister, JoAnn Bruno.
The notecards Joey would doodle on in front of the TV haven't been touched.
"This one says Joey, love, Sam, that was her little friend Samantha, fun," says Bruno.
On this one year anniversary, Bruno sat down exclusively with NewsChannel 5 and the Sun-Sentinel.
She says she feels a connection to them when inside their home.
"It's exactly the way she left it. I can't move anything, can't change anything. It's the way she wanted it. The way she had it. Changing it would be like pushing it away," says Bruno.
Tears come easier than words so Bruno has had to push away the phone calls, the clippings, and some of the stories.
"After seeing one of them, I just couldn't watch. They all say what happened... how they were pounding, Joey's eyes were covered... She was afraid of the dark," says Bruno.
In the dark of night December 12th, 2007, Nancy and Joey were found bound and shot in their black SUV.
It was parked outside the Town Center at Boca Raton entrance between Sears and Neiman Marcus.
The entrance surveillance video showed them exiting hours earlier.
Just four months earlier, on August 7th, a similar scenario for a Broward County woman and her toddler outside Town Center's Nordstroms.
She and her son survived, but not before being robbed and bound with plastic zip ties and goggles.
Many wondered why police and mall officials didn't notify the public about the August attack earlier.
"What happened? Why did they let that go in the first place, you know?... You gotta excuse me it, just, makes me mad," says Stanley Bruno.
The Bruno's now continue their pleas to the public, in hopes of helping police nab Nancy and Joey's killer or killers.
"If there's a girlfriend, anyone, a relative that knows him, I mean it could've been them. It could've happened to anybody. Please, please if there's anything... call," says JoAnn Bruno.
"This guy had to slip. He had to slip. He had to say something or maybe to one of his friends or somebody in a bar," adds Stanley Bruno.
Over the past year investigators released a suspect sketch, created a task force, and followed up on hundreds of leads.
Town Center installed additional surveillance cameras and community members held awareness fundraisers.
Boca Police beefed up patrols and recently announced a forensic link between the two mother-child cases.
No question it's another difficult december for all involved.
"It touches us on a personal level and the frustration's not going to go away til we can achieve justice in this case," says Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander.
Rather than the Christmas tree with the angel on top, it's the one outside Joey's Saint Jude Catholic School that they gather around.
Above a plaque titled "Heaven's Angels," there sits a tree planted to remember and forever honor Nancy and Joey Bochicchio.
Joann bruno spoke exclusively with WPTV and the Sun-Sentinel.
You can see more from the interview throughout the day Friday on WPTV and in Jerome Burdi's article in Friday's Sun-Sentinel.
The Bochicchio/Bruno family and the woman from the August abduction have sued Simon Property Group, the company that owns the Town Center at Boca Raton.
Bruno's attorney, David Shiner, tells us the wrongful death suit now includes all of the mall's property owners, Simon plus five anchor stores, for failing to protect their patrons.
A Town Center at Boca Raton or Simon Property Group spokesperson was not made available for this story.
Crime Stoppers is offering a $350,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. Call 1-800-458-TIPS (8477).
