By Kendall McGee | July 30, 2020 at 7:13 PM EDT – Updated July 30 at 7:28 PM
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Thursday marked 14 years since Allison Jackson Foy vanished.
The 34-year-old mother of two was missing for two years before her body was found with the remains of Angela Rothen in a wooded area off of Carolina Beach Road. Family says her body was recovered with more than 40 stab wounds three miles away from the pub she was last seen leaving on July 30th 2006.
No one has been brought to justice for the murder of the two women.
“She loved life. And her life was her two daughters when she went missing, her four-year-old and her 12-year-old and she had this way about her that made everyone feel comfortable if you’ve never met her before. She was passionate and she cared,” Lisa Valentino says of her sister Allison Foy.
More than a decade later, family and community members are still fighting for people to remember their stories and hoping someone will come forward with information that will crack the case.
“Nobody deserves to have their life taken from them the way my sister did. Nobody,” said Foy’s sister Lisa Valentino. “Its hard and its a pain that doesn’t go away.”
The family has traveled down to Wilmington each year in an effort to continue to push the case forward. This year Valentino wasn’t able to make the trip due to concerns about COVID-19.
On the 14th anniversary of Foy’s disappearance, the CUE center teamed up with nine different Pizza Huts, Dominos and Slice of Life restaurants to distribute 4,000 fliers on pizza boxes and takeout orders. The flier includes Allison Foy’s face and the number to Wilmington Police Department headquarters for anyone who has information to share.
The CUE center has been working with Foy’s family since she was reported missing. Founder Monica Caison remembers meeting with law enforcement, advocating for family members and searching for the mother when she was still missing. Fourteen years later, the CUE center knows time is against them, but they’re still working to support the family and put a murderer behind bars, no matter how long it takes.
“We’re just hoping some way it can bring forth information,” said Monica Caison, founder of the CUE center. “When these people aren’t arrested in these homicide cases that go unsolved, they’re still in our communities. They’re still wandering around and they’re going to hurt someone.”
Valentino knows time is not on her side. She’s concerned the further away we get from 2006, the harder it will be to solve the case.
Foy’s children were four and twelve years old when she went missing. Today one is packing to go off to college and the other daughter is planning her wedding. As Valentino watches her sister’s children grow up and mark important milestones without their mother, she says the loss is harder for the family to accept, knowing the person who killed Foy could still be out there.
“I’m a little discouraged and a little saddened there’s no justice in this case and all these years later I still have to fight so hard for her justice and to have this final resolution. There’s still a part of my heart that’s not healed,” said Valentino. “I think that final piece of healing will come when everything is done and I’ve known I’ve done everything I could for my sister.”
District Attorney Ben David says the case is still open and continues to be a priority for his office and WPD investigators, but they’re still looking for the final piece to the puzzle.
“Justice never sleeps. There is no statute of limitation on any felony particularly first degree murder. We are still committed to getting justice for Allison Jackson Foy and Angela Rothem” said Ben David. “We are anxious to get this case in a courtroom and see justice but we need witnesses we need evidence to do that and if people think they know either of those. Anything we can investigate or a person we can talk to that we urge them to call.”
While justice is something Valentino holds close to her heart, she knows it won’t bring her sister back.
“When we have resolution and justice in this case it will still hurt because I miss my sister and I wish she was here and I wish she had seen my children grow up,” said Valentino.
Copyright 2020 WECT. All rights reserved.