January 20, 2015
Police receive tips in 1990 cold case
CORTLANDVILLE — State police are wading through new tips in an unsolved 1990 fatal hit-and-run case after making a plea to the public Friday calling for information about a woman who reportedly surfaced a year ago claiming to know the name of the driver.
The tips are being evaluated in the hopes of developing a valid lead in the death of Phillip Zerrillo, Investigator Tom Roberts said in a phone interview Monday afternoon.
The state police are trying to reopen the cold case after Zerrillo’s son, Phillip Zerrillo II, said a middle-aged woman stopped him last February at the Xtra-Mart in Lansing and said she knew who killed his father.
Zerrillo first contacted a private investigator to look into the incident. Stephen Joseph, the elder Zerrillo’s stepfather, said this morning in a phone interview that he contacted the state police in July and police began to investigate the tip.
There are no suspects in the case, Roberts said. Speculation that the vehicle was buried somewhere in Cortland County is also rumor at this point in the investigation, he said.
“There’s other rumors about this case, too,” Roberts said.
Hopefully, the woman who spoke with Zerrillo will call the state police and provide needed information, he said.
Phillip Zerrillo II said in an interview Friday he was approached by the woman in February as he stopped one morning for coffee and fuel at the Xtra-Mart gas station at 32 Peruville Road in Lansing.
The woman pulled up in a minivan next to Zerrillo’s truck, which advertised Zerrillo Construction on the side, and told Zerrillo she was a passenger in the vehicle that struck his father and said who the driver was, the younger Zerrillo said.
Zerrillo said he was so shocked by the information he did not think to write down the name of the driver and has forgotten the information.
Phillip Zerrillo was struck about 2 a.m. May 26, 1990, as he walked home along Kinney Gulf Road near the intersection of Hoy Road from a party at his mother’s and stepfather’s West Homer home.
Zerrillo was lying in a field along the north side of the roadway after the accident, Michael Compton, one of the first state troopers on the scene, said in a phone interview Monday. Compton, who is now the Preble fire chief, retired as a sergeant from the state police in 2008.
Zerrillo was conscious and able to speak at the scene, Compton said.
“He said he was hit by a vehicle, but couldn’t offer any description of the vehicle at that time,” Compton said.
While they were talking, the ambulance arrived to take Zerrillo to Cortland Memorial Hospital, he said.
Zerrillo died of internal injuries while on the way to the hospital, Compton said.
A woman in her 30s came across the debris-strewn section of Kinney Gulf Road, spotted Zerrillo and stopped to help, he said. Compton could not remember the woman’s name.
There was no evidence at the scene the vehicle that struck Zerrillo swerved or stopped after the accident, Compton said.
While cell phones were not widely available at the time of the accident, the driver of the vehicle that struck Zerrillo could have stopped in at the gas stations at the corner of Route 281 and Route 222 and used the pay phones at those stores, he said.
“It’s just frustrating not being able to locate who had hit this gentleman and wouldn’t care enough to stop and make sure he was OK,” Compton said.
Compton was pleased the state police were soliciting information and trying to reopen the cold case.
“I think it’s great,” he said, adding that even though the statute of limitations on criminal charges has run out in the case, the family would have some closure.
Manslaughter charges have a statute of limitations of five years. It was unclear this morning if there is any statue of limitations regarding civil lawsuits in hit and run fatality cases.
Compton was puzzled by the actions of the woman who reportedly approached the younger Zerrillo at the Lansing gas station.
“That’s kind of odd to me,” he said, adding the woman seemed to have something she wanted to get off her chest. “And maybe she’ll actually reach out and do the right thing.”
To read this article and more, pick up today's Cortland Standard
Click here to subscribe