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John Denofa, a man from central Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was responsible for the murder of 21-year-old Rachel Siani, a psychology student at a community college in the area. Her dead body was found under a turnpike bridge in Burlington Township, New Jersey, on April 1, 2000.
Rachel worked as an exotic dancer at the Divas International Gentleman's Club, where John Denofa was a regular visitor. On March 28, 2000, she was spotted accompanying John in a drunken state to the nearby motel where she was last seen alive. After rigorous investigation, the police managed to gather enough evidence to prove that he was the murderer of Rachel Siani.
John Denofa is currently spending his prison time at the South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey. The complete investigation behind the murder of Rachel Siani is documented in season 1 episode 10 of Philly Homicide. The episode titled Dancing for the Devil first made its release on Oxygen on January 4, 2025. Viewers can stream the episode and the entire season on Amazon Prime Video.
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What was the connection between John Denofa and Rachel Siani?
Rachel Siani, a psychology student, also worked at the Divas International Gentleman's Club as a dancer with the stage name Foxy Roxy to pay for her bills and college expenses. She aspired to use her education to help people by becoming a music therapist.
Rachel was born in April 1978 and was just 21 years old at that time. Though her parents disapproved of her side job, she told them it was for a temporary time. The police initially suspected the case to be suicide, considering she jumped from the bridge and fell on her face down, which caused the death.
However, as per The Cinemaholic's report dated September 18, 2021, when the autopsy reports arrived, police found that Rachel had been strangled to death. She suffered blunt force trauma and had numerous fractures throughout her body that caused severe internal bleeding. Investigators retrieved some fibers from Rachel's sweater from the crime scene, along with blood spots on the outside wall of the bridge.
This indicated that someone took her there and threw her off from the height to fabricate the scene. As per NJ.com, the police investigated the club where she worked and found that Rachel had an admirer who was a regular visitor at the club.
According to one of Rachel's friends, on the night she disappeared, the two were speaking on the phone when Rachel mentioned that John Denofa had been heavily drunk and causing a disturbance, banging doors at the club. A local police officer eventually stopped him.
John would frequently visit the club, especially on Tuesday nights, only to see Rachel. He would often pay just to sit and share a conversation with her.
Denofa was a married man who handled his family's magnetic sign business. His wife knew about his habit of drinking and visiting the club. She was also aware that he booked a Motel nearby just to spend time when he would get too drunk. John was in a similar situation on the night of March 28, 2000.
As per NJ.com, it was Rachel who decided to accompany him to the motel. According to Kileys True Crime, the hotel clerk testified seeing both of them entering Room 223.
When John Denofa was brought for questioning, he stated seeing Rachel only during the early hours of March 29, 2000. The investigators attained a search warrant for the room four days after he had checked out. Although it had been cleaned multiple times, they retrieved some broken pieces of cloth fiber and a few drops of blood from the shower.
However, the cloth fiber didn't belong to Rachel's sweater, and the blood spots were too small to create a DNA sample. From the motel book records, it was found that John Denofa had a 1996 red Dodge truck. There was a large bloodspot on the sidewalk, and another motel resident testified hearing a loud thud sound on that night.
The police decided to detect John's car using surveillance camera records from the nearby area. As per The Cinemaholic, they retrieved footage from a toll booth between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which matched the car descriptions. The car had a motionless body on its cargo bed, which disappeared when it returned back to New Jersey.
John Denofa was put under investigation by the authorities
The authorities searched John's truck, and from the cargo bed's plastic lining, they retrieved fragments of hair and blood. Shockingly, the forensic examiners confirmed both of them belonged to Rachel Siani. John denied the accusations, stating that someone must have stolen his car keys while he was drunk and did the crime.
However, the authorities concluded that while Rachel and John were in the motel room, he likely made advances towards her, which she detested. This led to a debate between them, after which John Denofa strangled his favorite club dancer to death.
As per NJ.com, he threw the body out of the window, which resulted in a loud sound and blood spots. He then dragged the victim to the back of the truck and drove all the way to New Jersey to throw the body from the bridge.
John was put on trial led by Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi, and in November 2002, he was found guilty. For the first-degree murder of Rachel Siani, Denofa was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment without any chance of parole for the next 30 years.
He is currently spending his time at South Woods State Prison. The prison located in Bridgeton, in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States, is used to incarcerate male criminals.
To know more details about John Denofa and the case, watch the episode Dancing for the Devil of Philly Homicide season 1 on Amazon Prime Video.
