1 Year Later, Unsolved Stabbing Death’s Pain Remains

One year after somebody fatally stabbed Nico Saraceni outside of his Whalley Avenue apartment, city police and the family of the late 29-year-old Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) student are still looking for answers.

About who committed such a tragic act of apparently random violence. About why a young artist who loved the poetry of William Ernest Henley and the films of David Lynch and the pizza of Frank Pepe’s was taken from them so soon and so senselessly.

That message was delivered Wednesday morning in a third-floor office at police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. over the course of a nearly hourlong interview with Saraceni’s father Bob, mother Brenda, sister Isabella, Wooster Street friend and fellow film buff Linda Barone, and New Haven Police Department Det. Freddy Salmeron and Capt. Rose Dell.

The Saracenis, who live in Newtown, spoke with the Independent and with a reporter from Fox61 one day after the one year anniversary of Nico’s stabbing death on Whalley Avenue near Osborn on Oct. 10, 2022 at around 9:23 p.m.

Salmeron, the lead detective on this case, said that, based on a witness’s statement and a grainy surveillance video, Saraceni was standing outside of his apartment, smoking a cigarette, when someone — a tall Black man wearing a grey sweatsuit — stabbed him to death. Salmeron said the altercation was not caught on video, just the suspect — who matched the eyewitness’s description — walking along Whalley at that same time of night. 

“We don’t have a motive established,” Salmeron said. ​“This case is leaning to go cold.” Thus the police department’s and the family’s plea is for anyone who might know anything about what happened that night to come forward now. Police have also made available a $25,000 award to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest in this homicide case.

Over the course of Wednesday’s interview, Saraceni’s family members — who asked not to be photographed for this story — urged anyone with information to come forward not just to help them achieve some modicum of closure for a sudden, apparently reason-less violent loss that has felt like a ​“phantom limb,” as Isabella said, for the 12 months and one day they’ve had to live without Nico.

Now is also a time for New Haveners who might know something about Nico’s death to speak out about a suspect whom police believe committed a murder on Whalley Avenue that night and then just walked away — and is by all accounts still out in the community, a potential threat to a future unknown victim.

“We don’t feel we can ever have justice,” Bob said about his son’s death. But there are ​“other people out there that can be harmed by this person. Nico wasn’t involved in any wrongdoing,” in any gangs or drugs or anything like that. And someone with the courage to come forward to talk to police to identify the suspect might ensure that he wouldn’t be able to do any further harm.

“This is such a traumatic and senseless loss,” Brenda said. ​“He was a son, a a brother, a grandson. Nico was a good man.… We’ve gone through months of heartache. We’re frustrated over the fact that no one will speak up” to the police. ​“We have no closure.”

While on Wednesday the family members renewed their call for someone to come forward to the police to provide information about who might have killed their loved one, they also spoke through tears and laughter as they remembered Nico and what made him such a light in their lives.

He had transferred from Keene State to Southern, and was in an interdisciplinary studies major slated to graduate last June — and he worked at Frank Pepe’s pizzeria on Wooster Street.

Nico ​“was a writer. He was a poet. He was a film buff” who had a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of cinema, Isabella said, and a special love for horror movies. Bob recalled sitting with the family for a dinner at L’Orcio not long ago and having Nico describe and analyze David Lynch’s Mulhollhand Drive. He said a Yale film professor sitting at a table nearby was so impressed with Nico’s take on the movie that he gave him his card, urged him to stay in touch.

Isabella remembered an exhibition that she put on at her studio in Newtown July 2022 in which she hung her own paintings alongside printed out copies of her brother’s poems, hanging from the ceiling in full type-written text with annotations and ink stains and remnants from previous drafts and works that inspired him. His favorite poem was ​“Invictus,” by William Ernest Henley. ​“It became so collaborative,” Isabella remembered about that exhibition. It was the first time her brother had publicly displayed his poetry in such a way.

Barone said that she met Nico because of his work at Pepe’s. She walks her dog Champ every day up and down Wooster Street. She’d strike up conversations with him about movies, and anything else. Nico asked her out on a friend date, she remembered with a smile, and the two would regularly grab coffee at, say, Bella’s or Pistachio in Westville and talk and talk. ​“He was so sweet,” she said. 

Bob noted that the Saraceni family has started a scholarship at Southern, named after Nico, awarding $2,500 each year to another interdisciplinary studies major. They gave out their first scholarship this year. 

On Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of Nico’s death, the family ​“had a Mass said for Nico” at their church back in Newtown. They visited their lost loved one in the cemetery. They had ​“a big Italian meal” with friends and family, Bob said, and remembered Nico’s life.

His death has been such a profound loss, Brenda said. She and the rest of her family called on anyone to come forward with whatever info they have. Anything will help. ​“Somebody knows something.”

If you witnessed and/or have any information about this incident, you’re encouraged to contact New Haven Police Department, Major Crimes Unit, at 203 946‑6304, 911, or the anonymous Tip Line 1 – 866-888-TIPS OR 203 – 946-6296. You can Text-A-Tip: Text ​“NHPD plus your message” to 74637 (CRIMES); Email tips to: [email protected].