On a stormy Thanksgiving weekend in 1958, Rahway Police Officer Charles Bernoskie, a 41-year-old male, left his home to patrol the rain-slicked streets of his New Jersey community. His tour of duty that night would be his last. While investigating a burglary in progress at the Miller Pontiac car dealership, Officer Bernoskie confronted two intruders. In the ensuing exchange of gunfire, he was tragically shot three times in the head and chest, succumbing to his injuries shortly thereafter.
The perpetrators vanished into the night, leaving behind a murder weapon that was never found and a single fingerprint on a can of antifreeze that could not be matched. The relentless storm washed away any other potential evidence, plunging the case into a deep and frustrating cold spell that would last for over four decades.
For 42 years, the murder of Officer Bernoskie remained a painful, unsolved mystery for his grieving family and the Rahway Police Department. His widow, Elizabeth, persistently contacted the police for any updates, but there was nothing new to report. The break in the case finally came in the summer of 1999, not from a new piece of evidence, but from a family secret. The sister of a man named Robert Zarinsky, Judy Sapsa, came forward with a story she had held onto for years. She recounted the night of the murder, describing how her brother and his cousin, Theodore Schiffer, had returned home with gunshot wounds. Sapsa's testimony provided investigators with the first solid lead in the long-dormant case.
The information from Judy Sapsa led to the indictment of both Robert Zarinsky and Theodore Schiffer. At the time, Zarinsky was already serving a life sentence for the 1969 murder of a teenage girl and was a suspect in several other murders. Theodore Schiffer, in a deal with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced to three years in prison, agreeing to testify against his cousin. Zarinsky was put on trial for the murder of Officer Bernoskie in 2001. Despite the testimony from Schiffer and Zarinsky's own sister, the jury found him not guilty, citing a lack of evidence to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Though acquitted in the criminal trial, the saga was not over for the Bernoskie family. They pursued a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Zarinsky. In 2003, a civil jury found Zarinsky responsible for Officer Bernoskie's death and awarded the family $9.5 million in damages. However, this victory was later complicated by legal battles, with an appeals court ordering the family to repay a portion of the award that had been collected from Zarinsky's assets. Robert Zarinsky remained in prison for the prior murder conviction and died on November 28, 2008, the 50th anniversary of Officer Charles Bernoskie's murder.
