The Impact News

Issue date: 5/5/07 Section: News

Dorothy Balancio and her son, Louis, enjoying a ball game at Yankee Stadium. Louis was tragically slain in February of 1994.

There isn't much anyone can do for Dorothy Balancio now.
Since 1994 she's been living in the murky emotional state of raw, continuous pain. Holidays, birthdays-these happy occasions are always tainted for her. "There's just an empty space," she said. "We're all sitting there asking, 'Where's Louis?'"

Since 1973, when Louis Balancio was only five and a half weeks old, he and his proud mother traveled the halls of Mercy College together. She was an alumna-class of '68-turned tenured and beloved sociology and human sexuality professor, and he was her precious son who would follow her footsteps to Mercy, enrolling as a member of the class of '95.

And all too soon for Balancio, her child was a college junior, turning 21. Time had flown by-her baby grew up into an accounting major, planning a proposal to his high school sweetheart. The world was just starting to open itself up to Louis, but all too quickly it was wrenched away.

"There's no fairness," Balancio declared thoughtfully. "There's no justice."

Louis Balancio was stabbed 13 times in the early morning hours of February 5, 1994, right outside of the Strike Zone Bar in Yonkers, just four days after turning 21. His heart and kidneys were punctured, his spine severed. And miles away, his mother was grieving at a funeral in Florida, when she got the 5 a.m. phone call all mothers fear.

Even today, there are few answers. Motives are still simply speculations. Evidence from the scene is mostly hearsay. Balancio blames a lack of attention from officials at the time of the crime; "It took two and a half years to even get the district attorney to look at Louis' case," she said.

It was eventually determined that a brawl had broken out between an Albanian group and an Italian group-both allegedly gangs, some with mob ties. Louis was apparently "mistaken" for one of the Albanians during the fight, held from behind, and stabbed to death. A few names were thrown around as suspects, but still, no one knew for sure, no one stepped forward, no one saw anything.

And for lack of substantial validation of that horrific night, all the Balancio family had was speculation as they pieced together the tragic puzzle of their son's demise. Dr. Balancio held vigil after vigil for her son, sharing Louis' story and begging for help-or even some kind of attention-to bring justice for her slain child. She received foreboding phone calls late into countless nights ("We're going to kill your other son too, if you don't stop"), but her grief propelled her forward. "When you bury a child," she explained, "nothing in your life can ever be the same."

Continued...

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