Tisha Marinoccio’s daughter described a life centered on animals, music and the ocean after her mother’s Aug. 12 killing.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Weeks after Tisha Marinoccio died from a stab wound suffered inside her New Haven apartment, her family offered a public description of the 42-year-old that had been largely absent from the first accounts of the criminal investigation: She loved the ocean, cared deeply about animals and was remembered for her warmth.
Marinoccio’s daughter, Leanah Marie Robitaille, told Hearst Connecticut Media in September that her mother especially loved music and the beach. The family described her as a kind person with a generous nature. Their comments added a personal dimension to a case that had initially been told almost entirely through a 911 call, police reports, surveillance footage and allegations against Marinoccio’s former boyfriend, Matthew Almontes. Police say Almontes, who was 39 at the time, stabbed Marinoccio on Aug. 12 inside the Charles T. McQueeney Towers, where both lived in separate residences. He has been charged with murder and tampering with evidence and was being held on a $1.5 million bond in the latest local report located.
Marinoccio herself provided police with the first crucial information about the attack. Shortly before 3:30 p.m., she called 911 from her sixth-floor apartment on Orange Street and identified Almontes as the person who had stabbed her, police said. She also told dispatchers that her former boyfriend lived in the same building and had left her apartment with the weapon. Responding officers found her still conscious but bleeding heavily, according to a police spokesperson quoted by local media. She was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where authorities said she died during emergency treatment.
The immediacy of Marinoccio’s identification shaped the police response. Officers canvassing the area found Almontes outside the apartment complex and detained him. A police report later said he acknowledged throwing the knife into a dumpster behind the building. Investigators recovered a knife there after searching through the dumpster. Police also reviewed the building’s surveillance system, which authorities said captured Almontes entering and leaving Marinoccio’s apartment, then using a rear exit and discarding an object in the alley dumpster. Those details became the basis for public statements about both the homicide investigation and the evidence-tampering allegation.
Only after the arrest did a broader account of the former couple’s recent history emerge. An employee at the Orange Street building told investigators that Almontes had spoken for about six months about stabbing Marinoccio, according to a police report described by the New Haven Register. The employee said Almontes had become intensely focused on his former girlfriend. Two days before Marinoccio died, the employee said Almontes again threatened to stab her and suggested afterward that investigators would not recover the weapon. Those allegations have not been tested at trial, and the witness’s description of Almontes’ behavior should not be treated as an independent medical or psychological assessment.
A friend of Marinoccio also supplied investigators with information about the period before her death. According to the police report, the friend asked authorities to conduct a welfare check after the killing and said Almontes had previously harassed and threatened Marinoccio. The available reports do not say whether the friend had contacted police about those allegations before Aug. 12, whether Marinoccio had sought a protective order or whether officials had previously investigated the alleged threats. That leaves a significant part of the history between the former couple unclear even as police have described the events immediately before and after the stabbing in considerable detail.
The fact that Marinoccio and Almontes continued to live in the same building after their relationship ended is one of the clearest pieces of context in the case. Marinoccio told dispatchers that Almontes lived there when she identified him during the 911 call. Police later found him outside rather than at another location. Investigators have not publicly explained how he entered Marinoccio’s apartment that afternoon, whether he had been invited in or whether the two had communicated immediately before the attack. They also have not disclosed a complete account of what happened inside the residence. Those gaps are important because the criminal complaint described publicly so far establishes allegations, not a final judicial finding of what occurred.
Early coverage also contained conflicting basic biographical details. Some reports listed both Marinoccio and Almontes as 41. Information released by New Haven police and later reporting, however, identify Marinoccio as 42 at the time of her death and Almontes as 39 when he was arrested. Police material listed Marinoccio’s birth date as March 29, 1984, and Almontes’ as Aug. 18, 1986. Those dates align with the ages used by the New Haven Register and other local outlets. The discrepancy illustrates why initial breaking-news accounts can change as agencies release fuller identifying information.
Marinoccio’s death occurred during a chaotic afternoon in New Haven in which police responded to another fatal stabbing less than a half-hour earlier near the New Haven Green. Authorities said the two deaths were not connected. The proximity in time initially put officers in the position of dealing with two homicide investigations almost simultaneously, but police said the Orange Street case was quickly separated from the other killing. Marinoccio’s call had named an alleged attacker, and officers detained Almontes soon afterward. In the Green case, police initially searched for a different suspect who had fled after an altercation.
The criminal case against Almontes rests on several categories of evidence described publicly by police and local reporting. Marinoccio’s own emergency call identified him. Surveillance video allegedly placed him entering and leaving her apartment and later near the dumpster. Police recovered the knife from that dumpster. An employee described earlier threats, including one allegedly made just two days before the killing. A friend described past harassment and threats. Police also said Almontes acknowledged discarding the knife before later declining to provide a formal statement after he was booked. Each piece would be subject to the rules of evidence and challenges available to the defense as the prosecution proceeds.
Police charged Almontes with murder and tampering with evidence and said he was held on a $1.5 million bond. Murder is the principal allegation tied to Marinoccio’s death; the tampering count concerns the alleged disposal of the weapon. The reports reviewed for this story do not establish that Almontes has been convicted of either offense, and they do not provide a final disposition of the case. His decision not to speak with investigators after booking cannot itself be treated as proof of guilt. The prosecution remains responsible for establishing the charges through the judicial process.
Against that legal record, Marinoccio’s family has tried to preserve a different record of its own. The public facts of the case document her final call, her treatment at the hospital and the evidence police say they recovered. Her daughter’s account instead centers on the things Marinoccio enjoyed and the relationships that defined her before Aug. 12. That distinction is especially significant in a case where the accused man’s alleged threats received immediate attention. The family’s September comments ensured that Marinoccio was publicly described not only as the victim in a homicide file, but as a mother whose relatives associated her with music, animals, beaches and the ocean.
As of the most recent local report located, published Sept. 10, Almontes remained held on the $1.5 million bond while facing the two charges. No later public report reviewed for this article established a conviction or final resolution. Marinoccio’s relatives, meanwhile, have made clear how they want her remembered while the court process continues: for the interests and personal qualities that were part of her life long before her name appeared in a police report.
Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.