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Body turns up in park under suspicious circumstances
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Apr 05, 2008
When she went jogging in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, her family said, she usually left her apartment key behind, locked in the car.
But for some reason, on April 5, 1998, it appears she did just the opposite.
It is one of the troubling inconsistencies that has lingered.
Something that has never made sense.
And now, a decade after the body of 31-year-old Krista Sautter Pantaleano was found in a secluded corner of the park near Blue Hen Falls, nobody has been able to explain why she was found there clutching, instead, her apartment key.
Her car key that she usually held in her hand while running was never found.
Authorities said she died of exposure after being injected with drugs they declined to name — operating-room-type drugs that left her conscious, but paralyzed and unable to scream.
And a horse charm necklace that she often wore was missing.
Her parents, Fran and Don Sautter, formerly of Medina, have no doubt that their daughter — then a nurse and a divorced mother of two grade-school boys — was murdered.
But despite an extensive 15-month probe by the FBI, the National Park Service and the Summit County Sheriff's Office, the cause of her death is still listed as undetermined.
And after a decade, the case is not closed, but in limbo.
Krista Pantaleano was last seen Sunday evening, April 5, in the Blue Hen Falls area of the park after working that day at Meridia South Pointe Hospital in Warrensville Heights.
Her mother would later point out it was not an area of the park where she was known to jog.
But a witness reported seeing her park her green Ford Escort hatchback at the trailhead as she arrived at the lot that day at about 6:30 p.m. and, authorities said, a dark-colored pickup or van driven by a man with dark hair also pulled into the lot.
By 7 p.m., though, her car was the only vehicle left there.
On Monday morning, the frost-covered Escort was noticed by a park ranger and on Tuesday, when he saw it was still there — and that somebody had attempted to break into it — he checked on the license plates and notified Twinsburg police.
By then, the police had been alerted by her hospital co-workers who reported her missing after she failed to show up for work on Monday and Tuesday.
Her body was found near a ravine about a quarter mile north of the trailhead behind the Boston Mills ski area off Boston Mills Road in Boston Township.
Authorities said her body was found on a plateau not far from the Buckeye Trail, clad in a red sweat shirt, black jogging pants and jacket and white running shoes.
Yet that clothing, her mother said, was not the usual attire she wore for jogging.
No needles or syringes were found near her body or in her car or apartment, and there was no evidence that she had gotten any medical treatments in the days before her death, authorities said. They said there were no signs of physical violence.
A life lost
Krista Pantaleano — 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighing 110 pounds — was described by her family as driven. She was bright, attractive, high energy and personable.
She bicycled, hiked and ran the trails in the Cuyahoga Valley park.
She was an achiever in a family of achievers, a family where everyone worked toward goals, her mother said.
Her sister Stephanie, now 43, who lives outside Chicago, is also a nurse. Brother Bradley, 44, of Arizona, is an electrical engineer. Brother Kevin, 45, is a pilot and a retired Marine lieutenant colonel who lives outside Washington, D.C.
Her father, Don, is a retired metallurgical engineer for Ford Motor Co. and her mother, Fran, a retired saleswoman.
The Sautter family lived in Medina for 16 years, moving there from outside Detroit when Krista was in the seventh grade.
She graduated from Medina High School in 1984 and attended the University of Akron for one semester before moving to Florida where she worked as a harness race groomer.
She returned to Ohio and in 1987 married James Pantaleano, a driver at Northfield Park harness racetrack.
The couple had two sons — Thomas and Kevin — before their divorce in 1992.
She then pursued her education, graduating as a registered nurse from the Meridia School of Nursing in 1996.
According to her family, she and her ex-husband remained on good terms, sharing the responsibility for the boys with him helping to support them while she attended nursing school.
Repeated efforts to contact Pantaleano in New Jersey, where he now lives with the boys, were unsuccessful.
Off and on from 1994 to 1998, she dated Robert Marsico Jr., now an Akron dermatologist.
In the middle of that period, in November 1996, Marsico was arrested by Twinsburg police and according to a report at the time, was accused of breaking into her apartment, throwing her to the floor and repeatedly kicking and striking her.
She told police Marsico was angry because she wanted to break up with him.
He was charged with assault and aggravated burglary, according to news reports in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and a broadcast on WEWS-TV (Channel 5).
On Nov. 26, 1996, Marsico pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of criminal damaging and one count of assault in Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court, according to a consent agreement he signed with the State Medical Board of Ohio that was filed Oct. 12, 2004.
According to that agreement, Marsico admitted he had answered ''no'' to a question on his 1998 renewal application with the board, on or about April 6, 1998, as to whether he had been found guilty of or pleaded guilty or no contest to a felony or misdemeanor since his last application.
In January 1997, he was sentenced to three years probation and paid $3,425 in restitution to Krista Pantaleano, according to published reports.
She was granted a protective order against unwanted contact, but by August that year, the two were dating again, her family said.
However, there are now no such court or police records on file and efforts to contact Marsico were unsuccessful.
No suspects identified
The Cuyahoga Valley rangers have a file on Pantaleano's death that is 8-feet thick, but it is off-limits to the public and the media.
What details are known come from interviews with her family, old newspaper clippings and any details officials released in 1998-99 when the investigation was most active.
Because her death occurred on federal land in northern Summit County, the three agencies were involved in the investigation.
But none claimed to have found any evidence or identified any suspects.
Investigators said they questioned more than 100 people with connections to her including her ex-husband and her boyfriend.
''We were all working it together almost on a mini task-force setting,'' said FBI special agent Scott Wilson.
But at this point, he said, ''We haven't solved the case or know what happened to her or how she got there.''
Cuyahoga Valley chief ranger Christopher Ryan says the case remains ''open and active and under investigation'' and they are still optimistic that her death can be solved.
But Summit County Sheriff's Detective Jeffrey Franklin notes that her death is ''not even listed as a homicide'' and while it is still an open investigation, there has been no active work on it for years.
Family rules out suicide
Krista Pantaleano's body was released to her parents 15 months after her death.
The medical examiner's office had held it in the event more tests might provide a break in the case.
She was buried by her parents in Our Lady of Victory cemetery in Paradise, Mich.
Initially, authorities said they had not ruled out suicide, although they considered that unlikely.
Her family said it was never a possibility.
She had plans to take her sons to visit her parents in Michigan the following week. Her job was going well. Her refrigerator was stocked with food. She was dating. She was saving to buy a house. And her student loans were nearly paid off.
There was no suicide note and no evidence of how such a suicide might have been carried out.
Her family said she was happy with her life and dedicated to her sons, Thomas, then 9, and Kevin, then 8.
$50,000 reward
The Sautters, who now live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offered a $50,000 reward in 1999 — an offer that is still on the table.
''Krista's death was just totally devastating for our entire family,'' said her sister, Stephanie Krantz, who daily wears a gold nursing pendant that was her sister's to keep her memory close.
But both Krantz and her mother said the park seemed more interested in protecting its image as a safe place than in dealing with Krista's death and possible murder.
''After all these years, we've been through all the emotions: anger, depression, hopelessness, frustration,'' Fran Sautter said. ''It was and is tough not knowing what happened. . . . I'm not one to seek revenge, but there are others in our family who feel different. I was angry, and I can't say that my anger has lessened. It just doesn't take up all of our time like it once did.
''Kris is on our minds all the time, on a daily basis,'' she said. ''We remember her all the time and miss her all the time. She is still in our conversations, as if she was still alive.''
As for Krantz, she says she doesn't want her sister to be forgotten.
''We want people to remember. We've not forgotten. I hate that people have forgotten. The truth is still out there,'' she said. ''Somebody knows what happened to Krista.''
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com. Staff writer Jim Carney contributed to this report.
When she went jogging in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, her family said, she usually left her apartment key behind, locked in the car.
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