EX-BOYFRIEND
INDICTED IN MURDER OF MISSING WOMAN
Within days of a
31-year-old Holly Hill woman going missing in
February, Michael Annicchiarico was lying about
everything from when he had last seen his
ex-girlfriend and what she had been driving at the
time to why his hands were so swollen. Considered a
person of interest early on in Mandy Ciehanoski’s
disappearance, Volusia County Sheriff’s
investigators have been methodically building a case
against Annicchiarico for the last eight months.
Based on the findings of the investigation, the
Volusia County Grand Jury on Monday returned an
indictment against Annicchiarico for 1st-degree
murder. The case, brought before the Grand Jury by
the State Attorney’s Office, additionally charges
Annicchiarico with tampering with evidence. While
Sheriff’s investigators are all but certain that
Ciehanoski is dead, her body hasn’t been found. But
all the signs point to Annicchiarico being her
killer.
Family members reported
Ciehanoski as missing to the Sheriff’s Office on
Feb. 14, although Feb. 7 was the last time anyone
had seen her. During the initial investigation,
Annicchiarico told investigators that he hadn’t seen
the victim for about two years. That turned out to
be a lie. Investigators turned up evidence that the
two were together on Feb. 7, the day Ciehanoski
disappeared. And when Annicchiarico reported to work
two days later, his boss noted that his hands were
swollen. He claimed the injury occurred during a
fracas in which he had been thrown out of a strip
club. But when questioned by Sheriff’s
investigators, Annicchiarico insisted he hadn’t been
to a strip club in years. He also lied about an
incident where he texted pictures of himself and
Ciehanoski having sex. The two had an on-again,
off-again relationship, and Ciehanoski’s family
considered Annicchiarico to be violent and
controlling. Ciehanoski had confided in family
members that one time, Annicchiarico had awakened
her and dragged her outside to show her a hole in
the ground. He told Ciehanoski that’s where she
would end up if he ever caught her cheating. While
locked up in jail, Annicchiarico wrote numerous
letters to Ciehanoski. Sheriff’s investigators were
told that one of them appeared to have been written
in blood.
Annicchiarico has been
behind bars at the Volusia County Branch Jail in
Daytona Beach since Feb. 24, facing a variety of
charges that include making a false report to law
enforcement, providing false information to law
enforcement during an investigation, grand theft,
forgery and unlawful transfer of a title. Meanwhile,
the investigation by the Sheriff’s Office’s Major
Case Unit into the disappearance turned up more
evidence pointing to Annicchiarico. That included
blood-stained bed sheets stuffed into a trash bag
found in Annicchiarico’s closet, a pair of discarded
latex gloves -- one of which had blood on the inside
-- found in the trash outside of Annicchiarico’s
home and blood in the trunk of the car that
Annicchiarico was using at the time of Ciehanoski’s
disappearance. The blood in the glove matched
Annicchiarico’s, while a DNA analysis of the blood
in the car and on the linens showed that there was
an almost mathematical certainty that it came from
someone related to Ciehanoski’s parents. Sheriff’s
investigators tried to question Annicchiarico about
the blood, but he got nervous and said he thought he
needed a lawyer.
Witness interviews also
point the finger at Annicchiarico. One close friend
of Annicchiarico told investigators that he had been
threatening to kill Ciehanoski for years and even
talked about where would be a good place to dump the
body. Investigators along with cadaver dogs have
searched more than a dozen locations, but haven’t
been able to find the body. Another friend said that
Annicchiarico had admitted to killing Ciehanoski and
even gave him some of her jewelry to dispose of. But
first, the friend had to soak the jewelry in
peroxide to wash the blood off of it. A jail inmate
also has come forward to tell investigators that
while incarcerated, Annicchiarico divulged to him
that he had killed Ciehanoski.
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