Decades later, unsolved slaying still rankles

Twenty-one years after community activist Luis Galindez was stabbed to death in his North Camden home, the neighborhood he fought for is showing signs of renewal.

The construction of houses and schools, the demolition of a waterfront-hogging state prison, the restoration of Pyne Poynt Park, and the rise of a Little League program are energizing North Camden.

Galindez, who helped pave the way for this fledgling renaissance, was only 31 when friends - alarmed that he had not shown up for work - entered his unlocked house and discovered his body on July 19, 1994.

And as the sad anniversary approaches, they hope fresh attention will shake loose new information about the unsolved murder of a gentle soul.

"It's sad that no one has ever been caught," said Betsy Clifford, executive director of Camden Lutheran Housing Inc.

The nonprofit's office is on Galindez Court (a new street named in her friend's memory) in the Cooper Waterfront Homes complex in North Camden.

"I have to believe that whoever did this was someone who knew Luis had been paid that Friday, someone who knew him and knew he had cash," Clifford said. "It's outrageous this has been a cold case for so long."

On Tuesday, Tom Knoche, Lillian Ubarry, and Laura Sanchez met me at Fourth and State, where Galindez is memorialized on a granite tablet that proclaims te extranamos amigo (we miss you, friend).

The tablet is embedded on the Fourth Street wall of a house restored by the North Camden Land Trust. Galindez administered the trust's cooperative housing program, which provided 200 families the opportunity to rent or own a renovated property.

"He helped save North Camden from the bulldozer," said Knoche, 65, of Westmont, a retired planner turned activist who worked side by side with Galindez.

Ubarry got to know Galindez in the mid-1980s, when she and Knoche were active with Concerned Citizens of North Camden.

"Luis was loved in the neighborhood. He knew everybody," said the Cramer Hill resident, 60, who is outreach coordinator for the Camden County Cancer Screening Project.

Ubarry and Knoche noted that Galindez, whom I knew and admired as well, did not let a speech impediment prevent him from talking to people.

And Clifford recalled how Galindez would insist on walking everywhere in the neighborhood - even though a childhood case of polio in Puerto Rico left him with a pronounced limp.

Galindez also was conscientious, and when he did not show up for work or call on July 18, Knoche and Ubarry went to the house where he lived alone at 831 State St.

Knoche went upstairs and saw their friend's body on a bedroom floor.

"He was stabbed more than 30 times, all over," said Detective Peter Longo, a Camden County Prosecutor's Office investigator assigned to the cold-case unit of the Camden County Police Department.

The Galindez murder was last reviewed about three months ago, after a caller with "no new evidence" inquired about what turned out to be an unrelated case, Longo said.

The Galindez file was reviewed, but none of the five individuals - family members and coworkers - who were interviewed during the initial investigation was reinterviewed, he added.

"We can definitely look into this again," Longo said. "And I think we have the intention of doing that."

The 19-year law enforcement veteran noted that the lack of a weapon and other evidence, as well as of witnesses, complicated the initial investigation.

"Additional information is really going to be needed in order to go forward with this case," Longo said.

Friends, meanwhile, are trying to determine the status of a reward fund that was established after the murder.

"Every year in the summer, I think about what happened to Luis," said Sanchez, a homeless-services professional with the Community Planning and Advocacy Council.

Now a Fairview resident, she lived in North Camden and was active with organizations there in the 1980s and '90s.

"Luis was such a sweet person, so wonderful, so trusting - and someone did this horrible, horrible thing to him," Sanchez said. "I hope there's justice for Luis."

I do, too. At the very least, this case deserves a fresh review. Luis Galindez deserves no less.