Sandy victim's recovery stalled after contractor's murder

A Superstorm Sandy victim is trying to get help completing work on her home after the contractor originally doing the work was murdered. Kathi Bernadino says she thought Anthony Mocci, the contractor

News 12 Staff

May 29, 2015, 3:57 AM

Updated 3,346 days ago

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A Superstorm Sandy victim is trying to get help completing work on her home after the contractor originally doing the work was murdered.
Kathi Bernadino says she thought Anthony Mocci, the contractor she hired to raise her home in Long Branch, abandoned her.
"I had been trying to contact him and he didn't call me back," she says. "I was trying to figure out what was going on."
She started to search online for another number and found reports online that he had been stabbed and bludgeoned to death, allegedly by a day laborer who was working for him.
"We were so shocked. He was such a nice guy," says Bernadino.
Bernadino says she feels sorry for Mocci's wife and children. However, she is now at odds with the contracting company Mocci worked for, trying to get the work done.
She says an attorney for the company wants to dissolve her contract, but Bernadino wants her money back so she can get back into her house. 
"I have no meters and the wires have all been cut," she says. She cannot get back into the house until the utilities are fixed.
She also spent most of her $25,000 Sandy recovery grant on the elevation certificate and engineering plans.
"Now I have to pay that all out of pocket again," Bernadino says.
Calls to the attorney for Mocci's company made by News 12 New Jersey for comment were not returned.


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