Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
Sixty-four-year-old Athena Valentiny was found brutally murdered after police were ordered to do a welfare check when she didn’t show up to work and people became concerned after not hearing from her. On October 24th, 2018, she was discovered brutally stabbed to death in her California home. Friends and family were shocked to find out that Valentiny’s son was a suspect in the murder. Crimetastic breaks down the story and reveals the truth about what really happened to Athena Valentiny.
our story begins in Grover Beach, california , just before noon on october 25th 2018,dispatch received a series of calls regarding a welfare check at the 200 block of south 9th street.welfare check on a registred nurst that never showed up for work this morning. and she only have one vehicle. and she’s not answering her door.
a neigbor’s description of her daily routin ,it’s not normal
she said the last time she saw her was two days ago but she did hear her yesterday speaking hungarian . she’s hungarian . that’s all she knows. she said that she has a regular routin,she locks the gate, she got a small gate up front locks it with the padlock
has a dog that she leaves up front but the padlock’s not there ,it’s unsecure there is no dog.neighbor said her (missing nurse’s son lives in the area and police have tried to contacting him but no anwer and no answer on the phone either.the only car she has is registred on herself and her name is Athena valentiny.
correctional officer’s partner saw som red type of substance on the blinds
it’s good enough if the correctional officers gonna request the welfare.
the correctional offciers are not technically,not authorized to make entry.
but officer lopez doesn’t need a warrant .the correntional requested a check welfare and door’s unlocked
and there’s a lot of blood.lopez can’t tell if she sliced herself or someone came up .
police secure the scene and begin speaking with neighbors
investigator for the chief investigator san luis obsipo district attorney’s office leads the case.
he went into Athena’s bedroom where there was a large pool of blood that she laid on top of , there were massive of wounds to he throat in uppwe extremities.
it was obvious that this was a homicide as she could not have inflicted the wounds upon herself
Athena valentiny wasa local prisone nurse and immigrant from hungary.there were no immediate family or friends at the scene.
Grover beach police has a stronmg local following on social media.
they informed the community that they were investigating a suspicious death
as well to ask the community for assistance and locating Athena’s dog.
because Athena was a nurse at the prison detective spoke with everyone she had rescent contact with in doing so they locate a friend of Athena valentiny.
cheryl mankey a felow nurse at the men’s colony prison when detectives informed her of athena’s murdercheryl said she was indisbelief and aws hysterical.
she described athena as having a big personality and very high energy ,chery believedd that an inmate must have killed athena.
investigators searched for any reports or records of an instance between athena and an inmate altumately there were no solid leads tracing back to athena’s employment at the prison.
when searching her house on the day of the murder they were unable to locate athena’s cell phone.
charging cables were plugged into the wall however none of her devices were there.
with her phone missing detectives obtain a warrant for her phone records from her cell carrier but the results will take a few days.
detectives find a local UPS storereceipt on Athena’s dining room table the transaction took place the previous day in th early afternoon.
the video from the UPS store surveillance system showed Athena alive and well , she did not appear in distress and wasn’t with anyone .
another friend of athena’s shelby holmes found out about athena’s death from the local news she said she was devastated she describe athena as fun and said she loved to dance
shelby called the tip information number and got in touch with detective Neall. she told him about athena’s son ,Levente lazar who was away attending college in bloomington Indiana. he thanked her for the information and contacted the bloomington police departement
which made a death notification in person to athena’s son. detective Neall received a call from levente wtihin a few minutes of the officer leaving the apartment the detective said levente had little reaction he seemed fine and wanted to continue to talk about what happened to his mom .
when asked levente said he had not seen athena in person for a long time he told the detective that he was in bloomington Indiana on the date of the murder which is couple thousands miles away.
after ending the call with levente detectives received word from athena’s neigbhor. the HOA president
that the surveillance camera outside the building wasn’t workingorder.
the camera was motion activated and would only capture snippets in time the footage up to a day before discovery of athena’s body shows athena leaving to run errands
walking her dog
and ultimately returning home at no point did anybody approach her and she did not participate in any altercations or arguments.
at around 11, pm that night the camera detected motion and activated the footage shows a person on the sidwalk in front athena’s home they appear to have her dog next to them. the individual was walking northbound on 9th street.
detectives followed that path and found several video cameras along the way
three blocks north of athena’s residence is the exploration discovery center.
the center had good quality 24- hours surveillance investigators could see the figure walking and a dog following.
when searching through footage from earlier in the day a a person towards athena’s house at around 6:30 in the evening the individual appears to be talking on the phone
detectives then shift their focus to athena’s cell phone records they looked at the last day she was known to be alive october 24th.
she was in contact with common numbers but one particular numbers stood out because it had a different area code.the area code 513 is from Ohio and that day was the first time athena had communicated with that number.
the number being from out of state and newly in contact with athena multiple times that day peaked detectives neil’s interest.
using the time of the calls and the exploration center footage he determined that athena was likely communicating with the person walking in the direction of her home.
the investigators obtained a search warrant for the 513 number
as they believed the person holding the phone was involved in athena’s murder.
from speaking with friends and neighbors detectives knew that athena’s dog was not friendly with strangers. upon closer inspection of the footage from athena’s building and the exploration center
the dog followed the person without a leach , detectives received the 513 phone numbers records back from cricut wireless, the records showed a prepaid phone beloning to a subscriber named jacob keith out of cincinnati Ohio.
the name was unfamiliar to the investigation and to athena’s friends.
prepaid phones are also known as burner phones commonly used by people attempting to conceal their identity.
detectives made a subsequent request to provide the location of purchase.
the phone purchase occured at a bloomington Indiana best buy less then one mile away from
Athena’s son levente’s apartment.
detective neil didn’t want to any conclusions, still he knew that the location of the phone purchase and the associated number being in contact with athena on the day she died was not a coincidence.
the detective contacted the best buy manager who located the transaction and confirmed that they had surveillance video showing the phone purchase.
detective Neall’s next call was to the blommington polide department to have an officer pick up the footage from best buy.
getting back the footage back to california will take a few days, the name on the prepaid phone was jacob keith and the address listed was a PO box in cincinnati ohio.
neither the name nor the adress led to anything, fortunately the cricut phont records contained a spreadsheet of every cell towers the phone communicated with.
with the cell tower’s latitude longitude and date and time they could map the devic’s physical location over time .
the phone ‘s activation occurred in bloomington indiana . the phone turned off shortly after activation on october 22nd .
the phone was turned back on in oklahoma city on october 23rd.
several states west of where it was activated and purchased .
the phone traveled along interstate 40 to california and ultimately arrived in grover beach on the afternoon of the 24th.
investigators compared the phones location data to athena’s phone records
the phone arrived near her residence on the afternoon on the 24th and stayed in grover beach until approximately 11:00 pm.
when the surveillance video showed the person living her building .
athena’s phone mirrored the path ofthe burner phone,the detectives believes that the phones were together at that point.the last communication from athena’s phone was at 11 :04 pm that nigth.
during the death notification to levente ,detective Neall asked the bloomington PD officer to note any vehicles maybe associated with the apartment.
levente owned a jeep patriot the detective ran his plate through the national license plate reader program -the results through doubt on levente’s story of not leavingthe state of Indiana the week of his mom’s murder.
there were several captures of leventes jeep, traveling across the country in the days before and after athena’s death murder .
next detectives check out the best buy footage of the burner phone purchase. the video shows levente lazar bying the the phone when interviewed the store employees said levente asked for a burner phone.
with the pictures of leventes jeep the location data of the phone and the footage of lavente purchasing the phone- the detective knew it was time to have an in-person conversation with him.
a team of investigators traveled to bloomington indiana.
detective Neall had not informed levente of his travels but when he called him levente was not suprised
he willingly came to the bloomington police departement.and spoke with detective neil the other investigators executed a search warrant at leventes apartment.
levente is booked on the murder charge as detecties continue to search his apartment.
investigators seized many electronic devices, including his iPad, the data extraction on the iPad revealed multiple searches levente had made on google.
- the searches included his name Levente Lazar suspect grover beach.
- Levente Lazar murder grover beach
- and murder grover beach on 9th street.
the iPad was a wif-fi only device, meaning it had to be connected toa vireless router somewhere to connect to the internet .
fortunately ….or unfortunately for Levente the iPad stores its connection logs.
on the morning of october 25th Levente’s iPad connecs to the winslow ,arizona McDonald’s free wi-fi from 11:00 am to 11: 10 am.
Athena valentiny isn’t found deceased until 11:50 on october 25th, meaning the searches Levente made regarding a murder on 9th street in grover beach occured before the discovery of Athena’s body.
in addition the McDonald’s surveillance shows Levente’s jeep.
detective neall was more confident that levente had committed this crime than almost any other he’d investigated.
lindsey bittner , the deputy district attorney looked into Levente’s financial’s
Levente told detective neall that he was financially stable working for disney and making money in the stock market as a day trader . Levente’s bank account showed he was living off of the 130, 000 annuity he received from his mother’s deceased boyfriend
despite the payouts Levente was down over 49 , 000 dollars in the stock market,he owed almost 70,000 dollars in student loans and owed the IRS roughly 112 ,000 dollars.
Lindsay said levente’s real -time financial situation was knowing he would be out of money in no time with Levente maintaing his innocence
it’s possible to determine what happened inside Athena’s condo .
at trial the coroner testifies that the perpetrator aproached Athena from behind with a knife
the attack likely started on the bed
and then based on blood loss it culminated on the floorwith Levente being familiar with Athena’s dog it explained why no one heard any disturbance.
one year after athena’s murder , the jury convicts Levente Lazar of the firs- degree murder of his mother with a sharp object. the judge sentences him to life without the possibility of parole.
unfortunately the mystery of what happened to Athena’s dog is never solved.
Levente was the only family in the US so there wasn’t a funural or burial.