"Goodbye, Mommy. I’ll be right back," were the last words 7-year-old Joan D’Alessandro said to her mother before she was raped and killed just three doors down from her home in Hillsdale, New Jersey.
The Girl Scout had knocked on the door of chemistry teacher Joseph McGowan in 1973 to sell him Girl Scout cookies, and she was never seen again. Now her killer has died, and her family hopes they can finally find peace.
McGowan had been serving a life term in the South Woods State Prison in Cumberland County New Jersey, and he died on June 5 of unknown causes, reports the New York Post.
The little girl's body was found in Harriman State Park in New York after McGowan confessed to the crime.
Rosemarie D'Alessandro, the girl's mother, said that upon hearing news of the the killer's death, "The first thought that came into my mind is now we could concentrate on the 50th anniversary of Joan's impactful and loving legacy, which will be 50 years in 2023." She said that the parole hearings she had been subjected to had been "torture."
Despite the life term, McGowan had come up for parole most recently in 2009. His next chance at freedom would have been 2025. "I'm so thankful he didn't make it out," D'Alessandro said.
"We won't have to use the time and energy to fight to keep him in prison," D'Alessandro said. After her daughter's death, she worked on the creation of a law that would keep those who murdered and sexually harmed minors under the age of 14 from getting parole at all. It's called "Joan's Law."
After it became law in New Jersey, a similar law was passed by congress in 1998. For D'Alessandro, the law is part of her daughter's legacy.
"Joan could've been put in a cemetery and left there," she said. "I didn't want to leave Joan there. I wanted her to be remembered, to be known. She stood up for others, I was going to stand up for her."
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