By NC WANTED Staff

Posted: Sep 11, 2008
Updated: Sep 11, 2008

NEW HANOVER COUNTY — NEW HANOVER COUNTY: Wilmington police have received positive lab identification that the remains found in Wilmington in April are Allison Jackson-Foy. It is unclear whether the case is being treated as a homicide.

Allison's family has been notified.

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Yesterday marked the two-year anniversary of Allison Jackson Foy's disappearance. Remains found in Wilmington have been preliminarily identified by police as Foy, but investigators and family members await DNA confirmation from the medical examiner's office.

For Lisa Valentino, Allison's sister, the waiting has been a frustrating journey.

"We want this one chapter closed. We want to be able to bring Allison home and put her to rest… and then, move on, move on from there," Valentino told NC WANTED. "But I don’t know what that world is going to be like. I mean, I imagine it is going to be difficult to know that somebody took my sister’s life and they have no idea who did it. And that person is still out there somewhere."

Valentino said police showed her photos of the scene where Allison was found and that "was the nail in the coffin."

Two sets of remains were found together in a wooded area off Carolina Beach Road, which have been preliminarily identified as Foy and Angela Rothen in search warrants released earlier this month. Valentino believes both were killed and dumped there by the same person.

The warrants were used to search the house, car and storage unit owned by Timothy Craig Iannone, 47, who has not been named a suspect in the case.

According to the search warrant, Iannone was a cab driver who frequented the area where the remains were located and has a criminal history. In August 2007, he was arrested for the kidnapping, rape and assault of a prostitute in the area near where the remains were found. He is currently on probation.

If you have information on this case, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" Your identity can be kept confidential.

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The future was looking bright for Allison Jackson-Foy in the summer of 2006. She had landed a new job as an assistant manager at the Holiday Inn and was building a life in Wilmington with her husband and two daughters.

“She was a great mother,” Lisa Valentino, Allison’s sister, said. “She had a tremendous love for life.”

In June, 2006, Allison and her youngest daughter visited Lisa, who says that despite some financial problems, Allison was taking responsibility for her life and looking forward to a fresh start and new career. But on July 29th, 2006, just one month after her visit, Allison disappeared.

According to her family, Allison left work around 10 p.m. that evening and went to a friend’s house. She left a while later, and went to the Junction Pub and Billiards on Carolina Beach Road. Investigators say Allison appeared to be in good spirits when she met a friend there at 11 p.m. After staying for a few hours, witnesses say, she left the bar around 2 a.m. More than a year has passed and Allison has not been seen or heard from since. Police found her car in the bar’s parking lot.

“If she ever needed help she would pick up the phone,” her sister said. “This is just not her M.O.”

Witnesses who were at the bar the night Allison disappeared have different accounts of when they last saw her. Some say the bartender called a cab to take her home and when the driver came inside, she left. Others claim Allison never left in a cab and she was seen sitting on the front steps of the bar, crying. Phone records show that she made a call to a friend in New York at 2:03 a.m. Her bank accounts and cell phone have not been used since.

Her family says Allison would never leave her two daughters or go this long without contacting someone.

“If things were bad where she was, she would have taken her daughters with her,” Lisa said.  “She would have never left her kids behind. Never in a million years.”

Since her disappearance, Allison’s family and friends have worked tirelessly, alongside the Center for Missing Persons, to keep her in the public eye. Her daughters, now 13 and 5, are desperate for answers.

When last seen, Allison was 34 year old. She is a white female with blonde hair and hazel eyes. She is 5 feet and 8 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds.

If you have information on this case, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" Your identity can be kept confidential.

For more information on Allison's case, visit the Community United Effort's Center for Missing Persons web site: www.ncmissingpersons.org