Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 1

TS: Best bet iaX Ocean temps tllUI Sunny and pleasant Ocean Grove CD Ortley Beach 13 Long Beach Still nice and sunny WEATHER AND TIDES, PAGE A2 uwnr wwi asuir i i '-'iSti': fW-''ln)- i(: ij. ASBURY PARK ,11. rV The Local Front Entertainment, Real Quiet, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness If V- Each week, the Asbury Park Concert Band serves up free music from a rooftop along the city's boardwalk. SECTION pulls out of next weekend's $1 million Buick Haskell Invitational. section of 1 I just want them to find her, so we can have Residents, officials attribute Belmar's high crime rate to the huge annual influx of summer visitors, section AA if Claire Leak, mother of Robin Trivisonno, who n- i i I 5K' i .1 sic fc'-- f.fl Iff some closure to this.

Hoax creates chaim off ffoote Bogus chain letter solicits business cards Mary 'i I By RICK LINSK and PAUL D'AMBROSIO STAFF WRITERS TAKE A FEW New Jersey legislators. Add one chain letter hoax. What do you get? More lawmakers and public officials buying into the hoax and spending taxpayer money to perpetuate it. When lawmakers received a heart-rending letter asking them to help send a record number of business cards to a teen-ager dying of cancer, they responded swiftly. At least several lawmakers each asked 10 of their colleagues, allies and friends to do the same.

There's just one problem: The letter is a fake. What started out as a well-intentioned gesture has wound up fueling a never-ending chain of mail for a sick child who's no longer 01, no longer a child, and no longer col Business B1 Classified D1 Movies E3 Obituaries AA6 Puzzles El 3 Real Estate Ol Section E8 Seniority C8 Destinations F1 Editorials C2 Impact CI Lotteries A2 mm i lecting cards. "That would shock me, that it's a hoax," said Matt Eventoff, spokesman for Sen. John 0. Bennett, R-Monmouth, when informed by a reporter that the chain letter was phony.

Bennett, majority leader in the Senate, was one of several lawmakers the Asbury Park Press found was keeping the chain alive. "Who would do something that horrible? We will have our office contact the people we asked to do it and inform them of this." Eventoff said they believed the plea was real since it came from a "legitimate" source, whom he did not identify. The chain letter asks recipients to send a business card to "Craig Shefford," described as a 17-year-old boy with terminal cancer. It says Craig "turned in his wish to the Make-A-Wish Foundation" to See Bogus, Page All "When I heard they took him to the hospital after he went down the slide, I figured he got the wind knocked out of him. I figured it was no big deal, that I would go get him and bring him back." Maiissa Rathgeber (left), older sister of Michael Rathgeber (below), who died July 25 in an amusement park slide accident I Li 0 -If' "The individual was a trespasser, in our opinion," Aaron said.

"The rides were closed." Rathgeber "had no business See Grief, PageA4 Surf Club Dance Jam 793-6629 Happy hi 4-7 MC tay's Midnight Madness Tradewinds 'Saturday Nite Fever 732-842-7300 Missing woman, few Ex-dancer disappeared Wi has been missing since Jan. 20, 1 997 KAREN MANCINELLISpaclal to the PrtM clues years ago walls work; they reduce noise levels by up to 50 percent Transpor- See Barriers, PageA6 0021A 094346" Asbury Park Press Aug. 02 Martell't Tiki Bar 892-0131 Dr. Cheeko 1 pm Don't Call Me Francis 7pm wDJ Paul Norwood Inn, Avon Joefinn 4:3010 Pool Bar ---t-- I II llll III III III vl ft By COLEEN DEE BERRY STAFF WRITER ary Claire Leak took one ter tranquil apartment, cold. M.V ixiH.

Robin Trivisonno could have just Photograph by MICHAEL GOLDFINGERSUff Photographer and where she had met her boyfriend. She was last seen by bar employees around 2 a.m., Monday, Jan. 20, 1997, walking out the door with a well-dressed, tanned, long-haired man. Her 1994 Jeep Cherokee was left untouched in the Heartbreakers parking lot. Investigators later found Trivisonno's coat and purse, with $500 in cash still inside, at a location some distance from the bar.

Family members told the Asbury Park Press the coat and purse were found "40 miles away" in northern New Jersey; police would not say where they picked up the items. Since Trivisonno walked out of Heartbreakers, there have been few leads. Investigators admit to being frustrated over the case. "Right now, we have no evidence that there was any foul play," said Detective Thomas Powers of the Monmouth County prosector's office. "At the same time, everyone who knew her tells us there's just no See Missing, Page A12 Slide to death: grief, questions the corner store.

Her nursing textbooks were open on the kitchen table; a pencil lay waiting across a notebook. But Trivisonno's three sons were there, home from school, wondering where Mom was. "I knew, right then, that something awful had happened to her," Leak said. "Because no matter what, she was always home for her boys." Since Jan. 19, 1997, Robin Trivisonno hasn't come back to her Ventnor home.

On that day, the 28-year-old Trivisonno drove to Monmouth County to meet with her boyfriend, a married lawyer. They argued. Upset, Trivisonno stopped for a few drinks at the Heartbreakers go-go bar in Neptune, where she once worked as a dancer Mary Claire Leak (top) holds a 1988 wedding photograph of her missing daughter, Robin Trivisonno, also pictured above. look at her daugh ana her blood ran left to run to price: $11.4 million, the cost to install the 20-foot-high concrete barriers in Somerset and Morris counties. That's a bargain compared to the $35.6 million the state is now spending to build sound barriers along 1-295 and 1-76 in Camden and Burlington counties, the most expensive such project to date.

There is little doubt the sound Headllner Verdict Clllmkl 779-6200 $2 Coronas $9 lobster all day. Deck open 2pm Jazz AH Night Seagull 732-739-2002 Sound investments, but perhaps too costly By SHERI TABACHNIK STAFF WRITER ONE WEEK after a 19-year-old Island Heights man took a fatal after-hours ride down an Asbury Park amusement park slide, his friends and family are struggling to accept that he is gone. Meanwhile, state, county and municipal officials are still investigating the circumstances surrounding Michael A. Rathgeber's death the morning of July 25. Albert Mazurkiewicz, the owner of Florida Amusements, the Miami-based company that operates the slide, said the blame lies with the deceased and his friends.

Rathgeber, Mazurkiewicz said, was trespassing. City attorney James Aaron agreed. Mora Jersey turf! From A to you'll find It at wviw.mjereey com. Need internet connection? Call 1-600-232-8884 nearby Interstate 287 was so loud sometimes she couldn't hear the phone ring. That was before the state built noise barriers last year.

Now there are days when she hardly notices the freeway is there. "It does make a big difference," Kassick said. "It's a lot quieter." But her peace of mind came at a N.J. may cease building highway noise walls. By ARON PILHOFER I and GREG TREVOR GANNETT STATE BUREAU I I WHEN BOBBI Kassick moved into her Bridgewater home three years ago, traffic noise from At Jankil Strwt Band 8994969 JetsGiants Tix Give-Away! $2.

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