One year after chemist killed, few clues in her murder, By Wayne Parry TOTOWA At the Passaic Valley Water Commission’s sprawling water treatment plant, authorities say someone is getting away with murder. Nearly one year ago, someone overpowered 43-year-old Geetha Angara, a talented, highly regarded chemist from India, choked her until she passed out, and hurled her body into a massive water storage tank, where she drowned. The murder happened on the grounds of a fenced-in plant, where everyone who comes or goes has to pass by security officers and video cameras. It’s virtually certain that she was killed by a co-worker, authorities say. “We’re 99.9 percent sure it was an employee,” Passaic County Prosecutor James Avigliano said. “We don’t see how anybody else could have done it.” But after investigators interviewed 80 people, including all 50 workers who were on duty that day, and narrowed the list of potential suspects down to eight, the case went cold. The Passaic County prosecutor’s office does not have detectives assigned to the case full-time anymore. And no one who was at the plant that day has vanished or stopped coming to work, leading to the inescapable conclusion that the killer is still reporting for duty each day. “It has been excruciating pain and suffering ever since then because we miss her so much,” said Angara’s husband, Jaya. “Every day we think about it and remember her. We miss her every night.” He frequently calls her cell phone, just to hear the recording of Geetha speaking her first and last name before the call goes over to voice mail. “Without her, life has no meaning,” he said. “I stay alive only for the sake of the three children. For their sake, I have to keep going and finish the job.” The chemist was last seen working Feb. 8 in the laboratory, where her duties included adjusting sensors that test how clear the water is. Whoever attacked her dumped her body into the water tank through a four-foot opening that is usually covered by a 50-pound metal panel, secured by about a dozen screws. Those screws were either broken off or missing. She was alive when her body hit the icy-cold water. An autopsy listed the cause of death as drowning. Avigliano said there’s been no significant progress on the case, even though three of the suspects are the focal point of suspicion. “We like three better than the other five, but we’re still looking at all eight,” he said. “Absent putting one or two of them at the scene, all we have is conjecture, and we can’t arrest anyone based on conjecture.” The three suspects all had access to the corridor above the tank where Angara drowned, and their body language during interrogations appeared suspicious to detectives, Avigliano said. “We’re in the same position we’ve been in for a while now,” he said. “We’d like very much to solve it, but there comes a point in time when you have to redirect your resources. We have 25 to 30 homicides a year in this county.” That response does not sit well with the family, which has enlisted the help of elected officials to try to pressure Passaic County authorities to either turn up the heat on the case, or hand it off to the state Attorney General’s office or the FBI. “People are getting away with murder,” said Angara’s sister, Saranya Rao. “Is that OK with the prosecutor? This is a solvable case. He (the suspect) is a cold-blooded killer, still drawing a public paycheck. It’s a mockery of justice.” Avigliano said his office has thoroughly investigated the case. “There’s nothing we’ve left unturned,” he said. “The detectives are very put out that they can’t solve this crime. They don’t like to let someone get away with something like this. This one hurts, because I know how much work they did on this case.”