BUFFALO, N.Y. — Call it her dying wish, but 95-year-old Jean Bachetti refuses to give up until she gets justice for her brother’s death, which happened more than 40 years ago.
The Buffalo Police Department says Robert Bauer was stabbed to death on December 13, 1980, on Barnard Street in South Buffalo. The 52-year-old was a disabled former postal worker, and he was living alone at the time.
Former Buffalo Police Captain Jeff Rinaldo says Bauer’s ex-wife, Dorothy, was taking food to him when she found him dead. He had been stabbed several times in the stomach, neck, face and head.
When police arrived on scene, they surmised that Bauer was killed in a robbery, because there were no signs of forced entry. Notes from the case suggest that this could have meant Bauer knew his killer, but since DNA evidence did not exist in 1980, Captain Rinaldo says there is very little usable evidence, and no current leads.
Rinaldo also says Bauer’s sister, Jean Bachetti, still calls the cold case unit regularly to check up on the case. She turned 95 in early 2021 and is in a nursing home, but that isn’t stopping her from hoping the crime gets solved.
“I feel guilty because I should have gone over there that day that he was murdered, and I just didn't do it, and I don't know, maybe I would have been killed too,” Bachetti said.
“What I feel horrible about right now is my husband and I were in that neighborhood, and I was going to go check in on him to see how he was doing, and I thought, ‘Oh, no I'm tired, I'll go home.’ But that was the night that he was murdered, and to this day it just bothers me cause I think maybe I could've saved his life,” she added.
Captain Rinaldo said what separates this case from many is that Bauer was stabbed so many times. To police officers, a crime of this profile is typically considered to be a crime of passion.
“It doesn’t appear from what [detectives] saw at the time to be a surprise attack, meaning where he was only stabbed once in the attempt of somebody trying to flee away from him. The number of wounds he unfortunately suffered would definitely tend to lead toward either an acquaintance or some type of situation where there may have been an argument that ensued prior.”
So what exactly is a crime of passion?
David Schmid is an associate professor at the University at Buffalo, and is a crime and culture expert. He’s written books and done extensive research about America’s fascination with true crime, and he knows a lot about crime history. Schmid says crimes of passion are typically thought of as happening between spouses or people who know each other well.
“Very often, crimes of passion are committed by men, against women. That's not always the case, of course, but that's the sort of dominant idea that comes into most people's mind when they hear about crimes of passion. A husband finding out about the adultery of his wife would again be the classical example,” Schmid said.
“The person that committed the crime had no intention or plan to kill that person at the beginning of the episode. This was a situation that escalated rapidly that got out of control ... and that ended with a death. So then it's the job of the legal system to determine whether that should be homicide or a lesser charge, such as manslaughter,” he added.
Captain Rinaldo and Bachetti both are asking for people to come forward with information.
“Anybody that is familiar with this person, anybody that might be familiar with this crime, we're just asking for the public to come forward, they can contact our homicide unit or our confidential tip line at 716-847-2255. We’ve had some success in closing some extremely old homicide cases,” Captain Rinaldo said.
When we asked Bachetti what it would mean for her if this case were to be solved, she had a simple, one word answer: “Peace.”
You can catch new episodes of Unsolved: True Crime in Western New York every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. The podcast is streaming now on Apple Podcast and Spotify.
Editor’s note: since the time of this interview, Capt. Rinaldo has retired from the Buffalo Police Department.