St. Aloysius High School in Jersey City is a close-knit educational facility, situated prominently at the corner of Kensington and West Side Avenue. Its peaceful setting right off Lincoln Park, shared with the grade school students who also occupy the building, has been a staple of the West Side community for more than 100 years.
Last week, that close-knit school, where everyone knows and loves everyone else, was rocked to the core when it was learned that a former St. Aloysius basketball star allegedly strangled his high school sweetheart to death in her college dormitory room.
“It’s too sad to even speak about,” said a tearful young lady who only wanted to be known as Evelyn, last week. “I knew both of them well and now both of their lives are over. It’s too hard to even think that something like that could happen to us, to kids from this school. It just doesn’t happen to us.”
Early Monday morning, Florham Park police arrested 19-year-old Novis Parker of Jersey City and charged him with the murder by strangulation of 18-year-old Tiffany Bratton, also of Jersey City, in her dorm room at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Morris County.
When police searched for Parker, they found him hiding in the bathroom of his dorm room at Felician College in Rutherford, where he was attending school, they said.
According to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, Bratton’s body was found at 9 p.m. Sunday, fully clothed and in her bed. University police found her after her parents had called the school, concerned about her whereabouts.
Parker, who dated Bratton for three years during high school and attended the St. Aloysius senior prom with her last May, apparently went to FDU last Saturday night in an effort to reconcile their relationship, which had broken up, police said.
According to Morris County Prosecutor Michael Rubbinaccio, Parker told Florham Park detectives that he choked Bratton in an argument, then left the room without calling for medical help.
Bratton’s body was not found until 16 hours after the alleged 3 a.m. incident.
East Rutherford police went to Felician’s Milton Court dormitory to arrest Parker, who allegedly had confessed to some people that he had committed the murder. ‘He looked like his whole life ended’
An East Rutherford police report stated that Parker “was hiding in the shower stall behind a curtain.” The report stated, “When they took him out, he looked like his whole life ended.”
Parker allegedly told a Florham Park detective he tried to give Bratton cardiopulmonary resuscitation before he left the room, then he went back to his home in Jersey City.
Bratton’s roommate slept in their room Saturday night and was in and out on Sunday, but she assumed Bratton was just sleeping in, Rubbinaccio said.
Bratton’s body was found with wounds on the neck, and Morris County Medical Examiner Ronald Suarez determined she had been strangled. She was pronounced dead at 9:54 p.m. Sunday, but authorities believe the incident had taken place anywhere between 16 to 20 hours earlier.
According to Rubbinaccio, a native of Union City, there were no signs of a struggle, and no one reported hearing the two fighting. There was also no reported history of violence between them.
Parker is currently under a suicide watch at the Morris County Jail in Morristown. He was arraigned and charged with Bratton’s murder and is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Family shocked
People throughout Jersey City, but especially at St. Aloysius, where the two first met, are having a tough time dealing with the tragedy.
“I know the family is very broken up and shocked, totally, totally shocked,” said Wayne Harmon, who is Bratton’s cousin. “This is something that shouldn’t have happened. They cared for each other.”
Police said that they did not know how long Parker and Bratton had been broken up, that police said Parker told them he went to FDU Saturday night with the hope of getting back together.
St. Aloysius Principal Thomas Gentile was devastated by the news.
“We’re all shocked here,” Gentile said. “This is not the Novis Parker we knew. I don’t know what to say. Novis was one of the most polite and considerate kids we had in the school. I’m just totally shocked. It’s so absolutely out of character.”
Added Gentile, “Tiffany was a good student and a very personable girl. Both she and Novis had a lot of friends in the school, like most of our kids do. She was a good-looking girl who was very popular. Because they were so close, that’s what makes this even more bizarre.”
Gentile said that he met with his faculty Monday to discuss programs in case the students needed grief counseling.
“We already had programs in place and our guidance counselors are on call, but I don’t know if we could actually handle something like this,” Gentile said. “I think everyone is more in shock than anything. We’re all just taken back by this. I met with the faculty, but then, I didn’t even know what to say.”
Tony Romano, the school’s athletic director, who coached Parker for two years, was devastated by the news. “I can’t say anything,” Romano said. “I’m sorry.”
Other students echoed the sentiments.
“Almost everyone in the school knew Novis and Tiffany,” said a senior named Edwin. “We just can’t believe this. A lot of people were crying in school.”
After transferring to St. Aloysius from Marist as a sophomore, Parker was a brilliant basketball player at the school, averaging 25 points and 10 rebounds per game during the 2000-2001 season.
Parker earned Third Team All-Area honors from The Hudson Reporter and also was named Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week on Jan. 7, 2001.
Parker was not playing basketball at Felician, but had hoped to play in the future.
In the interview for the Athlete of the Week feature, Parker told the Reporter what he hoped to become after attending college.
“I want to become a nurse, perhaps study nursing in college,” Parker said only 15 months ago. “I like helping people.”