Remembering Janice, and Fighting to Keep Her Killer Jailed

Janice Amirante loved the ocean and the music of Janice Joplin. The pretty, vivacious teenager from Plainview looked and dressed the part of a hippie, despite being born too late for the Summer of Love or Woodstock.

"She was adorable, feisty, a little redhead like me," said Debi Amirante-Salino, who remembers her baby sister as a gifted artist who loved the rock concerts held at the place we all called Salisbury Park.

But on Aug. 24, 1984, Janice met Keith Doyle, an unemployed landscaper from East Meadow, at one of those concerts, held at the bandshell at present-day Eisenhower Park in East Meadow.

Janice's family never saw her again alive. Instead, they buried Janice on her 19th birthday in Plainview's

One week from today, Doyle with have yet another parole hearing at an upstate prison. Janice's parents will be there on Friday March 4, among those fighting to ensure Doyle never goes free.

Others are fighting from Plainview and beyond, using an electronic petition to urge the state parole board to deny freedom to Doyle. To date, more than 700 people have put their names on the petition.

"My brothers drove her to the park and she hung out with her friends at a concert," Debi said. "He offered to give her a ride home."

Doyle, 21 at the time of their meeting, was convicted by a Nassau County Jury in 1986 of Janice's brutal murder. What is known is that Doyle took Janice to a motel room on Hempstead Turnpike in Bethpage that evening. The next day she was strangled after an argument.

Doyle took apart the platform bed in the motel room, removing the inside boards. He placed Janice's body inside and replaced the mattress before leaving.

Two days later, authorities said Doyle returned and, using the same motel key, entered the room and wrapped her body in a curtain from the room. He removed her body and dumped it in a drainage sump near his home. It was recovered there a short time later.

The family was deeply concerned. Janice was a free spirit but always called when she wasn't coming home. She had left key personal items, including her purse, at the family's home in Plainview.

Debi Amirante still bristles about Doyle: During her disappearance, Doyle called the house on several occassions, asking about Janice's welfare.

The police investigation led to Doyle. He was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to 25 years-to-life in state prison. He admitted to the murder, claiming it stemmed from an argument they had.

"And since 25 years have passed, my family and I had to go through this every two years (before the parole board,)" Debi said. "And it’s coming up again."

Debi's family says they continue to fight Doyle's parole because "of the way he took her life.

"This person planned it all, going back to the room and taking the body and then watching my family struggle with it for all these years," Debi said.

Janice, who would have been 47 this year, aspired to be a beautician, and Debi believes they would have worked together in the nail and skin care shop she now owns in Miller Place.

The petition, which Debi helped to circulate through Facebook and other means, says, in part:

"We, the undersigned, STRONGLY OPPOSE parole for Keith Doyle. Justice demands he serve the full prison term given to him at the time he was sentenced for this heinous crime."