Carmen “CJ” DeLuca (Wild Card, Connecticut)

The Deck

audiochuck

True Crime

4.6 • 9.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When a man stopped to get gas in the middle of the night in 1985, he had no idea he was walking into the scene of a murder. The 23-year-old gas station attendant, Carmen “CJ” DeLuca, had been shot to death for seemingly no reason. But with no witnesses and no clear motive, police had no idea who killed him. He was a good guy with no known enemies, engaged to the love of his life, and planning a wedding that would never happen. It wasn’t until another customer walked into another gas station to get his morning coffee…and found another attendant shot that investigators were able to hone in on some suspects. Because their second victim was alive, he got a clear look at the man who shot him. But 40 years later, investigators haven’t been able to identify the shooter. They think they’re close, but time is running out as evidence, suspects, and memories are lost to time. They need someone to come forward and confirm their suspicions to get justice for CJ, his fiancé, and the life they never got to have together.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Our card this week is Carmen C.J. Deluca, a deck wild card.
0:09.4	Gas station attendant Carmen Deluca was just 23 years old and recently engaged when he was shot
0:14.6	to death in the middle of his night shift in 1985. His murder was part of a spree of crimes at other Connecticut gas stations, and there were clues
0:24.5	that held promise, an Adidas sneaker print, a hat dropped by a fleeing assailant, and a
0:31.1	confidential informant who seemed to have the answers.
0:34.7	But 40 years later, police are still waiting for that one person with more
0:40.1	information to come forward to finally help them bring his killer to justice. I'm Ashley Flowers,
0:47.0	and this is The Deck. The Unlike many people, Dina pressed wasn't normally alarmed when the phone rang in the
1:27.4	middle of the night. In fact, Dina, who't normally alarmed when the phone rang in the middle of the night.
1:28.8	In fact, Dina, who lived with her fiancé outside of Springfield, Massachusetts, was used to it.
1:34.6	Her fiancé, Carmen DeLuca, who went by CJ, managed a 24-hour gas station called the Gas
1:39.9	and Save in East Windsor, Connecticut. So if one of the overnight employees needed something, he was the guy they would call.
1:46.9	But CJ was the one manning the register the night of September 12, 1985.
1:53.0	He'd recently fired their usual overnight guy, and so he was subbing in for him.
1:57.6	That made it a little strange when the phone rang at around 3 a.m. When she answered,
2:03.4	Dina heard an unfamiliar voice asking for C.J. She told the person he wasn't home, he was at work,
2:10.8	and then the line just went dead. And that made Dina worry. So she picked the phone back up and
2:17.0	dialed the gas station. And her worry wasn't for nothing.
2:21.9	I tried to call the station and just rang and rang and rang and you just get that feeling, right?
2:29.2	Dina didn't ignore that feeling. She jumped in her car and drove straight to the gas and save, which was
2:35.0	about a half an hour away and over the Connecticut border. They come around the corner and it was
2:41.4	just surrounded by police cars and such. I don't remember all of what happened in the period
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 14 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from audiochuck, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of audiochuck and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.