His Dad Laughed During the 911 Call – The Story of Thomas Valva

The Tragic Story of Thomas Valva: A System’s Fatal Failure

Thomas Valva was an 8-year-old boy with autism from Long Island, New York. He was a sweet child who loved the color blue, fire trucks, cars, and playing soccer. Tragically, his life was cut short not by an accident, but by months of systemic torture at the hands of his father, Michael Valva—an NYPD police officer—and his stepmother, Angela Pollina.

Here is the heartbreaking story of Thomas Valva, the unimaginable abuse he endured, and the catastrophic failure of the child protection system that was supposed to save him.

A Bitter Custody Battle

Thomas was born in 2011 to Justina Zubko-Valva, a Polish immigrant and corrections officer, and Michael Valva. The couple had three sons together: Anthony, Thomas, and Andrew. Both Anthony and Thomas were diagnosed with autism.

By 2015, Michael’s escalating anger and verbal abuse, combined with his affair with a woman named Angela Pollina, led Justina to file for divorce. This triggered a vicious custody battle. In September 2017, Michael manipulated the system by accusing Justina of poisoning the children and suffering from a deteriorating mental illness. Despite passing all psychological clearances for her job as a corrections officer, Justina was stripped of her custody rights.

Michael was awarded temporary full custody, and the boys moved in with him, Angela, and Angela’s three daughters. Justina was relegated to heavily supervised visits, which a judge eventually revoked entirely in 2018.

Ignored Cries for Help

Almost immediately after moving in with their father, the boys began to suffer. Within just one month, 8-year-old Anthony lost 13 pounds, 6-year-old Thomas lost over 4 pounds, and 4-year-old Andrew lost nearly 4 pounds.

Justina desperately tried to warn Child Protective Services (CPS). She provided agents with a flash drive containing over 320 files, including audio recordings of Michael and Angela brainwashing the boys to say their mother was “mean” and physically withholding food and water until the children complied.

The abuse was also glaringly obvious at school:

• Starvation: Teachers reported the boys came to school so hungry they would scour the cafeteria floor and garbage cans for food scraps.

• Physical Abuse: The boys frequently arrived with bruises, welts, and black eyes. Thomas once revealed his father had hit him 12 times with a belt, making it difficult to walk.

• Severe Neglect: The children were forced to wear diapers because they were locked in their rooms without bathroom access. They frequently came to school smelling of urine and feces.

Despite more than 50 separate reports made to CPS by Justina and school officials, the cases were routinely closed out within days and marked as “unfounded.” Many believe Michael’s status as an NYPD officer allowed him to avoid proper investigation.

The Murder of Thomas Valva

The abuse culminated in unspeakable cruelty. To punish the boys for bathroom accidents, Michael and Angela forced Thomas and Anthony to sleep on the concrete floor of an unheated garage with no blankets or pillows.

On January 16, 2020, Thomas and his brother were sent to the freezing garage immediately after school. They were locked in there for 16 hours while outside temperatures plummeted to 19°F. The next morning, suffering from severe hypothermia and denied bathroom access, Thomas soiled his pants. In response, Michael took his freezing son outside and hosed him down with ice-cold water.

Home surveillance audio captured Thomas face-planting repeatedly on the concrete because he was losing motor function. Angela callously noted he was falling because he was “hypothermic,” while Michael yelled, “Goddamn you. Get up, you [expletive] slob.”

Michael waited over an hour after Thomas lost consciousness before finally calling 911 at 9:46 a.m. During the call, he chillingly seemed to laugh while telling the dispatcher his son wasn’t breathing, falsely claiming Thomas had simply fallen in the driveway.

When first responders arrived, they found Thomas naked, with a core body temperature of just 76°F. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The Surveillance Evidence

Michael attempted to play the grieving father, even opening a GoFundMe page that raised over $10,000 for funeral expenses before it was shut down. However, the truth was quickly uncovered.

Angela had carelessly given investigators access to their home security system. Before she could delete all the footage, detectives uncovered a mountain of horrifying evidence. The videos showed the couple dragging the boys, throwing them to the ground, starving them, and forcing them to sleep in the freezing garage while Angela comfortably did her bills and makeup inside the heated house.

The medical examiner ruled Thomas’s death a homicide caused by hypothermia, complicated by blunt force trauma. In January 2020, Michael Valva and Angela Pollina were arrested and charged with second-degree murder and child endangerment.

Justice and Aftermath

Justina was finally reunited with her two surviving sons, who were severely traumatized, malnourished, and diagnosed with severe PTSD.

During the subsequent trials, the horrific surveillance footage was shown to the juries. The evidence was insurmountable.

• In late 2022, Michael Valva was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

• In April 2023, Angela Pollina was also found guilty of second-degree murder and received the same sentence of 25 years to life. As the judge noted, they tortured the boys with pure evil.

In June 2020, Justina Zubko-Valva filed a $200 million federal wrongful death lawsuit against Michael, Angela, and the child welfare officials who repeatedly ignored the abuse. In late 2025, she was offered a $9 million settlement, but she refused to sign the documents, arguing that the settlement failed to adequately address the profound pain and suffering her children endured.

Thomas Valva was laid to rest in January 2020, but his tragic story remains a chilling reminder of a profoundly broken system that protected an abuser in a badge while ignoring the desperate cries of a child.