Murder Victim’s Friend Speaks On Arrest

By Jano Tantongco

jtantongco@longislandergroup.com

Sarah Strobel, left, who was murdered in 2013, is pictured with friend Sami Love two years earlier on New Year’s Eve. Love said she felt a “huge mix of emotions” last week when Suffolk police announced an arrest in the case.

When Sami Love heard there was an arrest made in the Sarah Strobel murder case, she said she felt a “huge mix of emotions.”

Love, of Melville, was a friends with Strobel for five years, before Strobel’s dead body was discovered at the Froehlich Farm Nature Preserve in Huntington on Oct. 3, 2013.

Suffolk police arrested 28-year-old Fernando Romualdo last week in connection to the murder case.

On Monday, Love said she had thought the case had gone cold.

“I thought we were never going to hear an answer in any way, shape or form,” Love, 25, said.

When she heard the news, “It brought back the initial pain, but at the same time I finally felt some sense of justice,” she added.

Love explained that Strobel, who was a graduate of Walt Whitman High School, was the first person she was able to open up to in years. She said the two friends planned to be each other’s bridesmaids and to be “friends for life,” until Strobel’s life took a series of turns for the worst, including a battle with substance abuse.

“She genuinely was a good person, that was just a victim to unfortunate life circumstances that were out of her control,” Love said. “We just need to come together as a community and not leave anyone out. People are struggling and people don’t have anywhere to turn to.”

Romualdo, who pled not guilty to a murder charge, is next expected to appear in court on July 11.