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Family seeks justice after woman's homicide five years later

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PORT ALLEN - The daughter of a woman who was beaten to death according to coroner's reports has filed a lawsuit against her father in an attempt to get him out of the house he shared with his slain wife.

Eddie Rinaudo has never been arrested or convicted of Sandra Rinaudo's death. Sandra was killed in 2013.

Despite having two different coroner's office saying her death was a homicide, the Addis Police Department never investigated it as one. In fact, when detectives showed up at the scene, Eddie says they allowed him to hold the tape measure in the house.

"Yeah, they wanted to take some measurements," Eddie said in a 2014 interview.

The WBRZ Investigative Unit ultimately took the Addis Police Department to court after officials refused to turn over documents pertaining to the death investigation. The case was turned over to the Attorney General's Office and was reopened. Nothing came of their review.

Fast forward to today, Rinaudo's daughter, Ragean Bellelo was suing him for her death. She wanted a court to force Eddie out of the house he shared with his wife. The lawsuit she filed was to rescind the donation her mother made to Eddie based on her killing. A judge ruled there was not enough evidence in this case, and ruled in favor of Eddie.

"In this case, I honestly think the judge was wrong in his ruling," Cy D'Aquila, Bellelo's attorney said. "The evidence clearly shows Mr. Rinaudo murdered his wife. There were only two people in that house when she died. He was one of them."

Eddie Rinaudo refused to talk after the hearing. However, his attorney, Phil Canova, said the courts made the right decision.

"Whenever you find your loved one dead, it's very emotional," Canova said. "This isn't a win. Nothing will bring his wife back. He's still trying to process it."

D'Aquila intends to appeal the Judge's decision today to the first circuit.

"I've lost confidence in the justice system in this matter," D'Aquila said. "You had a lot of things pointing to a crime and well, what they presented to the grand jury should also be questioned."

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