$5k reward, child porn arrest: What we know about search for Stephanie Parze
Monmouth County's CrimeStoppers program is now offering a $5,000 reward for information that helps find Stephanie Parze, a Freehold Township woman missing since Oct. 30.
The search for Parze has spanned two states, and a man linked to her has been arrested on what police say are entirely unrelated charges.
Here's what we know — and don't — so far:
The basics: Parze was last seen by her parents at about 10:15 p.m. Oct. 30, authorities have said.
Parze's parents called police after they couldn't get a hold of her at her late grandmother's home, where she'd been living, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office. Her car was found by police at the house, along with her phone, purse, and the shoes that she wore the night of Oct. 30, prosecutors said.
Police have said they consider the disappearance suspicious.
Did anyone mean her harm? If so, Parze's parents say they can't imagine who. Edward and Sharlene Parez, said the “unknown” of what happened to Stephanie is "driving us crazy." They urged their daughter to stay strong, keep fighting and vowed to find her.
“They���re going to find you. I’m going to find you,” Edward Parze said during an appearance on CNN Headline News.
Where have police searched? A law enforcement source told told ABC 7 Eyewitness News that a cell phone belonging to a “person of interest" triggered a search around Staten Island's Long Pond Park, a 91-acre park not far from Route 440 and the Outerbridge Crossing. The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office later confirmed that the search for Parze has extended to Staten Island and is ongoing in the area of Long Pond Park. A spokesman would not say what investigators are looking for.
What happened the night of Parze's disappearance? Parze's father told the Asbury Park Press she had gone to a medium in New Brunswick for a girls night out the night she was last seen. She then went to her grandmother’s home, where she had been living since the grandmother died in 2018, the Press reports her father said.
Prosecutors on Friday afternoon said that John Ozbilgen, 29, was charged with third-degree possession of child pornography. The Asbury Park Press reported earlier on Friday that Ozbilgen was the man seen in an "in a relationship" post on Parze's Facebook page. Both their Facebook pages have several pictures of them together.
But the arrest itself raises questions — including whether authorities became aware of evidence against Ozbilgen while investigating Parze's disappearance. If authorities have any suspects in the disappearance itself, they haven't said so publicly
How can I help the family? A GoFundMe page has been created to assist the family, and as of early Sunday afternoon, had collected $8,785. "This latest crisis has taken place at a time when the family has already been struggling," organizer David Mound wrote on the page.
It wasn't clear what Mound was referencing, but the Asbury Park Press noted that in August, Parze posted online that she'd been hospitalized with pneumonia due to vaping, and a friend told the paper Parze had to quit working as a result.
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