FREEHOLD — The family of a missing Freehold Township woman remains hopeful they will find the 25-year-old alive.

Stephanie Parze has been missing since Oct. 30. A search connected to her disappearance resulted in one arrest, although not for a crime involving her disappearance. John Ozbilgen, 29, a man Parze has identified online as her boyfriend, was charged last week with possession of child pornography after police confiscated his phones as part of their search for the missing woman.

An army of 200 people, including members of the New York Police Department, Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, Freehold Township Police, Staten Island District Attorney's Office, and the NYPD Strategic Response Group, focused another search Wednesday on Long Pond Park, a 91-acre Staten Island park not far from Route 440 and the Outerbridge Crossing, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Chris Swendeman.

The Asbury Park Press reported that some in the search used machetes to cut through thick growth near Adelphi Avenue and Eugene Street in the northwest corner of the park. K9 units and helicopters were also used in the search, according to an SILive.com report.

Swendeman would not say what investigators were looking for, or if they would resume their search on Thursday in Staten Island or anywhere else.

"We're not commenting any further on the investigation at this time," Swendeman said.

It was the second search at the park. Several days after Parze vanished, investigators from Monmouth County and the NYPD conducted a search in the same park.

Stephanie Parze has been missing since Oct. 30, 2019. (Shared by Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office)
Stephanie Parze has been missing since Oct. 30, 2019. (Shared by Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office)
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Stephanie Parze's father Edward channeled his frustration into building a sign that reads, "Stephanie come home."

Edward told NBC 4 New York his daughter's disappearance is a "parent's worst nightmare, but I can only imagine what she's going through," and believes that if his daughter could contact him, she would.

Parze's parents called police on Oct. 30 after they were unable to contact her at her late grandmother's home where she'd been living, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office. Parze had left behind her car, phone, purse, and shoes that she wore that night. Earlier in the evening, she had gone with family and friends to see a medium in New Brunswick.

Her sister Brianna wrote on Facebook that Stephanie is indeed still missing, also affirming that she reads every comment left on her Facebook page: positive, negative, and theories about what happened.

"In reality no one truly knows what's going on ... they are all guesses and what ifs. No one knows what she is going through or where she is or who is doing this. The only person who knows anything is Stephanie and the scum who took her," Brianna wrote.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office asked anyone with information about Parze's whereabouts, or anyone who recently has had contact with Parze, to call their office at 732-431-7160 ext. 7032, or Freehold Township police at 732-462-7908.

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