The former boyfriend of a missing New Jersey woman allegedly slept over at the woman’s home the night before she vanished, according to newly obtained 911 audio.
The Star-Ledger reports that the mother of Stephanie Parze told dispatchers her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, John Ozbilgen, stayed at the woman’s residence the evening before she disappeared in October.
“[Ozbilgen] said that he saw her last night,” Parze told dispatchers. “He stayed there and he was getting ready for work this morning and has not heard from her since all day.”
Parze, 25, a beautician and nanny, has been missing since Oct. 30, when she went with friends and her mother and sister to see a show in New Brunswick.
Parze was supposed to let her mom know that she returned home safely, but that did not happen.
Her parents later found her car was in the driveway of her Freehold, New Jersey, home and her cell phone was stuffed in a couch.
“I’ve been calling and texting her all day,” her mother, Sharlene Parze, said in an Oct. 31 911 call obtained by the newspaper. “I’ve reached out to almost every friend that she has.”
Sharlene Parze said during the call that another daughter had reached out to Ozbilgen. At the time, police were already investigating him after Parze alleged domestic violence one month before she went missing.
Police labeled Ozbilgen, 29, a “person of interest” in Parze’s missing person case. Police searching his phone discovered numerous angry messages sent to Parze on the evening she disappeared, as well as child pornography.
Ozbilgen committed suicide on November 22, hanging himself in his parent’s garage.
Another woman who had previously dated Ozbilgen told the Asbury Park Press that he had choked her during sex and suspected that he might have done the same with Stephanie.
Detectives observed marks around Ozbilgen’s neck during their investigation, according to the newspaper.
Indeed, Sharlene Parze during the 911 call questioned whether Ozbilgen might have played a role in her daughter’s disappearance.
“Who’s to say he really slept over and saw her this morning? I don’t know,” Sharlene Parze said, according to a recording of the call.
Parze’s family and friends are continuing their search for her.
In a heartbreaking Facebook post on Thursday, Parze’s father, Edward, wrote about the toll her disappearance has taken on the family.
“Reminders of Stephanie are everywhere,” he wrote, adding: “We need a sign, something to guide us back on course, we need it now.”
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[Feature Photo: Stephanie Parze/Handout]
