Photo: Freehold Township Police Department
For 87 agonizing days, Ed Parze, his wife Sharleen and an army of volunteers searched tirelessly for the couple’s daughter,Stephanie Parze, who’d gone missing on Oct. 30 after getting together with her family.
On Sunday, her remains were finally found when two teenage boys happened upon the 25-year-old’s body in a wooded area of Old Bridge, New Jersey, where searchers had looked earlier.
Along with the discovery came the revelation that Stephanie’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, John Ozbilgen, 29, had confessed to murdering her in a suicide note before killing himself.
With Parze’s tearful parents standing next to him at a news conference on Monday, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said, “Today we announce that now-deceased John Ozbilgen is responsible for the homicide of Stephanie Parze.”
He added: “This is a finding we had suspected since early November but was only recently confirmed with further analysis of evidence we had seized.”
John Ozbilgen and Stephanie Parze.Facebook
He was found dead shortly after being released from jail, where he’d been held for 11 days after being arrested on unrelated child pornography charges.
On Sept. 23, Stephanie filed a simple assault domestic violence complaint against Ozbilgen after he allegedly assaulted her, her father told PEOPLE previously.
John Ozbilgen, Stephanie Parze.Facebook
Among the items recovered from his parents’ home was a note that Ozbilgen left for his parents.
Ozbilgen also acknowledged in the note that “he had dug himself a deep hole and wrote at the end of his note that this was the only choice,” Gramiccioni said.
Stephanie Parze, 25, of New Jersey.
Ed Parze thanked the army of volunteers dubbed “Steph’s Angels” and law enforcement for tirelessly searching for his daughter.
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He also vowed to do whatever he can to work to help victims of domestic violence as well as missing people.
“Eventually, in the upcoming weeks, we’re going to start a Stephanie Parze Foundation to bring awareness to battered women and missing people,” he said. “It’s an epidemic, totally an epidemic.”
Stephanie Parze.Facebook
Stephanie vanished after going to a psychic show with family members. Her parents reported her missing the next day when she failed to show up for work.
Ozbilgen, it was later revealed, sent her astream of angry, profanity-laced texts and Facebook messagesthe night before she went missing, Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Caitlin Sidley said in court in November,theAsbury Park Pressreported.
Detectives searching his phone found multiple images of child pornography, Sidley said.
An autopsy will determine cause and manner of death.
source: people.com
