Post by LadyBlue on Aug 16, 2013 9:54:02 GMT -5
Agonizedkin of missing Staten Island woman Megan Marotte await word after grisly discovery
Update, 8:32 a.m.: The body still has not been identified, according to a police spokesman.
Update, 5:20 a.m.: Police have not yet made an identification of the body as of 5 a.m. Friday. A police spokesman would only confirm that the body was that of a white female in her 20s.
The report of a foul odor led police to discover the corpse of a woman in Willowbrook Park Thursday evening -- and investigators are probing whether the body is that of 20-year-old Megan Marotte, who went missing two weeks ago.
Early Friday morning, Ms. Marotte's uncle told the Advance the family was hoping against hope that the body was not hers.
"It's hard," said Sean Lichota, who noted that the NYPD had yet to call them with any official word.
Police, including members of the borough's Homicide Squad, descended on the scene -- a wooded area by the side of the pond closest to Morani Street, near Victory Boulevard.
The identity of the woman has not yet been determined, but multiple law enforcement sources said it's believed the body is that of Ms. Marotte, of Graniteville. Family members, who conducted a search in the borough earlier Thursday, rushed to the park, where they awaited some word early Friday.
The alarm was sounded by two dog-walkers and another neighborhood woman.
Sometime around 3:30 p.m., Ashley Garcia, 21 and her friend, Yerica Sanchez, 22, went for a walk in the park with a pit bull, King. There, they ran into a woman, who identified herself as Linda, who told them she noticed a stench, but couldn't identify the source.
"It's not an everyday smell, it's a really bad smell -- and one I will never forget," she said. After searching for an hour in the park woods, the smell was so overwhelming that Linda called 911.
It wasn't long before cops flooded the scene and, according to police, the body of a woman in her 20s was found. Police cordoned off the Victory Boulevard entrance to the park. About 40 feet in, they put up yellow tape up around an area that led into the woods where the body was found.
Starting as early as 8:15 p.m., several users on Twitter had already posted their fears that the body may be Ms. Marotte's.
Coincidentally, Thursday saw a concerted effort to find Ms. Marotte. An army of family members and volunteers massed in the parking lot of the Pathmark shopping center on Forest Avenue in Port Richmond, distributing fliers and focusing on that area of the North Shore.
Ms. Marotte, of Sommer Avenue, disappeared a few weeks after her arrest July 12 on the allegation she crashed into a fence at the Angels' Circle 9/11 memorial in Grasmere while driving impaired by drugs.
Her brother, 24-year-old Frederick Lichota, filed a missing person report Aug. 7. He and his sister both lived in a home owned by their grandparents, though she had been staying with her boyfriend's aunt for the last few weeks, he told the Advance last week.
Ms. Marotte is scheduled back in court on Aug. 26 in the Angels' Circle case.
Surrounding Ms. Marotte's disappearance, family members have said, is a recent bout with drug addiction that escalated since her father, Anthony Marotte, died in 2011.
"She went into a downward spiral since her dad passed...She has struggled. She has had missteps. But everyone has had missteps of varying degrees. That doesn't change the fact that she is loved and missed," said her uncle Sean last week.
www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/agonized_kin_of_missing_staten.html
Update, 8:32 a.m.: The body still has not been identified, according to a police spokesman.
Update, 5:20 a.m.: Police have not yet made an identification of the body as of 5 a.m. Friday. A police spokesman would only confirm that the body was that of a white female in her 20s.
The report of a foul odor led police to discover the corpse of a woman in Willowbrook Park Thursday evening -- and investigators are probing whether the body is that of 20-year-old Megan Marotte, who went missing two weeks ago.
Early Friday morning, Ms. Marotte's uncle told the Advance the family was hoping against hope that the body was not hers.
"It's hard," said Sean Lichota, who noted that the NYPD had yet to call them with any official word.
Police, including members of the borough's Homicide Squad, descended on the scene -- a wooded area by the side of the pond closest to Morani Street, near Victory Boulevard.
The identity of the woman has not yet been determined, but multiple law enforcement sources said it's believed the body is that of Ms. Marotte, of Graniteville. Family members, who conducted a search in the borough earlier Thursday, rushed to the park, where they awaited some word early Friday.
The alarm was sounded by two dog-walkers and another neighborhood woman.
Sometime around 3:30 p.m., Ashley Garcia, 21 and her friend, Yerica Sanchez, 22, went for a walk in the park with a pit bull, King. There, they ran into a woman, who identified herself as Linda, who told them she noticed a stench, but couldn't identify the source.
"It's not an everyday smell, it's a really bad smell -- and one I will never forget," she said. After searching for an hour in the park woods, the smell was so overwhelming that Linda called 911.
It wasn't long before cops flooded the scene and, according to police, the body of a woman in her 20s was found. Police cordoned off the Victory Boulevard entrance to the park. About 40 feet in, they put up yellow tape up around an area that led into the woods where the body was found.
Starting as early as 8:15 p.m., several users on Twitter had already posted their fears that the body may be Ms. Marotte's.
Coincidentally, Thursday saw a concerted effort to find Ms. Marotte. An army of family members and volunteers massed in the parking lot of the Pathmark shopping center on Forest Avenue in Port Richmond, distributing fliers and focusing on that area of the North Shore.
Ms. Marotte, of Sommer Avenue, disappeared a few weeks after her arrest July 12 on the allegation she crashed into a fence at the Angels' Circle 9/11 memorial in Grasmere while driving impaired by drugs.
Her brother, 24-year-old Frederick Lichota, filed a missing person report Aug. 7. He and his sister both lived in a home owned by their grandparents, though she had been staying with her boyfriend's aunt for the last few weeks, he told the Advance last week.
Ms. Marotte is scheduled back in court on Aug. 26 in the Angels' Circle case.
Surrounding Ms. Marotte's disappearance, family members have said, is a recent bout with drug addiction that escalated since her father, Anthony Marotte, died in 2011.
"She went into a downward spiral since her dad passed...She has struggled. She has had missteps. But everyone has had missteps of varying degrees. That doesn't change the fact that she is loved and missed," said her uncle Sean last week.
www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/agonized_kin_of_missing_staten.html