May We Never Have To Walk A Step In Their Shoes

Yesterday afternoon, in an appropriately somber, emotional press conference held at his office in Freehold, New Jersey, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Grammiccioni confirmed that the badly decomposed body that had been discovered, on Sunday, in the woods off of Route 9 in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey was the body of Stephanie Parze.  Stephanie, who was just twenty-five years young, was last seen alive on October 30, 2019.  

Stephanie's killer, according to Mr. Grammiccioni, was her ex-boyfriend, against whom she had apparently filed an assault complaint less than forty-five days prior to the date of her disappearance. The ex-boyfriend, identified by authorities fairly early on in their investigation as a person of interest in Stephanie's disappearance, was arrested and jailed in early November, 2019 on an unrelated charge. Less than a week following his release on bail, he committed suicide in his family's home. 

Mr. Grammiccioni said during his Monday press conference that the ex-boyfriend had admitted to killing her in a note he wrote to - and left for - his parents shortly before he killed himself.  The note apparently did not provide any information regarding what he had done with Stephanie's body once he killed her.  

Stephanie's parents, Ed Parze and Sharleen Parze, organized searches in New Jersey and in Staten Island (the ex-boyfriend lived there at one point), on a regular basis over the past three months in a desperate attempt to find their little girl.  The discovery of her remains on Sunday at least permits those she loved the most and those who loved her most of all the opportunity to say goodbye to her, which is of little solace I know to parents who will never see her, perhaps, marry and one day start her own family. 

Ed Parze and Sharleen Parze announced yesterday that they are creating a foundation, the Stephanie Parze Foundation, the mission of which shall be to bring awareness to battered women and missing people.  Ed Parze described the problem as "an epidemic".  

It is the innate fear of a parent that we shall have to bury our child.  Doing so is nothing less than a disturbance in the natural order of the Universe.  Ed Parze and Sharleen Parze now are tasked with that horribly sad job, the sadness of which is exacerbated by how Stephanie was killed and taken from them.  

Their strength to date has been nothing short of remarkable.  Were I ever compelled to be in their place, I know not whether I could even approximate their courage and their valor. I hope like hell I never have to find out.  I wish like hell they did not have to either.

-AK