Family organizes search party in case of missing New Jersey woman Stephanie Parze
FREEHOLD, New Jersey (WABC) -- The family of a woman missing since October 30 organized a volunteer search party to comb an area of New Jersey Wednesday.
Stephanie Parze, 25, vanished after spending a night out with family to see a psychic.
Hundreds of people started out early in the morning, deep in the woods off the baseball fields along Georgia Road in Freehold. The search wrapped up in the evening.
The parking lot alone offers some clue as to the commitment and response the Parze family has received in the call to search for Parze.
"During the day, we have all the support," father Ed Parze said. "I mean, the people are all over the place. Hundreds of people in and out of the house, everybody's there. But at night, when everybody settles down, it's just us and the family, you know, me and the family. It's, you try to go to sleep. I watch my wife try to go to sleep. You start thinking about everything."
The single person of interest in her disappearance, on-again-off-again boyfriend John Ozbilgen, was released from jail Tuesday while he awaits trial on possession of child pornography charges.
Police say those images were found on his phone during their investigation into his possible involvement in Parze's disappearance.
Several searches are going on outside of the police investigation, with a community reaching out to help a heartbroken family find answers and their daughter.
"Just keep it simple, we're looking for her," Ed Parze said. "That's it. Find her, any information about her. I don't care about all the rest of the stuff, good, bad or indifferent. Just we need to know where she is."
Parze is described as petite in size, standing 4-foot-11 and weighing 115 pounds.
Missing posters have been up around Freehold, and anyone with information is urged to contact Detective Shawn Murphy of the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office at 732-431-7160 ext. 7032, or Detective Daniel Valentine of the Freehold Township Police at 732-462-7908.
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