Person of Interest and Ex-Boyfriend of Missing Stephanie Parze Found Dead By Suicide

The person of interest in Stephanie Parze disappearance hung himself, police said.
Stephanie Parze disappeared the day before Halloween. facebook

The New Jersey beautician was last seen on Oct. 30.

The ex-boyfriend of a missing New Jersey woman hanged himself Friday in his family's garage, according to authorities.

Stockbroker John Ozbilgen was also a person of interest in the disappearance of 25-year-old Stephanie Parze, who was last seen Oct. 30, when she left her parents' home in Freehold after a night out with family, police said.

The night before she vanished, Ozbilgen sent a flurry of obscenity-laden texts to Parze, calling her obscene names and telling her she "always has to make their relationship suck," a prosecutor said in court Tuesday during a detention hearing for Ozbilgen, who had been arrested earlier this month on a unrelated child pornography charge after police checked his cellphone in connection with Parze's disappearance, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Parze had filed a domestic violence complaint against her on-again, off-again boyfriend on Sept. 23, the prosecutor said. 

Ozbilgen was released Tuesday and ordered to return to court on the child pornography charge, the paper said. He was reportedly staying at his parents' Freehold home and under police surveillance when his mother and father discovered his body Friday morning and rushed out to summon help from officers parked on their street in unmarked cars, the New York Post reported. 

Parze's distraught father told reporters Friday he had no comment on Ozbilgen's death. The family is continuing to search for the missing woman, he said. 

She was reported missing when relatives went to her home after trying to reach her all Halloween day. Her car was parked in the driveway. Her keys and cellphone were inside her home, as was her dog. The only thing that appeared to be missing was Stephanie, her family said.

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