But where is the missing mom?

Rosario DiGirolamo's formal indictment on child abandonment charges in Delaware brings us back to the same question we've -- and we hope, police -- have been asking from the beginning.
What does he know about the whereabouts of Amy Giordano, the 27-year-old Hightstown woman who bore the child he abandoned in a hospital parking lot?
She's still missing, and despite DiGirolamo's statement through a lawyer a few weeks ago that he's helping find her, something stinks.
If he has come clean with everything he knows, why haven't more details about Giordano's possible whereabouts made it out to the public?
The Trentonian ran a photo on its front page earlier this summer of surveillance camera footage showing DiGirolamo shopping with Giordano and their baby in a grocery store only hours before her disappearance.
Did she tell him he was taking off? What happened?

Police let one get away

The longer the case of missing Hightstown mom Amy Giordano goes unsolved, the more outrageous it seems that police allowed her boyfriend (now charged in absentia with abandoning their 11-month child in a Delaware parking lot) to take off for Italy.

Now police are testing traces of blood found in Giordano's apartment and asking authorities in Italy to help find Rosario DiGirolamo. He is facing the abandonment charge in Delaware, but more importantly, they want to talk to him about what he knows about the whereabouts of his girlfriend.

Gee, you think that might have been a good conversation to have before the guy left the country? If he did anything more serious than leaving that poor child, do you seriously think he is EVER coming back?

Something seemed screwy about this case from the beginning. But the cops were extremely slow to see it.

Good, old-fashioned newspaper and TV reporting, rather than good, old-fashioned police work, uncovered the missing mom, DiGirolamo and the child on a grocery store surveillance tape hours before her disapperance, and uncovered the fact that DiGirolamo lives in a very nice house that used to belong to a high-ranking New Jersey mobster.

How about getting some eyebrows raisied over just the fact that he was living in that house, and paying Giordano's $850-a-month rent in Hightstown, on the $56,000 salary of a computer programmer?

We're not sure what resources and amount of focus the police are giving this case now. But we would like to say as strongly as possible ... Amy Giordano and her family deserve 110 percent of their attention.

Monday morning quarterbacking the police

Blame The Sopranos if you'd like. But the case of the missing mom, abandoned baby and boyfriend who took off for Italy inspires a lot of speculation about what might have happened.

Click here to read The Trentonian's latest update of the story.

To recap, an 11-month-old baby is found abandoned in the parking lot of a Delaware hospital. His doting, loving mother is missing, but there are at least some signs (leaving without her cigarettes) that point to something other than her just taking off on her own. The father of the child turns out to be married, and his wife has no idea about the girlfriend or the kid. Then it turns out the father lives in the former McMansion of a prominent Jersey mafioso. Then it turns out the father ditched his job and took off for Italy after the whole abandoned baby thing made the news. Then based on cell phone records, police charge him with being the person who abandoned the baby.

Didn't this whole thing look suspicious enough for police to have pursued the father more aggressively before he had the chance to leave the country? And why did it take reporters to dig up surveillance video of a grocery store visit by the missing mom, the fugitive father and the toddler just hours before the baby was found?

And the whole mob angle gives rise to all kinds of theories.

Is this case of local police not knowing when to call in the FBI? Or did the FBI and similar higher law enforcement authorities view it as some minor desperate mom situation and were dismissive? Or are police in multiple states having a hard time cooperating and communicating?

It's easy to second-guess police - like the Lawrence beating death murder investigation that turned out to be no beating at all, but rather a case of meningitis, or the day that Trenton police spent processing the scene of a dumped body only to find out hours later that it was the carcass of a dog.

In both cases, if their initial assessment of the "crime scene" had been true, and they hadn't pulled out all the stops to investigate and warn the public, they would have been in for even more criticism.

We'll take an overreaction any day compared to what has happened in the case of the missing mom.

But where is the missing mom?

Rosario DiGirolamo's formal indictment on child abandonment charges in Delaware brings us back to the same question we've -- and we hope, police -- have been asking from the beginning.
What does he know about the whereabouts of Amy Giordano, the 27-year-old Hightstown woman who bore the child he abandoned in a hospital parking lot?
She's still missing, and despite DiGirolamo's statement through a lawyer a few weeks ago that he's helping find her, something stinks.
If he has come clean with everything he knows, why haven't more details about Giordano's possible whereabouts made it out to the public?
The Trentonian ran a photo on its front page earlier this summer of surveillance camera footage showing DiGirolamo shopping with Giordano and their baby in a grocery store only hours before her disappearance.
Did she tell him he was taking off? What happened?

Police let one get away

The longer the case of missing Hightstown mom Amy Giordano goes unsolved, the more outrageous it seems that police allowed her boyfriend (now charged in absentia with abandoning their 11-month child in a Delaware parking lot) to take off for Italy.

Now police are testing traces of blood found in Giordano's apartment and asking authorities in Italy to help find Rosario DiGirolamo. He is facing the abandonment charge in Delaware, but more importantly, they want to talk to him about what he knows about the whereabouts of his girlfriend.

Gee, you think that might have been a good conversation to have before the guy left the country? If he did anything more serious than leaving that poor child, do you seriously think he is EVER coming back?

Something seemed screwy about this case from the beginning. But the cops were extremely slow to see it.

Good, old-fashioned newspaper and TV reporting, rather than good, old-fashioned police work, uncovered the missing mom, DiGirolamo and the child on a grocery store surveillance tape hours before her disapperance, and uncovered the fact that DiGirolamo lives in a very nice house that used to belong to a high-ranking New Jersey mobster.

How about getting some eyebrows raisied over just the fact that he was living in that house, and paying Giordano's $850-a-month rent in Hightstown, on the $56,000 salary of a computer programmer?

We're not sure what resources and amount of focus the police are giving this case now. But we would like to say as strongly as possible ... Amy Giordano and her family deserve 110 percent of their attention.

Monday morning quarterbacking the police

Blame The Sopranos if you'd like. But the case of the missing mom, abandoned baby and boyfriend who took off for Italy inspires a lot of speculation about what might have happened.

Click here to read The Trentonian's latest update of the story.

To recap, an 11-month-old baby is found abandoned in the parking lot of a Delaware hospital. His doting, loving mother is missing, but there are at least some signs (leaving without her cigarettes) that point to something other than her just taking off on her own. The father of the child turns out to be married, and his wife has no idea about the girlfriend or the kid. Then it turns out the father lives in the former McMansion of a prominent Jersey mafioso. Then it turns out the father ditched his job and took off for Italy after the whole abandoned baby thing made the news. Then based on cell phone records, police charge him with being the person who abandoned the baby.

Didn't this whole thing look suspicious enough for police to have pursued the father more aggressively before he had the chance to leave the country? And why did it take reporters to dig up surveillance video of a grocery store visit by the missing mom, the fugitive father and the toddler just hours before the baby was found?

And the whole mob angle gives rise to all kinds of theories.

Is this case of local police not knowing when to call in the FBI? Or did the FBI and similar higher law enforcement authorities view it as some minor desperate mom situation and were dismissive? Or are police in multiple states having a hard time cooperating and communicating?

It's easy to second-guess police - like the Lawrence beating death murder investigation that turned out to be no beating at all, but rather a case of meningitis, or the day that Trenton police spent processing the scene of a dumped body only to find out hours later that it was the carcass of a dog.

In both cases, if their initial assessment of the "crime scene" had been true, and they hadn't pulled out all the stops to investigate and warn the public, they would have been in for even more criticism.

We'll take an overreaction any day compared to what has happened in the case of the missing mom.