Deserted lives: Baby OK, parents missing

Borough woman leaves much behind

By: Vic Monaco
   HIGHTSTOWN — An abandoned baby is safe and healthy. His parents are nowhere to be found.
   Thirteen days after the discovery of the toddler outside a Delaware hospital, the mother of the child, who lived in a borough apartment, and the apparent father, a married Millstone man who worked in East Windsor, are missing.
   And the many items left behind in Amy Giordano’s apartment paint a picture of a woman who left much sooner than planned. Or perhaps, as the detective leading the case suggests, her life was abandoned much like the baby.
   The apartment at 108 Mercer St. — paid for, according to the landlord, by the baby’s father, Rosario "Roy" Digirolamo — remained full of children’s belongings this week amid many filled boxes indicative of Ms. Giordano’s announced move to Twin Rivers.
   A walk through the third-floor apartment on Monday revealed a child’s mattress laying on the floor next to a double bed. Toys were strewn about, including a small basketball backboard inscribed with the name "Michael." A playpen sat in the living room. A baby’s seat was on a chair in the kitchen with "sippy cups" nearby. A television and VCR were also in the kitchen.
   Most confounding, at least initially, to landlord Mike Vanderbeck are two prescription bottles in the refrigerator containing medicine for the baby.
   "She spent months trying to get the kid better," the former borough councilman said in a reference to a stubborn skin rash. "The notion that she wouldn’t take the kid’s prescription is inconceivable."
   Even more disturbing to Mr. Vanderbeck was his later discovery — Monday afternoon, days after local police were at the scene — of a woman’s purse in the back of a closet atop two large clear plastic bags appearing to hold bedding. The purse was packed with such items as credit cards of Ms. Giordano and Mr. Digirolamo; Social Security cards of the mother and her son, Michael Digirolamo; her New York state identification cards from Staten Island and Brooklyn; and keys to the apartment. There also was a local store receipt dated June 7 that reflected the purchase of a large box of diapers and a Mercer County voter registration application signed by Ms. Giordano and dated June 5.
   "This person didn’t expect to be leaving the area," said Mr. Vanderbeck. "She’s planning on being here to vote."
   But borough Detective Ben Miller says there’s a completely different way to view the circumstances.
   "If you were someone who wishes to move on and start over with a brand new identity, without any ties to anybody or anything, you wouldn’t want to be found," he said. "You’d leave everything behind and start over."
   Mr. Vanderbeck, who knew the "caring, loving mother" for more than a year, said belongings are one thing, but …
   "The idea of her abandoning her child is almost out of the realm. … This doesn’t add up."
   Mr. Vanderbeck subsequently said Ms. Giordano told him she has another, 6 year old, child who lives in New York, apparently with an ex-husband.
   Delaware authorities became involved after a baby boy, about a year old, was discovered in the parking lot of the Christiana Medical Center in Newark on June 9. A nurse found the child crying under a tree with a note in his diaper. The handwritten note read, "Please help my baby John Vincent. I can no longer take care of him. Lost job, lost medical. God have mercy on me."
   But Mr. Vanderbeck said Ms. Giordano, 27, was a stay-at-home mother whose apartment rent had been paid by Mr. Digirolamo since she moved in in late April 2006.
   "That letter was obviously a red herring," said Mr. Vanderbeck.
   In addition to the rent payments, the landlord estimated that Mr. Digirolamo spent about $1,000 to replace fairly new rugs in two rooms of the apartment with tile and faux hardwood flooring. And, he said, "Rosario brought her everywhere" because Ms. Giordano had no car.
   As of Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Digirolamo, in his early 30s, was not the focus of the investigation, according to Detective Miller.
   "We’re more concerned with Ms. Giordano and her welfare," he said Monday.
Father missing, too
But, like Ms. Giordano, Mr. Digirolamo is missing.
   "He was last seen June 11 at his place of employment, ConAir," said Detective Miller, who added that the computer analyst apparently told no one that he wouldn’t return to work the next day. "No one has been able to contact him since."
   ConAir Vice President John Mayorek said Mr. Digirolamo was a "good employee" who had worked in the company’s IT department for about a year before his disappearance. He also described him as "very mild-mannered."
   He said the company was cooperating with Hightstown and Delaware State Police, including providing Detective Miller with e-mails from the employee’s laptop and records of his incoming and outgoing phone calls from the company’s East Windsor offices.
   "He must have been making about 20 calls a day to Ms. Giordano’s apartment and receiving about 20 calls a day from her," Mr. Mayorek added.
   While he hadn’t heard from Mr. or Mrs. Digirolamo, Mr. Mayorek said he did receive a call from the person who recommended Mr. Digirolamo for the job. That person told him Mrs. Digirolamo was looking for an attorney to ensure that her assets were secure. The attorney Mr. Mayorek suggested, Jerome Bruder of Monroe, refused to comment Wednesday.
   The Digirolamos’ large, two-story house sits in a quiet development on Stevenson Avenue in Millstone. Monmouth County tax records indicate the family has lived there since 1999.
   Despite two cars in the driveway — a red sports car and a sedan — no one answered when a Herald reporter knocked on the door Tuesday.
   What appeared to be an unmarked police car slowly rode up and down the street, stopping for a while in front of the house and following the reporter.
   A next-door neighbor said she was surprised to hear that Mr. Digirolamo was missing. She said her neighbors were quiet and friendly but that she didn’t know them well. The woman, who declined to give her name, also said Mrs. Digirolamo had a baby about a year ago. That would have been at about the same Ms. Giordano gave birth.
   Detective Miller said Mrs. Digirolamo said she doesn’t know where her husband is. Mr. Digirolamo’s father, who lives in New York, got a call from him June 12 and had a conversation with "nothing unusual" said, according to the detective. And, Detective Miller added, friends of Ms. Giordano in New York said they have no idea where she might be.
Strangely timed call?
Mr. Vanderbeck said his tenant notified him about two months ago that she wanted to get out of her two-year lease early in order to move to Twin Rivers. He agreed and began showing the apartment to prospective tenants. On June 6, he said, he received a phone message from Ms. Giordano asking whether he planned to continue showing the apartment.
   On June 8, the day before the baby was found in Delaware, Mr. Digirolamo left a message asking that the apartment not be shown for a few days because Ms. Digirolamo was sick, according to the landlord.
   Mr. Vanderbeck said he last saw Ms. Giordano June 2 at his Slowdown Café, next door to her apartment and where she regularly sat outside and talked on her cellphone — always with baby Michael in a stroller by her side. Detective Miller said June 6 was the last day she was seen by anyone locally.
   On June 11, an employee at the café thought he recognized the baby from a photo on a television news report about the child abandoned in Delaware. He told Mr. Vanderbeck, who eventually found the photo online and agreed. That, the landlord said, prompted him to try to reach the mother and father. When he couldn’t, he went inside the apartment and saw all the child’s belongings and medicines.
   "At that point, I knew the police needed to be involved," he said.
   He called local police June 14. Detective Miller said it was that call that resulted in police realizing that she was the abandoned baby’s mother.
   Since then, he said, the local department has been working in concert with Delaware State Police. New Jersey State Police and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office began offering assistance this week.
   "We’re actively investigating this as a missing persons case," Detective Miller said Monday.
   Ms. Giordano was described as 5 feet tall, 135 pounds and possibly wearing glasses. Mr. Digirolamo was described as about 6 feet tall, with a stocky build, dark complexion, black hair and glasses.
   Sgt. Joshua Bushweller of the Delaware State Police said Tuesday that the child is healthy and had been placed in foster care.
   Anyone with information is being urged to call Detective Miller at 609-448-1234, Delaware State Police at 302-834-2620 or the Delaware Division of Family Services at 1-800-292-9582.
   Reporter Cara Latham contributed to this story.