Giordano has her roots in the South

Prosecutor’s office: Unable to contact biological family

By: Matt Chiappardi
   Amy Giordano has her roots in the southern part of the country, according to a relative from her adopted family, who provided e-mails this week that he received from the missing mother earlier this year.
   Cousin Stephen Fishbaum of Marlboro said this week that Ms. Giordano, who was adopted at an early age, has biological relatives likely living in Alabama or Florida.
   "They’re from down South," he said, "somewhere in the panhandle area."
   Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said Wednesday, "We are aware of the family in the South but have not been able to develop contact information for them."
   He added that his office had sought the information from Ms. Giordano’s adoptive and estranged mother in New York but she said she didn’t have the names of the biological parents. The prosecutor’s office believes the biological family may be in the Mississippi area, and it will continue to follow up on that angle, Mr. Onofri said.
   Ms. Giordano, 27, became the subject of a missing persons investigation after her 11-month-old son, Michael Digirolamo, was abandoned outside a Delaware hospital June 9. Her married boyfriend, Rosario "Roy" Digirolamo of Millstone, has been charged with abandoning the baby and is considered a "person of interest" in Ms. Giordano’s disappearance. Mr. Digirolamo flew to Milan, Italy from Newark on June 14 and has not returned.
   According to Mr. Fishbaum, Ms. Giordano traveled to the South shortly after her teenage years in order to reconnect with her biological family. She lived there for, "about a year or two," where she forged a connection with her biological sister, he said. However, Mr. Fishbaum said he knows nothing about the sister, and only knows that Ms. Giordano’s biological family may either "live in a mobile home or travel around a lot."
   Whether Ms. Giordano has fled to her biological family is unknown. But Mr. Fishbaum said he believes she would have talked to him about that before doing it.
   "She always calls when she needs advice," he said.
   Mr. Fishbaum, 39, describes himself as a confidant of Ms. Giordano akin to an older brother or father figure. While she has been estranged from her adoptive parents for several years, he said, Ms. Giordano would call Mr. Fishbaum once or twice a year, looking for help or guidance.
   "After she left her husband, she needed an apartment, and I helped her get an apartment," he said referring to Ms. Giordano’s previous divorce and previous residence in Staten Island, New York. He said he would like to continue to help her, if it is possible.
   The last time they spoke by telephone, he said, was 14 months ago when Ms. Giordano was pregnant with Michael. Contact did not occur again, he said, until February, when Ms. Giordano e-mailed Mr. Fishbaum through the social networking Web site Classmates.com to wish him a happy birthday.
   A copy of a Feb. 15 e-mail, he explained, refers to him having told her earlier that he was upset she had become impregnated by a married man.
   "im sorry how things were left between us," she wrote in an e-mail simply signed "amy." "forgive me. You r the only one that i constantly think about. i wish we could go back ten years and start over we were so close and now we’re not and thats my fault … i love you. i really do.
   The two exchanged e-mail conversation through May in which Ms. Giordano said she was divorced and was going to move out of Hightstown and into East Windsor, he added.
   Ms. Giordano’s landlord in Hightstown, Mike Vanderbeck, has said that she asked to get out of her two-year lease early, so that she could move to Twin Rivers. That move never occurred.
   A May 7 e-mail from Ms. Giordano alludes to her visiting her other son, from her marriage, Mr. Fishbaum said.
   "i just got divorced and see my jojo every weekend," she wrote.
   That was the last contact Mr. Fishbaum said he had with Ms. Giordano and he did not learn about her disappearance until he became aware of news reports.
   Mr. Fishbaum described Ms. Giordano as "rebellious," and added that "she did what she wanted to do, all the time."
   Vic Monaco contributed to this story.