Friends surface; want Amy’s stuff

‘The landlord had no business giving away Michael and Amy’s things,’ wrote one woman who said she was a close friend of Amy Giordano.

By: Vic Monaco
   More than two months after the disappearance of Amy Giordano, two women who say they are close friends of the woman who lived in a Hightstown apartment made their feelings public:
   They want Amy and her young son’s stuff.
   "The landlord had no business giving away Michael and Amy’s things. There were close friends that wanted things of hers as mementos," one woman wrote on the Windsor-Hights Herald Web site last week. "Not to mention that if Michael ever wants to know about his mom, he is never gonna look for the landlord. He will find the people that were closest to her and that knew her and him well!!!"
   The other woman wrote, "What and who gave him the right to give away Amy’s belongings and what right did he have to determine who gets what and what should be sold?"
   Those comments were part of messages left Aug. 7, within six minutes of each other, in response to an Aug. 2 story on Mike Vanderbeck’s decision to give most of the belongings of his former tenants to Greater Goods Thrift Store while putting aside a small box of mementos for Michael, who is now 1 year old.
   Both women’s names were on the caller ID panel of Ms. Giordano’s apartment telephone when viewed Aug. 1 by the Herald.
   The first Web response came from a woman named Maritza. A Maritza Vance showed up on the caller ID. The second was written by Karen Gonzalez, whose full name was on the caller ID.
   Mr. Vanderbeck said he didn’t know the women existed until told of the Web postings last week.
   "I sympathize with anyone who is concerned with Amy’s well-being but unfortunately I never heard from these women or knew of their existence until the Herald notified me of them," he said.
   Mr. Vanderbeck added that he plans to try to get the mementos he put aside — including photos, rattles and a couple pieces of Ms. Giordano’s jewelry — to foster care officials in Delaware who are overseeing Michael’s living arrangements.
   Contacted about her Web posting, Maritza eventually indicated she understood that Mr. Vanderbeck had no way of contacting her.
   "It just bothers me to know that all my son’s clothes that I gave to Michael are going to charity," she wrote in an e-mail.
   Maritza also said she is frustrated with the fact that Ms. Giordano’s married boyfriend and Michael’s father — Rosario DiGirolamo, or "Roe," as the women referred to him — had refused to talk to law enforcement officials since returning from Italy on Aug. 2 to face charges of abandoning the child outside a Delaware hospital.
   "I also think I am just very bitter due to the way things are going down," she wrote. "I mean, come on. How does Roe come back from Italy and have the right to refuse to answer anything???"
   She added in part, "I am just angry inside and I’m afraid that the cops are just going to give up and throw in the towel."
   Word came this week from Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini that Mr. DiGirolamo’s attorney had provided his office with names of people he claims could help them find Amy alive (see related story).
   Maritza, whose phone call to Ms. Giordano on June 25 came from a Florida number, demanded that her name not be used in the newspaper.
   "You don’t know the circumstances and what my household has gone through leading up to my decision to not speak with the press," she wrote. "Everyone thinks they have it all figured out and it’s not that simple. I only left the comment because I was concerned that Michael’s stuff was being given away so it could be sold; not even given to charity where it can go to children in need for free. No, it will be sold for money. What right do these people have to make money off of Mikey’s things?"
   The Herald gave her the opportunity to provide a specific reason for not wanting her identity known but she did not do so.
   Ms. Gonzalez called Ms. Giordano June 21 from a phone number in Staten Island, N.Y., where Ms. Giordano used to live. Her Web name includes the city of Las Vegas.
   "If you checked her phone, then both you and Mike saw that two numbers were always calling her, so obviously she had friends. Like I said before, he (Mr. Vanderbeck) really didn’t now Michael or Amy, and the nerve he has to think Michael will ever go back there when he is grown up to get a few of his mothers’ things. … That’s our place."
   The single calls from the women listed on the caller ID were among 30 messages left for Ms. Giordano between June 7, the last time she was seen locally, and July 18.
   Ms. Gonzalez eventually asked the Herald to forward her e-mail address to Mr. Vanderbeck so that they could talk.
   "If they want to contact me, there’s many ways they can do that," Mr. Vanderbeck responded.
   Both women declined e-mailed requests to be interviewed by phone and stopped e-mailing the Herald later Aug. 7. Maritza Vance did not return phone messages. Ms. Gonzalez’s number on the caller ID was not working.