As shoppers strolled through stores along Main Street Sunday, there was a palpable sense of unease and loss as the business community began to mourn one of their own.
By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
CRANBURY — As shoppers strolled through stores along Main Street Sunday, there was a palpable sense of unease and loss as the business community began to mourn one of their own.
Joann Palma, 62, of Hightstown and co-owner of Cranbury Pizza was found dead in her vehicle last week after being missing since Nov. 20.
”She was not only a business owner, but she became my friend,” Claire Morris, owner of Charmed by Claire on Main Street said after cashing out a line of customers. “It is a total void in our town, our business family and our social community.”
Ms. Morris said that she knew Ms. Palma for more than a decade and remembered her friend as a “good woman” who was also a wife, mother and grandmother.
”She will be sorely missed,” Ms. Morris said.
Ms. Palma was reported missing to Hightstown police on Nov. 22.
According to police, she was last seen leaving a friend’s house in Monroe the evening of Nov. 20.
Despite the efforts of law enforcement, family and friends to locate her, leads quickly turned into dead ends until she was discovered in the parking lot of the Hampton Arms apartments in East Windsor last Thursday afternoon.
According to police, she was locked in her vehicle and there were no signs of foul play.
Following a Mercer County Medical Examiner’s autopsy last Friday, the time of death was estimated to be Dec. 2.
”She was a beautiful person. She was so good to everyone,” a visibly shaken Robert Huegel, her partner in the pizza shop, said Sunday. “I can’t believe she is gone.”
Mr. Huegel said that everyone was hoping she would be found alive.
He said, however, that as the time went on, it was not likely the outcome would be a good one.
”We held out hope. We made flyers to get her face and information out there,” he said.
He estimated that more than 40,000 people saw the business’s Facebook page with the information about the disappearance on it.
”We are in shock,” he said.
While the time of death was estimated by officials, a cause of death has not yet been released.
According to an obituary on the Barlow and Zimmer Funeral Home’s website, services were planned for this week in Hightstown.
”We are trying to stay busy,” Mr. Huegel said.
He said the community really helped by posting flyers and spreading the word about her disappearance.
Mr. Huegel said it is too early to say how the business will continue without her, but he is sure that it will.
”She is in everything that is here. We will go on,” he said. “No one will forget her.”
Ms. Palma and her husband, Eddie, were staples in the business community in both Cranbury and East Windsor for more than 30 years.
Mr. Huegel said he bought into the pizza shop about 10 years ago.
According to Mr. Huegel, the shop employs about a dozen people, all of whom are trying to come to terms with Ms. Palma’s death.
”It was so fast,” Mr. Huegel said. “She was gone.”

