FREEHOLD — Citing a state law that allows information about ongoing police investigations to be kept private, a Freehold Borough police official offered no new information this week about an incident that may have occurred in town two weeks ago.
The News Transcript reported on Feb. 26 that on Feb. 21, police officers and investigators from the Monmouth County Prose-cutor’s Office responded to 39 East Main Street and put crime scene tape around the location in the heart of the borough’s business district.
Freehold Borough Police Capt. Michael DiAiso said at the time that there is an active investigation involving a missing person.
On Monday, Detective Sgt. Chuck Ward cited Executive Order 69 when he declined to say what, if anything, police are investigating.
Executive Order 69 was signed by former Gov. Christie Whitman on May 15, 1997 and concerned the release of information to the public. That executive order technically no longer exists and has been replaced by regulations now contained in the New Jersey Open Public Records Act. The act exempts information about ongoing police investigations from being released to the public. Police declined to say who the subject of the missing person investigation is.
In the initial account of the police activities, Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye said that borough police had been called to the scene early on Feb. 21 on a report of a missing Hispanic female.
Later that morning, he said, police received another call reporting that a woman was seen throwing clothing out of the window into an alley.
When police officers arrived, according to Kaye, they found articles of clothing and boots that were stained with blood. The prosecutor said the officers observed what could have been "stab holes" in a shirt. He stressed that the officers were not certain the markings were stab holes.
A search warrant was subsequently obtained at about 1:15 p.m. Feb. 21, allowing police to enter the building for an investigation, according to a representative from the prosecutor’s office at the scene.
Between Feb. 27 and Monday, the prosecutor’s office said there was nothing new to report on the matter.