Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Missed Mother’s Day Call is first sign daughter’s gone

Episode Date: May 12, 2017

Sue Primavera first suspected something was terribly wrong when her daughter did not call to wish her a happy Mother’s Day in 2012. Jill Primavera, a 28-year-old mother of three young girls, has been missing for the 5 years since. In this episode, Nancy Grace talks to Bob and Sue Primavera about their frustrations and sadness as another Mother’s Day arrives without their daughter. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. A mother of three from Kensington vanished two years ago and she hasn't been seen since. It's been more than three years since a mother of three has been heard from and her parents are desperate for your help. Susan Primavera hasn't heard from her daughter Jill in over four years. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The then 28-year-old was last seen on Thursday, April 12, 2012. I just want to tell her to come home.

Just call. I mean, our whole family just wants her to come home. Always called. She's never felt she couldn't call. Primavera has three daughters, and her family says they miss her. I mean they're getting old enough now they do know you know that they do have a mom and they do know their mom is missing. Soon as the first mother's day passed and we didn't hear from her, it seems suspicious to us. If anybody has seen her just reach out and tell us and just please let us know. Imagine your daughter that you love more than anything in the world that you pour all your love into all your dreams into all your hopes into try to make a better life

for her and you want all of her dreams to come true, and then she goes missing. I am talking about a beautiful young girl, Jill Primavera. Her mom and dad are special guests today on Crime Stories. I'm Nancy Grace, and I want to thank you for being with us. Today's story is so important because I really believe there is a chance we can find the truth about the disappearance of Jill Primavera. Along with me, the Duke, Alan Duke, of course, joining me. Alan, how long has Jill Primavera been missing? Give me her description.

She has three children waiting for mommy to come home. Jill was 28 years old when she was last seen. She was last seen, reported on April 12, 2012, in Philadelphia at the intersection of A Street and East Allegheny Avenue. Well, wait a minute. That's very, very specific as to, so there is a witness that can place her right there on a certain day. Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to break in.

Go ahead with that description, Alan. The mother of three daughters. She is a white female, 5 foot 5 inches tall, and weighed about 140 pounds at the time. And at the time of her disappearance, she had blonde hair with red highlights. So what are their ages now? They are five, eight and ten. Five, eight and ten. That's about the ages of the twins who are nine. And boy, do they need mommy. Bob, what do you guys tell the children about is mommy coming home do they ask about her yeah they ask about her and you know we didn't we didn't tell them the details

but we tell them that we're still looking we won't give up where do they think mommy is do they have an idea do they get sad or have they pushed it to the back of their minds and don't talk about it? No, the older they've gotten, they do, especially the oldest, the 10-year-old, ask frequently. I mean, every night they say a prayer for their mom, you know, and pray that she comes home. And, you know, it's just heartbreaking. You know, and like I said, they're just too young, so we don't give them details. But they are aware that we cannot find their mom.

So when the 10-year-old at night asks questions about mommy, what kind of questions does she ask? Where is my mommy? Why can't they find my mommy? Why isn't God helping us? You know what, that just, that just breaks my heart, because, you know, when I'm away for even one night, it nearly drives me crazy wondering how they're doing what are they doing let me ask you this what has been the most difficult part of being away from jill i can't tell you that there's not a day that goes by that i don't think about her wonder where she is i I mean, my life honestly has changed since all this has happened. I mean, and I really even feel like that I can't function properly. I mean, it's always on my mind. I'm always thinking what I can do next to try to help find her

because we're not getting enough support from law enforcement. And, I mean, it's just we're always trying to think of the next step. What can we do? What can we do next to try to help find her? I mean, as a mother, I'm... I am talking to the mom and dad of Jill Primavera, who is missing. She's a beautiful young mom of three. I'm sorry, Sue, what were you saying as a mom?

I know you understand because you're a mother that, I mean, imagine that your kid is missing. I mean, and, you know, the police just hope I just go away, and I'm not going to go away, and I'm going to continue to fight until I get an answer you know Alan the other night I don't know if I told you about this I had the worst dream it woke me up and in the dream I was bent over double crying and the feeling in my stomach and my chest. I didn't know what was wrong. And then in the dream, I found out the twins were missing. I couldn't find the twins. And I have, and this is after the murder of my fiance. This is having just lost my father in that dream, that feeling of not knowing where the twins were. It was one of the worst feelings. I just woke up and went immediately and looked at them.

They were asleep. And that was just 30 seconds of a dream. And Bob and Sue go through this every single day of their lives. Bob, tell me what has been the worst part about not knowing where Jill is. Well, I kind of feel like I failed her, you know. I'm her father. I'm supposed to, you know, protect her. And that gets me every day. You know, if I could have been there, if I could have, if I could find out or, you know.

It's, you know, I hold a lot of this in and it's tough dealing with it, you know what I mean? It has changed me also. In what way? Anxious, anxiety, you know, quick to jump down somebody's throat, you know, and, like, just get right in there because I'm holding all this anger in because of the people that we think may have something to do with it. And, you know, the police aren't questioning the people that, you know, we tell them that

we think they should question and they agree with us at the time, but never go out and actually question these people. What police force is it exactly? What police force? Well, responsible for the case is the Philadelphia Police Department. But we have spoken. I've called our congressmen. We had Cory Booker call Philadelphia, and then there was some action for a while.

But the marshals are involved. The FBI is involved. And we have, you know, periodic meetings with these people, you know, maybe once a year or something, and everybody's going to do something. You leave the office, you don't hear from them again. So, you know, my wife continually tries to, you know, keep it going and calling them and keep it in their mind.

But it's, you know, they... So it is the Philadelphia police that are the main entity working the case of Jill Primavera? Correct. Yeah. Okay, so you have told them suspects that you think may be involved. Well, let me just say persons of interest. You know, you were saying, Bob, that you have to hold it in. There's so much that you hold in.

Of course you do because you have her children, her three girls living with you now. And you've got to be strong for them. And they're watching everything you say, everything you do. You know, if you look defeated or worn out or exhausted with the search for Jill, then they'll know that immediately. Then they'll give up hope. And then that will be awful for them. So you two have a huge burden on you, huge burden on you.

So let me ask you this. When you think of the last time, Bob, that you spoke to her, what do you recall about that conversation? Well, my wife was the last one that spoke to her what do you recall about that conversation well my wife was the last one that spoke to her I uh the last time I spoke to her I was angry with her because of you know her you know her straightening up her act and getting back you know with her children so so I kind of feel guilty. Yeah, I feel guilty because I was angry

with her now. And that's... You know what? I've got to tell you something, Bob. I've got to tell you something. I've replayed this over and over and over in my mind. When my dad passed

away, I was supposed to take the children ice skating at Rockefeller Center. And before I got on the plane, I almost backed out. And I'd gone back and forth. Were we going to go out of town or not? Because he was having trouble breathing. And my mom said, oh, he's going to be fine. Don't worry. I went, and I got to New York. I got everybody unpacked, ready to go skiing, and my mom called and said, they're putting your dad on life support. Well, I got everybody repacked, ran out onto the streets of New York to helicopter to try to get a plane back home. We got home, but I don't know if my dad ever knew I was there. I stood by his bed for 72 hours until he passed away. And I beat

myself up about that every day since he went to heaven. And you know what? You were doing the right thing, Bob. You were trying to guide her. Parents get angry with their children when they see them making mistakes. That is not your fault. You have got to not beat yourself up about that. You were trying to help her. And I know that.

And God knows that. And she knew that at the time that you were trying to help her and I know that and God knows that and she knew that at the time that you were trying to help her. Yeah, I mean. When you think about, go ahead. We went to counseling with her, you know, we felt it like we've done everything we could, so I had to just go with the hard love that, I don't know, I forget the word, I'm not even going to think it straight right now, tough love. Tough love, tough love, yeah.

Because, like I was saying, I felt, we both felt like we were being played by her, you know, going to the counseling and all that, and it wasn't working. So I took another path. Here's the thing. With alcohol or drugs, look, I guess, Alan, what are the stats? At least 50% of the country, our country, have either had an alcohol problem or a drug problem, or somebody in their family or close friend has had an alcohol or drug problem. Probably greater than 50%. So what you're saying right now, nobody is judging Jill. Nobody is judging you because we've all been there. I have somebody in my family with an alcohol problem, and they've had it forever.

We all do. I have people in my family, relatives with drug problems. Everybody has it. Let me tell you, when I was a prosecutor in inner city Atlanta, people would lose everything, their families, their jobs, their homes, because of drugs and alcohol. It's not just Jill. What do you have to say to people? Well, the only people that I talk to about it is family, you know.

I mean, and no one else asks, I guess, because they don't feel comfortable asking. And I don't bring it up to anybody. Well, I feel comfortable because I'm telling you, a large part of America suffers with drug and alcohol problems. And it is nothing to be ashamed of at all. Because from what I've seen, it is a sickness. It is an illness. You can't get rid of it. It literally is like a monkey on your back.

And Jill was fighting it. And you and your wife were fighting it with her. You've just been through so much. If I could just find a way to help you find her. What do the police tell you when you go and you speak to them? What do they say? Well, the last one, like I said, was like there's no bedside matter. I mean, and you don't really want it like that anyway,

but to tell you nothing yet, like we gave the cop who's supposed to be on it now some information, and she says, you know, there's a serial killer out there. I mean, I'm just like, what the hell kind of shit is that to tell us? Oh, my stars. So he says there's a serial killer out there, and that's just... Well, I mean, I guess he's got to tell you the truth, but dang. Oh, that must have been like a kick in the stomach.

Yeah. Yeah. Like don't, you know, don't go out and investigate and go out and look because we got a call that someone had, they think they had seen her two, three days ago. We called up the detective and told her, and she said she was going to go out and look at it, and we haven't heard nothing from her. And she said she was going to go out yesterday morning. We haven't heard nothing. So this is kind of what we, you know, we sit here

and we wait and we wait and, you know, our nerves are, you know, and nothing. And then we got to call somebody else. We got to, you know, to try and get somebody else on it. And that's just the way it's been for us. Everybody promises us everything, and no one delivers on nothing. We go down personally to the badlands. This is a real bad part of Philly. And we put flyers up. Put billboards up. We had two billboards put up, one on I-95, one down in Kensington.

You know, we've put it on the local news through Citizens Crime Commission. I mean, basically the people who have helped us through this, like the FBI and the marshals and whatnot, only helped us because we couldn't get the help of the police department. I mean, and so what we've come to find out is it is their jurisdiction, and they just still refuse to help us.

I mean, we just wrote to the mayor last week and the commissioner, and we're waiting to hear back. It's just frustrating. I mean, this has been since 2012, and we're just constantly being told that something will be done and nothing's done. The reason also is she's never not going Mother's Day or my wife's birthday without calling, you know. And that's what set us off. She didn't call.

That's when we contacted the police and started this thing rolling back in 2012. We knew something was probably wrong because of that. We are talking about a beautiful, missing young mom of three, Jill Primavera. When she did not contact her mom on Mother's Day mom and dad knew something was horribly wrong this girl

has three beautiful daughters waiting on her to come home and they ask they're old enough now to ask questions where's mommy why won't Mommy come home? Why won't God help me find Mommy?

It's really almost more than I can even say, Alan. I mean, why won't God help bring my Mommy home? I mean, that's got to break their heart every night when they hear that from the 10-year-old. It does. It does. Guys, there is a $5,000 reward for information on the whereabouts of Jill Primavera. Last seen in Philadelphia. The tip line, 215-546-TIPS. 215-546-8477. Please help us find out the whereabouts of this beautiful girl, this loving mom, Jill Primavera, please help us help Bob and Sue bring their daughter home.

Bob and Sue, I hear you. I hear you crying, and I want you to know that as I am giving this tip line, my mom and I are sitting here crying right along with you because I hear how much you're suffering, and I just sitting here crying right along with you. Because I hear how much you're suffering. And I just hate it for you. And I want to do whatever we at Crime Online and Crime Stories can do to help you. And we will. We'll continue to broadcast this and publicize this.

And do every single thing I can think of to help you find peace. Our prayers now with Bob and Sue and Jill, and most important, with those three little girls that are waiting for their mom to come home. Nancy Grace Crime Stories signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.