Serialously with Annie Elise - 208: Night of Terror | Chased, Haunted & The Horrifying Case of Stephanie Parze

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

On October 19, 2019, 25-year-old Stephanie Parze went missing not long after visiting a medium with her mother and sisters. Her family knew something was horribly wrong when she failed to show up to work the next day. A frantic search began for Stephanie, and it wouldn’t be long before the details surrounding her disappearance were uncovered. This case is full of twists and turns that no one would expect… Dipsea Dipsea is offering an extended 30 day free trial when you go to https://www.DipseaStories.com/AE Lumen Go to https://www.lumen.me/AE to get 15% off Lume Use code AE for 15% off your first purchase at https://www.LumeDeodorant.com Robody Go to https://www.ro.co/ae and get your first month for just $99!  Seed Go to https://www.Seed.com/ae and use code 25AE to get 25% off your first month. Shop the Merch: www.annieelise.com Follow the podcast on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serialouslypodcast Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serialouslypod/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_ SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/ About Me: https://annieelise.com/ For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]  Sources: NY Post CNN Law and Crime USA Today ABC News Fox 29 Audio Sources: Q1043 New York CBS New York Staten Island Advance

When did your daughter go missing? went back there again, like around 8, 9 o'clock, and I found her phone, which she never goes anywhere without her phone. And her job text her saying, you didn't show up for work today. Is everything okay? And we still haven't heard from her. She's still not home. Okay, what's her name? Stephanie. Hey, True Crime Besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. I hope you are ready to hear today's case, but I just want to give you a little bit of a warning, okay? I think that you need to be in the right headspace to hear today's case. Not that you're ever in a good headspace, I guess, to hear many of these cases, but this one is especially difficult to hear. It's one that a lot of you have been requesting for quite some time, and it's taken us a minute to really gather

all of the research, gather all of the facts to where we feel like we can do this case justice, but as I said, it's a pretty unnerving one. And it takes us back to 2019. One night in October of 2019, Ed and Charlene Pars got a very frantic phone call from their daughter. As soon as they picked up the phone, they could hear absolute chaos in the background. There was yelling, and it was obvious that emotions were high from everybody on the other end of this phone call. But what really struck them was the sound in their daughter's voice. A raw fear that told them that she needed help, and she needed it fast. Now, Ed knew that his daughter was at her house, but he had absolutely no idea what was going on.

Who was she with? Was she in danger? Was she with somebody who wanted to hurt her? So, like any dad would do, he immediately just jumped in his car and sped off as fast as he could possibly do so that he could get to her. And thank God she lived just a few miles away, so it was going to be a very quick drive. However, as he pulled up right at her house that night, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw next. Because right there, running through the woods in an absolute sheer panic, was a young woman. She was barefoot, she was out of breath, and one side of her face was completely covered with blood. And when that young woman got close enough for Ed to see more clearly who she

was, well that's when things started getting very confusing for him. Because his brain couldn't quite process what he was seeing right before his eyes. This disheveled, bloody figure that was screaming and stumbling toward him was his own daughter, Stephanie. It was a haunting image that will be burned into his brain forever. Stephanie had been beaten, battered, and she was completely out of it. But at least now she was safe and she had gotten out alive from whatever horrific situation that she had been involved in, right? Well, that is this time, anyway. So let's go back and talk about what Stephanie went through leading up to this horrific moment. On October 30th, 2019, 25-year-old Stephanie Pars went to the Stress Factory Comedy Club in New Brunswick, New Jersey to see a show by this psychic named Cindy Queza. She went with her mom, Charlene, and also her sisters. And apparently this Cindy person is a pretty big deal in the

psychic world. And she's also known for her work on a show called The Dead Files, which is on the Travel Channel. So apparently Stephanie, her mom, and her sisters all had a great time. Not one of Stephanie's family members noticed anything that was out of the ordinary, not before the show, not after the show ended. They all drove to Stephanie's parents' house afterward, and Stephanie eventually left her parents' house and went her separate way for the night. It was, by the looks of it, a perfect girls' night. But it was also the last time that anyone would see Stephanie for months.

Stephanie's mom, Charlene, said that her daughter was supposed to send her a text letting her know when she got home safely. However, she never received one. Now, the next morning was Halloween, remember, in 2019, and Stephanie didn't show up for her job, where she worked as a nanny for a family with a little girl. Soon, her family would try reaching out to her, but their calls and their texts would also just go completely unanswered. In fact, the last correspondence any of them had with her was the night before,

when Stephanie sent a Snapchat to her mom on the drive home back to her house. So her family knew that something just wasn't right here. This wasn't Stephanie. Sure, she lived on her own, she had an independent life, and obviously, you know, she could come and go from her own home as she pleased, but her family was very, very close, and they knew Stephanie best, and she would never just not check in with them, especially after saying that she would. So because of that, the red flags were going off, and they decided to take matters into their own hands. Stephanie's parents drove over to their daughter's house in Freehold Township, New Jersey, and when they got there, they went inside.

But what they found made them a little uneasy, to say the least. Now, no, it wasn't some bloody crime scene that you might be expecting or something crazy like that, but there also weren't any signs of forced entry, nothing that looked alarming, I mean, well, that her parents could see anyway. It didn't look like anybody had been taken against their will. However, they did notice that every single light in the house was turned on, even one that was inside the attic, something that is just super odd, especially if nobody's home. And even weirder than that, they heard noises coming from Stephanie's bathroom. And when her parents managed to get that bathroom door open, they found that her dog had been locked inside

of the bathroom. So after checking all of the other rooms, one thing became seriously clear to them. Stephanie was absolutely not there. However, her car was in the driveway. And it didn't take long for her family to also find Stephanie's keys and cell phone shoved deep inside one of her couch cushions. I mean, something wasn't right here. We all know that in this day and age, absolutely nobody leaves home without their phone. So while yes, it is technically possible that Stephanie might just be out and about and forgot it, this obviously was not a good sign, especially the fact that her car was still in the driveway. But then again, let's also not forget that this

was Halloween. Depending on what you have planned, it's a day that you might do something out of character or maybe a little bit more carefree than usual. Maybe it's not the same routine that every other day looks like. So if Stephanie wasn't home, and if she hadn't driven anywhere, the question was, where could she be? And is there anybody who might have the answer to that question? So let's back up a little bit and get to know her as a person before we go any further. Who was Stephanie Pars? Is there a chance that she left on her own? Was she maybe just with friends? Maybe she lost track of time? Well, in 2019, as I said, Stephanie was 25 years old, and she had her entire life ahead of her. Her friends and family describe her as a 4'11 brunette firecracker with a huge passion for art,

which, it's true, she was an insanely talented makeup artist. In fact, she had started to gain a bit of a following on social media from posting just her super intricate makeup looks. I mean, she was very, very talented. She could make you look absolutely gorgeous and bring out your best features with more of a traditional style, or she could make you look like the scariest zombie at a party. I mean, complete with fake blood, face gashes, maggots crawling out of the face gashes that looked real. I mean, talented. So, so talented. But Stephanie wasn't just another influencer who was trying to make it big. She was so much more than that. Behind the makeup brushes and the social media posts was this very smart, kind-hearted young woman who totally loved her

close-knit family, especially her sisters. Stephanie was deeply connected with them, and she made sure to spend quality time with them absolutely whenever she could. Which, take a listen to this video of her family that was taken a few years ago at Christmas time. They're just laughing together and playing a gameiley, but it's okay. There. Ready? Ready? Ready? Ready?

Set. Set. Where am I? Go. Go. Oh, I forgot. I forgot. Oh, my God.

Go, Hailey. All right, Hailey. Let's try it. Come on. She was also really into cars, and she was a member of a group of people who were like her and liked cars as well called the New Jersey Misfits. Occasionally, she would also go to group meetups with them, and it was kind of just this shared hobby. Now, like I said before, Stephanie also worked close to home as a nanny. She was caring for a little girl that she absolutely adored. And one day, she knew that she wanted a family of her own.

Now, Stephanie's dad said that she had expressed to him on more than one occasion that she was ready to settle down. She hoped that she would find, you know, Mr. Right, her knight in shining armor. And she hoped that that would happen sooner rather than later. I mean, after all, she wanted to have kids, and she wanted to have them soon. And in fact, she dreamed of this life so much that just one week before Stephanie disappeared, she had reposted a meme on Facebook of a couple who was getting engaged. With that repost, she also put the caption,

I can't wait for this amazing moment one day. However, her dad, Ed, told her, you know, it's not something that you should rush, ever. Because when you try to hurry life along, bad things can happen. Things don't always go according to plan. But still, Stephanie was in her mid-20s, so obviously it's totally normal that she wanted to date, she wanted to actively date, she wanted to meet people, and that's what she was doing. In fact, she had several boyfriends, but she never felt like any of them were the one. Which, in other words, Stephanie sounds like a totally normal girl. Not to mention one that had a serious talent when it came to makeup.

I mean, if you look at her Instagram account, you can see for yourself. I scrolled through it, and it is honestly so impressive. So she seems like an absolute catch. And I mean, I understand that her dad didn't want her to rush into anything relationship-wise, what dad wouldn't give that same advice to his daughter, but as we know, it's hard to get through to anybody who is just dead set on something. Sometimes they have to experience things for themselves to really understand. So, like most single people her age, Stephanie went on dating sites.

And it didn't take long for her to meet somebody that piqued her interest, a 29-year-old stockbroker who worked on Staten Island. And he had also recently moved to Freehold Township, the same city that Stephanie was from. Now, this guy seemed like a total catch. He was tall, he was good-looking, he had dark hair. I mean, it's easy to see why Stephanie was attracted to him from the start. His name was John Osbulgin, and after the pair got to know each other for a little bit and got to know each other a little bit better, he and Stephanie made their relationship official. Facebook official. In fact, this was done on August 19th, 2019. Stephanie was fully engulfed in this new relationship high. I mean, you know the one where it's like butterflies in your stomach, you're texting all night long, even in their flaws,

you can still find a little bit of charm in them. I mean, that's always the fun part. I mean, it's what gives us hope and keeps us looking for the perfect match, right? But for Stephanie and John, that new relationship high, that honeymoon period, it didn't last long. In fact, it came to a sudden, screeching halt, just out of nowhere, several weeks later. See, by the time that Stephanie was nowhere to be found that fateful Halloween day, her social media account didn't list their relationship status as a couple any longer. In fact, it said that Stephanie wasn't in a relationship at all. At the time of her disappearance, she was single. So was their love affair really that short-lived?

I mean, it's not crazy. A lot of relationships just don't work out, and of course, there's nothing wrong with that. But because Stephanie was now missing, I mean, we've got to know, what really went down in less than eight weeks that could have caused her and this new guy to break things off? Well, if you ask Stephanie's dad, Ed, from the moment that he met this guy, he could tell that he was just bad news, and he could tell that he was not at all meant for his daughter. After she found him, she said, you know,

she started talking to him back and forth for about a month without seeing him, just doing chats and so forth. She was doing her, I guess, due diligence to try and make sure this guy was a nice guy and everything. He was doing his best to smooth her over and put the hook in. He did.

She called me one day and said, Dad, I might have found a nice guy here. I said, okay. I said, be careful. Way to meet him and everything. You know, I want to meet him, of course. And I guess the second month she started dating this guy, actually seeing him, and everything was peaches and cream for a little while. Now we have to take that with a grain of salt, right? I mean, at least at this point,

because he wouldn't be the first father in the world to dislike his daughter's boyfriend. I mean, not even close. I feel like it's almost a rite of passage for a dad not to immediately take to their daughter's boyfriend or somebody they're dating, almost haze them a little bit, get to know them because, of course, you know, they're very protective over their daughters. So was this John guy really bad news? Could he have been all that bad? Or was her dad Ed just being a little bit too protective over his daughter? Now we know that John was a stockbroker. John worked for Alexander Capital, which is a pretty legit investment baking and brokerage firm that is headquartered in New York, and he had been employed there for a few years. He started working there in 2015. Now Stephanie's family didn't get

to know him super well in those eight weeks. They had only really spent time with him on two occasions, once when John came to a family dinner and another time when he went out on a rafting trip, something that the family loved doing together just about every year. They even had a name for these trips. They would call it Pars' Pirates. So John joined in on their 2019 trip. But once again, her dad Ed was less than impressed with him. According to Ed, John just wasn't a super sociable person. And at one point, Ed got knocked out of the raft while going through a rapid. When he came up to the surface, John was the closest person to him that could help him get back in the boat. He was the person who you would, you know, reach your arm out to and try to have help you pull you back

inside. But John never offered Ed a hand trying to help him get back into the raft. He kind of just stared at him, blankly, until somebody else stepped in and offered to help him. Which, trust me, I get not being a sociable person. Through and through, I consider myself antisocial. But you better believe, if I'm anywhere, stranger, girlfriend's dad, whoever it would be, if somebody's falling out of a raft and I'm the closest person to them, I'm going to put my arm out. I'm going to try to help them. There's like being antisocial or not sociable. And then there's somebody who is just kind of a weirdo, in my opinion. Plus, wouldn't you want to make a good impression on the parents of the girl that you're dating? But John didn't seem to care. He just kind of looked at him blank and then somebody else had

to step in. It was bizarre. And it kind of sounds like her family wasn't super tuned in to what Stephanie might have seen in John. But, I mean, there must have been something redeeming about him, right? There had to have been some quality that Stephanie liked about him. Well, as it turns out, John was a little bit of a love bomber. And at first, it's hard to really recognize that sort of thing. It's kind of something easy to think, oh, wow, this person is so genuine, look how generous they're being by showering me with all of this stuff, these gifts, these compliments, all of these things. And everybody wants to see the good in people before wondering if maybe it's a little much or questioning it, right? And especially in the beginning, it's kind of easy, in my opinion, to get swept up in that and

really believe that they're being authentic. According to Stephanie's family and friends, John and Stephanie would have their fights, and John could get pretty angry, but he always managed to work his way back into Stephanie's good graces. He would end up showering her with love, with attention, with flowers, any time that something happened between the two of them. And Stephanie, being the super kind-hearted person that she was, she would take him back, and she would always give things another shot, give him another chance. So yes, it doesn't seem like it's great that there were a little bit of

red flags and warning signs early on into their relationship. It seemed like fights were already happening between the two of them. But it also doesn't automatically make John responsible for wherever Stephanie was, wherever she had disappeared to. And if John wasn't involved, who else could have been? Was there anything weird or off with Stephanie, or maybe even somebody else in her life that was leading up to her disappearance? And actually, there was. It wasn't necessarily a person in her life that was being shady, or even anything that Stephanie did herself.

But some weird things did start happening to her in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. And weird might not be the right word to even use here, because the stuff that she started noticing was downright scary. Earlier in the month of October, that same month that she eventually went missing, Stephanie called her mom super, super panicked. She said that she thought that the house that she was living in was possessed, or maybe even haunted. See, one day she went into her bathroom and she

saw something that left her super scared. Stephanie told her mom that there was this creepy, thin, streaky-like handprint going all the way across her mirror. It wasn't like a normal adult-looking handprint. This one was almost sort of like gangly and fragile. And she didn't feel like anybody that she knew could have left it. I mean, who just takes their hand and runs their fingers across a mirror like that for the fun of it, right? Especially as an adult. Felt like it was a scene straight out of a scary movie. You know the kind where like the eerie stuff starts happening before the big moments that come later,

the suspense, the buildup. And that's not the only sinister thing that Stephanie noticed that month. Just a few days earlier, Stephanie went to go check on her pet bird, a little parakeet that she had had for quite a while. And when she got to the cage, she found the bird laying at the bottom of it. The bird was completely cold and just dead. There was no reason for Stephanie to think that the bird had been sick or anything like that either, so it was completely unexplained. So for her, the handprint and now this dead animal, it was too much. It was too coincidental to not mean something, or maybe even mean that someone, not something, was messing with her. Which, all of that in and of itself is super

creepy, right? But then when you consider that Stephanie was creeped out by this, and all these weird things were going down, and just weeks later something happened to her and she disappeared, it starts to make you wonder what was really going on. It's kind of starting to feel almost a little paranormal, honestly. Was there anything else going on? What about that night that her dad Ed found her running through the woods bleeding? Well, it turns out that that incident also went down around this same time that Stephanie started noticing all of the eerie stuff happening in her house. However, that night, the night that she called her parents in an absolute panic, and Ed, you know, sped off to go help her, Stephanie's mom had asked her a question while she had her on the phone before her daughter hung up. And the question was, who hit you?

So we're back to that night of the phone call, when Ed finally found his daughter and she was barefoot and bloody. And she gave him a one-word answer about who did this to her, who made her run through the woods bleeding, barefoot, screaming, and panicked for her life. Well, according to Stephanie, it was John. And that night, Stephanie filed an official domestic violence report against John with the local police. And her family, furious with John, but supportive of her, of course, thought that it would be the end of her interactions with him. But it wasn't. Because as it turns out, this wasn't even the first time that John had hurt Stephanie. Weeks before all of this went down, Stephanie's dad

said that she had mentioned something in passing to him. She asked him if he could see a mark on her that she had covered up with makeup. And remember, she was an insanely talented makeup artist, so she knew how to cover up anything that she didn't want you to see. So Ed, her dad of course, asked her, well, how did you even get this mark? And Stephanie gave a pretty coy response, kind of playing it off as nothing. She said that her and John were just roughhousing with one another, that she had gotten pushed into something, that's what left the mark. But obviously her dad didn't like that answer.

But Stephanie didn't give more details, and she kind of just played things off like everything was totally fine. And this was all happening just weeks into their brand new relationship, which, that is just sickening. Not that abuse is ever okay, but we usually see a progression over time and things escalate, and it seems as though John was abusive right out of the gate. But remember how I also said that John always ended up back in Stephanie's good graces? Well, this was no exception. Well, after what sounds like that first potential physical abuse from John, Stephanie ended up in the hospital in August of 2019, but not because of him. Around that time, she came down with pneumonia, and it got really bad super quick,

because she also suffered from asthma. Stephanie was known to have a vaping habit and that only made things worse. And she actually spent a bit of time hospitalized and needed medical support to heal her lungs. At some point, John found out that she was there and that, you know, whole love bombing thing that he was known to do, well, he picked it back up again. So during her hospital stay that August, John started coming to the facility to visit her, love bombing her, all of these things, and this was something that her dad says that he didn't even know of at the time. But somehow John was even now staying the night there with her at this facility. Which I gotta say, he must have been a pretty smooth talker if he was

able to convince the nurses of it, because that is usually a huge no-no when it comes to hospital protocol. Thankfully though, Stephanie got better, and she was eventually released. She was sent home with medication and also some lung exercises that she needed to do in order to get her strength back and to get her body fully functioning again, but she was on the mend. She was going home. And from the sounds of it, it also sounds like John must have done some smooth talking with Stephanie as well, because at this point, they were now back together by the time that she was out of the hospital. Which, listen to this video that she posted on her Facebook on August 19th. It's John asking her to be his girlfriend, where he leaves a note for her in the fridge next to his beer.

John told me to go get him another beer. All right, so now we know a little bit more about the inner workings of John and Stephanie's relationship, and it clearly wasn't pretty thanks to John's, you know, scumbag behavior. But let's talk about the night that she went missing, and also the days that followed. We know Stephanie's parents were the first people to go to her house and look for her. But really, her entire family was already working to track her down. They came out, guns blazing, ready to just go to war for Stephanie and find her before it was too late. Stephanie's sister Brianna felt like the best place to start the search

was to try and see who Stephanie might have had contact with the night before, or maybe even had contact with that morning. They didn't know the passcode to Stephanie's phone though, so that wasn't an option. But Brianna was able to get into Stephanie's Facebook account, and she was able to access her messages. So when she was scrolling through her Messenger app, she did see that Stephanie had contact with a few different people that night. At first, nothing really jumped out to her. They were just typical friendly messages. Nothing out of the ordinary for her sister. Nothing that struck her as odd. But then, someone's name caught her eye. It was John. John had messaged Stephanie several times that night. Ten times, to be exact. Both when she was at that show with the psychic

and her mom and her sisters, and then even more when she got back to the house. And the messages started out somewhat normal. I mean, normal for John anyway. But there seemed to be this angry undertone in all of them. Around 11pm, John asked Stephanie where she was at, but that one unanswered. So then he wanted to know why she was ignoring him. And after that, all hell completely broke loose, and he straight up just like went off on her, sending multiple messages, swearing at her, trying to get her attention, just like unleashing the beast. So after her sister Brianna found all these messages, I mean, obviously her heart sank. I mean, she knew the dark parts about her sister's relationship with John.

And what was most surprising is that Stephanie was still in contact with him at all. Because remember, just weeks before her disappearance, Stephanie had filed that domestic violence report. So Brianna now knew what her next step was going to be. She needed to message John and see if he knew where Stephanie was. So that's exactly what she did. She logged back into her own Facebook account, and she sent John a message.

And about an hour later, he responded. John admitted right away that he did see Stephanie the night before she disappeared. He even said that he slept over at her house. He says he saw her in the morning as well, but that she was running late for work, so he ended up leaving before she did. And since leaving her house that morning, John claimed he hadn't heard a word from her, and he had no idea where she currently was. After Stephanie's family reached out to all of the friends that they could think of, of who might

know where she was, they decided to go to the police and officially report her as a missing person. Take a listen to the 911 call from her mom. 911, where's your emergency? County, this is Hal with the 911 transfer. I have Charlene on the line. She is in Freehold at number 14, Route 33. She'd like to report her 25-year-old daughter as missing. Okay, Charlene, you there? Yes. All righty. So when did your daughter go missing? She left me at 10 o'clock last night. She was going back to my mom's house where she's staying, and I told her to text me or call me when she got home, and nothing. And I've been calling and texting her all day.

I went over there at 4 o'clock and her car was there. But she was supposed to be at work from nine to six. I went back there again, like around eight, nine o'clock and I found her phone, which she never goes anywhere without her phone. And I can't get into her phone. I can't remember her password, but I was able to see one of her notifications and her job text her saying, you didn't show up to work today. Is everything okay? And we still haven't heard from her. She's still not home. Okay. What's her name? Stephanie. And last name? Kars, P as in Peter, A-R-Z-E.

I've reached out to almost every friend that she has and everything. I can't. Okay. Do you know what kind of car Stephanie has? She has a white Hyundai Sonata. It's still in the driveway. So she didn't leave in her car? No.

Now that the police were involved, maybe they could get some answers. Maybe they could track down where she was. Eventually, investigators began the process of trying to seize two cell phones that were related to the case. They wanted to get them unlocked because they believed that there might have been valuable information on them. It's not immediately clear, though, whose phones they were. But unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. In fact, this case sort of made the headlines nationally because of the whole privacy phone access thing that we see way too much of these days in true crime cases. See, when it came time to actually opening up the phones, the cops didn't have the passcodes, so it meant that they completely remained totally locked.

That means that there was no easy way to go about accessing whatever clues or evidence or tips might have been on there. So the investigators decided to reach out to Apple, hoping that they could maybe lend a hand in unlocking them. Her family was obviously super hopeful about it too, because they wanted it done ASAP. They knew just how precious every single second was that passed without having answers. But Apple wouldn't budge. Which it's kind of insane to me that there aren't some type of exceptions in cases like this, right? I mean, obviously getting into the phone of a missing or murdered person can be incredibly beneficial for a case. To me, it seems like a no-brainer, and obviously Apple has the power to unlock phones and give the information to the investigators or family and make, you know, easy access for whatever's on there, which literally could be life-saving. I get that there needs to be protocols in place,

but a missing person's report, her phone left behind, nobody being in contact with her, I would think that that would be enough, but I guess not report, her phone left behind, nobody being in contact with her. I would think that that would be enough, but I guess not. So like I was saying, Apple just wasn't being helpful. So investigators were then forced to look for help in other places. In fact, the Monmouth County Sheriff's Department, the people who are handling Stephanie's case, actually said that they typically spend thousands of dollars each year hiring hackers to try to go in and unlock phones, just like in this instance. Another route that the police go sometimes is to try to get into an iCloud account, but that's only helpful if the phone has been recently backed up, and it's not clear in this case if the phones that they were trying to access had recently been backed up or not, and if it had been done with apps and messages or what the deal was. But they were trying to get access, and they tried for months, and there were no answers. Until finally, after

battling this whole fiasco for months, there was some hope. The police would soon gain access to a phone that would get their investigation moving, but the phone that they were about to unlock did not belong to Stephanie. The more that the investigators dug into Stephanie's disappearance, the more things seemed to point to one person knowing more than they were saying, and that person was John. However, the cops had trouble finding what they needed to actually charge this guy with anything. They did make him a person of interest, but honestly, that doesn't really mean much unless there's something that they can do about it, unless there's cold, hard evidence against you. However, it was enough to execute a search warrant on his phone.

And yeah, they found those angry text messages to Stephanie from that night, which was not super surprising, but that's not the worst thing that they found. And in an absolutely disgusting, vile turn of events, police found something they never expected to find on his phone. They found several explicit child images right there on his phone. They also found two search terms in his browsing history where he was actively seeking out different images and videos that were just as sickening as the ones that he had saved on his phone. And these images and videos I'm talking about are seriously vile. They are described as babies and young girls being tortured by adult men. I mean, sick. Now,

I'll be honest, I didn't expect this case to take a twist like that. I thought, okay, surely they will find some evidence of maybe abuse, maybe him berating her in text messaging, things like that. But now you add on this whole element to it, and it seems like this John person, whoever John really is, which we'll get to, just keeps going lower and lower. Tonight, the boyfriend of a New Jersey woman who disappeared more than a week ago

has been arrested on unrelated charges. Monmouth County prosecutors say 29-year-old John Osbligen was taken into custody in free hold after a search of his home uncovered child pornography. So when the cops found these images, which was pretty shortly after Stephanie had disappeared, it was enough to arrest John. Not for anything relating to Stephanie's disappearance, but they were able to arrest him nonetheless. So on November 8th, 2019, John was taken into custody and he was booked into the county jail,

which hopefully the plan was that he would stay there for a while, at least until investigators could build a bigger case and maybe officially press charges for Stephanie's disappearance. Because as this was all happening, even more was unfolding in Stephanie's disappearance. Because as this was all happening, even more was unfolding in Stephanie's case. As cops started digging into more of John's background and his story, his history,

his life, they discovered even more of his ugly truths. It turns out that Stephanie wasn't the only woman to bring domestic violence charges against John. Other women had done the same thing in the past. They also learned that Stephanie had contacted the police about John before that September incident ever happened. One of her complaints was filed back in June of 2019, months earlier. That was when the female victim said that John grabbed her by the face, pulled her hair, and eventually dragged her by her head. In the official report, the officer who took the complaint did note that the woman appeared to have injuries on her face, her mouth, and her lip. However,

like we see unfortunately in a lot of situations like this, just weeks later she decided to drop the charge. Which unfortunately it feels like we're just kind of seeing a pattern here with how John preyed on women, especially on women that he felt like he could control. John always managed to get what he wanted out of the women in his life, and he never really got in trouble for it. And for this to have happened in June, months earlier, it's just incredibly sad that Stephanie wasn't able to just cut him off for good back then, before it escalated, before she was running through the woods, running into her dad's arms for safety. We also know that there was that complaint that was filed in September, September 23rd to be exact. The identity of the woman had been withheld on the official document,

but having confirmation from her parents about this incident, as well as the investigators, all signs point to it being Stephanie. Either that, or John was seeing somebody else around the exact same time that he was supposed to be her boyfriend, which, really, that wouldn't surprise me at all. But in the September 23rd report, the victim goes on to say that John hit her in the hand and injured her thumb. Then he hit her once more in the head. So at least now John was in jail. I mean, even if the charges weren't related to Stephanie being mistreated or to the domestic violence or to her disappearance, at least he

was being held in jail because clearly this guy is a dangerous person. Clearly he just has, you know, a few screws loose. But at least he was locked up and the public was safe. Well, temporarily that is. Until Tuesday, November 19th rolled around. After being held in county jail for 11 days, one of the most insane things in this case happened. John was released. Which, I know, I know, I'm thinking it too. Like, what in the actual F? Who in their right mind would let this guy out? Not just for what he might have done to Stephanie, but he had literal child explicit material on his phone. Babies, young girls, all being tortured by older men. How on earth is this guy out just walking around?

I honestly didn't even know that somebody could be released when there was this much material against them. I mean hard evidence that actually existed showing that he enjoys and solicits this kind of material. But it pretty much just came down to the fact that he was still just a person of interest in Stephanie's case and he hadn't officially been charged with something else. But county prosecutors did try their hardest to keep him there. Not only did they remind the judge of the severity of the photos that were found on John's phone, but they also brought up the pending domestic violence incident from September that Stephanie had filed against him. They even brought up the fact that the night before Stephanie disappeared, John was the one who was blowing up her phone and blowing up her social media,

sending her messages all night. Sure, it wasn't slam-dunk evidence that he was involved, but it had to count for something, so they thought. According to the judge, in a case like the one against John, meaning the child material and not anything related to Stephanie, the defendant is typically granted bail. The judge also stated that he wasn't allowed to consider any possible connections to Stephanie, the defendant is typically granted bail. The judge also stated that he wasn't allowed to consider any possible connections to Stephanie's disappearance when

he was making that decision to let him out. And John claimed that he had absolutely no idea how these disgusting images ended up on his phone in the first place. You know, he pretended to be a deer in the headlights. He had absolutely no clue. No clue how these images ended up there. No clue how somebody was hacking into his browser searching these terms, which, okay. But that's the story that he was sticking to anyway. So shortly after the judge's decision was announced, John posted bail, and he was once again free. The stipulations of his release said that he did have to stay with his parents, and under no circumstances was he able to use the internet. Which, I can't imagine what a

gut punch this was for Stephanie's family. I'm sure they thought that he was going to be kept there, you know, and away from causing anybody else harm, but because he was still just a person of interest in their daughter's disappearance, there was nothing legal that anybody could do to hold him any longer. Terrible. You don't know anything. Police can't tell you anything because they don't want to hamper the investigations. We don't know anything. We're doing everything we can from here. They're doing everything they can from there. So all we're concentrating on right now is keeping the momentum going with the media

and the press and social media, just the more it's out there, the more likely that somebody will, you know, see her or find something that, where we can find her. I mean, we're hoping for the miracle, and that's what we're hoping for. Now let's pause, and I just want to remind everyone where we're at in terms of timeline right now. At the point that John was released from jail, Stephanie had been officially missing for 20 days. And the search for her pressed on. But with every day that passed, Stephanie's friends and family grew a little more weary, wondering if they would ever find her. After all, they knew the statistics on missing people. 77% of adults who are reported missing are found within 24 hours, 87% are found within two days,

and only 3% are missing longer than a week. So they tried their best to quiet the noise around John getting out of jail and just focus on what mattered most, bringing Stephanie back home, alive. And if they were going to find her, they needed to do it ASAP, and they were going to need support. A lot of it. The community rallied around them, and over the course of this case, they had thousands of people volunteer to search for Stephanie. And they looked everywhere, covering miles of ground around where she lived, the surrounding cities, the surrounding towns. More than 60 different search parties were organized throughout the fall and winter of 2019.

We're always hoping the outcome is to find her, of course, or at least some clues that would lead us to her. Today we have about 120 people out here gathered from both New Jersey and Staten Island. They're going to be doing the second half of Wolf Pond Park, which is across Highland Boulevard. It's a pretty large area. I don't know how many acres it is, but it's quite quite large. There's a big lake in the middle of it. Once they've done with that, they're

going to break off back, come back here, regroup, and then we're going to go hit another section over there off of Page Avenue. That should be it for the day. So that should take us a few hours to get that done and hopefully we'll see what happens. I mean, nothing shows up. We'll be out here again soon. Just keep going. A lot of people here today. I mean, nothing shows up. We'll be out here again soon. Just keep going. A lot of people here today I've never met before in my life. A lot of local people that came in to help. It's just fantastic. The word is out. I mean, we're

doing everything we can with the media, with everybody to get the word out there. And it seems to be working as far as, you know, everybody, everywhere you go, everybody has heard what's going on. And they're all zoned in, keeping their eyes open, telling us whatever they can tell us, getting calls and tips every day from people, different things. Some pan out, some don't. But anything, you never know, that one call we get could be the call we're waiting for.

And then on the other side, we have the police departments and prosecutors offices and local police departments here. They're all working on the case as well. So they're doing their own searches and stuff. So it's a combined effort. It's amazing. It's terrible. It's a horror.

While you're busy and you're doing things, your mind's going, you're focused on getting this job done. But when you're alone, it's terrible. I mean, at night, it's terrible. And then everything you look at triggers it. You see a picture of her, you see friends that she hasn't seen before, people we haven't seen before. I mean, it just triggers the emotions and we all take turns. One day I'm down, next day my wife's down. If they were all down, it's going to be a problem, but we're picking each other up. So I mean, that's all we can do.

They took no breaks. They were searching for her from morning until night, and even after that, her family was known to keep the search going themselves before turning in for the night, like going way into the early morning hours. And Stephanie's family, investigators, and the community didn't know it at the time, but just three days after John got out on bail on November 22, 2019, there was going to be another twist in this case. This time, a dead body was going to be found. It was going to be found in the same general area that the search parties had been scouring for weeks. The same place where Stephanie was from.

The same place that everybody thought that they might find her. The thing was, when they found this body, it wasn't Stephanie's. So if it wasn't Stephanie's body that was found, who else could it have been that sent shockwaves through this case? A family member? One of the other women who used to date John? Well, actually, this body wasn't female at all. When the police got the call on Friday, November 22nd, they used crime scene tape and cornered off an entire block of Kings Mountain Road in Freehold Township. And when they walked inside the home of the people who had called 911, they found that a man had killed himself. The dead body was John. Eventually, a medical examiner

determined that his cause of death was suicide by hanging. He was found by his parents earlier that morning, and this all went down just three days after he was released on bail on those child material charges. Mr. and Mrs. Osbelgen found their son unfortunately this morning. There was police presence outside the home, so they went immediately to have them assist, and unfortunately, so they went immediately to have them assist. And unfortunately, while they were unable to revive him, obviously John passed. He was adamant about his innocence of the child pornography charge. We were discussing defense strategies and he left shaking our hands.

I mean, I'm glad that the body wasn't Stephanie's or another one of the women that John abused, but it's also extremely frustrating that he never was able to get punished. And also that Stephanie's family wouldn't get their chance in court to address him directly. Now let's not forget, he was also never officially charged in her disappearance. So it really just feels like

he did get away with something here, something that nobody should ever get away with, potentially murder. Eventually, news would break that John did leave some notes behind before he took his own life, but it should come as no surprise that they were all pretty out there. I mean, if you think that he admitted and apologized to Stephanie's family or pulled a Brian Laundrie in this situation, think again. It was not anything like that. He actually left a couple of notes, and one seemed to be to an ex-girlfriend, not Stephanie. Another note seemed to be left for his parents. In the note to his ex-girlfriend, whose name has been removed for privacy reasons, he wrote,

I love you so much, little lady. I miss you so much. I don't know what I was thinking when I fucked up our relationship. You were the best thing to happen to me. I tried to move on many times. I will never feel for another lady the way I feel for you. Recently, I tried to reach out to you, and you got a restraining order. Why? At the moment, I feel like my entire world ended. I really needed you in a huge way. Look at the mess that I created. LOL. Don't believe everything in the news. I hope that you're doing well. I hope that you have an amazing life. You deserve it. Not a day goes by where I don't think about you. The girl in the news with me was such a piece of shit. She hurt me over and over when I was already at my lowest. She was a horrible person. Please help my parents with my funeral. You're

the only person I have ever many problems with this note. First of all, referring to Stephanie as, quote, the girl in the news, he was seriously so messed up, and imagine her parents seeing this note for the very first time. Clearly, he takes ownership of absolutely nothing. He also sounds delusional, writing to this girl that he apparently loved so much, yet she had a restraining order out against this guy. I mean, get a grip. Give me a break. But there is maybe one part in his rambling that does kind of come close to maybe somewhat of a confession. Because did you

pick up on when he said, quote, look at the mess that I created? Now obviously it's not a straight up confession, but maybe, just maybe, there was an ounce of guilt weighing on his mind. So now with John dead, and with his note not mentioning if he knows where Stephanie is, whether she's dead or alive, her family and the investigators just pressed on, trying to find her. They tried to continue their investigation and search for her. And in January of 2020, cops finally were able to name an official suspect in this case. It's probably not surprising that it was John. Unfortunately, though, he wasn't around any longer to experience any repercussions.

And he had actually been on their radar the entire time. They just didn't get the official evidence that they needed fast enough. They really zeroed in on him in November, and he must have sensed it in those moments, because that's the same month that he took his own life. And it turns out that at that time, they were just waiting on evidence to come back to them. Some decrypted cell phones, probably the ones that I mentioned earlier that Apple wouldn't help unlock. Plus, they also made a mention of the suicide note that he left for his parents. I went over the note that he left for his ex-girlfriend, but apparently in the one that he left for his mom and dad, he said, quote, most of the stuff that you will hear is true, except about the child porn. I would never do that, end quote. So it's definitely not an absolute confession,

but it does sound like it could be. In the same note, he also mentioned that he, quote, had enough and he couldn't do life in prison, end quote, saying this was his only choice. So from that, the investigators drew one more conclusion, that Stephanie likely wasn't alive. So after they named John an official suspect, the officers mentioned that neither notes disclosed where he may have disposed of her remains. But I'm sure

just hearing the word remains was like a massive gut punch to her family, because now it sounded like things were officially shifting from looking for a missing person to looking for somebody who was no longer alive. More answers would come for the Pars family that Sunday in January, on the 26th. That afternoon, two teenagers who happened to be walking along Route 9 in Old Bridge, New Jersey, about 13 miles away from where Stephanie lived, came across what appeared to be a dead body on the side of the road. The boys were only out walking that day because they had to park further away from their job than usual. They both worked at a catering hall nearby, and according to their account, the body was definitely not visible if you were driving. You had to be walking in order

to see it beyond the rail. And at first, the boys thought that what they were seeing couldn't possibly be real. They assumed, like most people do in these situations, that it had to have been a mannequin. According to them, the body looked to be just six feet from the highway guardrail. It was also fully clothed, and it was laying face down. So to them, they're like, no, this has to be a prop. It has to be a mannequin. There's no way that this is real. But they called the police, and the police got to the scene quickly. And by Monday, after an autopsy had been performed, the news had broken. After 87 days of searching, Stephanie had finally been found. Now here's what her dad had to say about it at a press briefing.

Good morning. Of course, this is an extremely somber day for us. It goes without saying that our family is devastated, our friends, our community. And our lives are never going to be the same. However, Stephanie is home. She's coming home at last. Right where she belongs. And we have God to thank for that. This was an effort by thousands of dedicated people.

I've said it many times in many new conferences and with a lot of reporters that come to the house and come to the searches. I've never seen such a devoted group of committed people in my life. I mean, the communities have bonded together from here all the way out to Staten Island and all around the country. It's been something to see. People have made new friends. People

become part of the family. We never knew these people before this happened. It's just a mass of people that you cannot imagine. I could never even count them. The community came together so much, the donations, the food, running events, and so forth. It just was out of control. But we thank you all for that, because without that, we could have never got through this.

I want to thank Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office and Police Department for getting her home to us. Two boys that found her. Mama County Prosecutor's Office and Friel Township Police Department. They went way beyond the call of duty. We're indebted to them. We thank them so much. Of course, we have to thank all of Steph's angels. The phrase we came up with, because there were so many of them.

Only heaven could have brought them down. It's not the outcome that anyone wanted, but at least now, Stephanie would be going home with her family. They were finally able to hold a funeral for her and give her a proper burial and a proper goodbye. This was on January 31st, 2020. Her dad also expressed thanks to the two boys who found her body, and he referred to them as angels. So now that Stephanie has been found and her parents were able to get some sort of closure, where did things stand? Because the case still wasn't over yet. Stephanie's remains were pretty badly decomposed

by the time that she was found. I mean, after all, she had been out there exposed to the fall and winter weather for almost three months. Well, an official cause of death was never listed, but the theory from prosecutors is that she died during, quote, rough sex, which probably involved John choking her. But then, in another twist, after almost nine months after the Parrs family laid Stephanie to rest, news broke that John's parents were now under investigation for their involvement in the crime.

Apparently, investigators believed that text messages existed between John and his parents, possibly about what he might have done to Stephanie. And they think that he actually confessed to his parents pretty early on. So now, it does feel reminiscent of Brian Laundrie a little bit, doesn't it? And Gabby Petito. So the investigators also had reason to believe that a third suicide note from John existed, but they believe that his parents may have never disclosed that note to the police. John's dad still thinks that his son was innocent in all of this, and he told a local news outlet that he believed that John had absolutely nothing to do with Stephanie's disappearance, and he says the reason he killed himself was solely due to the child material charges. His dad has also admitted that he has withheld his own passwords to some of

his devices from the police, but his reasoning is because he doesn't trust the police and he blames them for his son's death. According to him, prosecutors were, quote, lying through their teeth when they were trying to bring the charges against John. So apparently John's dad is just too angry to cooperate, which I have to just say, it's a really strange choice. I mentioned it before, but it's really giving serious Brian Laundrie vibes

because remember all of the speculation around his parents covering his tracks too? I mean, it sounds like the cops absolutely believe that John did it. He practically admitted it in one of those notes that was made public later on. So why would his family want to protect him now? Just to protect his legacy, his reputation? I mean, in my opinion, the least that they could do is own up to what their son did. Be the better person, be the bigger person, the one that John, their own son, could never be. And don't even get me started on the Laundrie family, because I have got a lot of similar opinions to them. But even with all of this noise around the case, and all of the crap that the Parrs family had to go through,

today Stephanie's family is more determined than ever to keep fighting for their daughter, and for other daughters, or even sons, all to make sure that nothing like this ever happens to anyone again. They've actually started a foundation called the Stephanie Nicole Pars Foundation, and it's been put into place to help people who are dealing with domestic violence and sexual abuse, also to provide resources and support to families of missing persons. And there is no one better to talk about this foundation and what their goals are more dad. So take a listen. Th

now is serving all of New in Monmouth County. Uh, w and support families of m help educate both adults and kids from pretty much age seven and up on domestic violence, sexual abuse. We do presentations in the schools as much as we possibly can. We'll do a presentation anywhere, any company, anybody wants to get a group together. We offer free presentations and so forth for our wide awake program at least once a month. We have self-defense classes.

We'll do peer counseling for anyone who needs peer counseling for any domestic violence victims out there. Anything you possibly can need from a domestic violence or sexual abuse standpoint or missing person standpoint, we can get you we don't have it we will find your resource for it um we do not have a hotline as of yet we are pretty new still three years in but it's only you know that's pretty much nothing for a new foundation but we have at least nine programs that we can offer people at this point emergency shelter if needed stuff like that we have a little device called our Angel Alert Program, which is a device that you carry if you're in fear for your life. You can just press the button and dispatches help right to you. It tracks you anywhere in the United States, up to 30 feet.

So you can talk to a live dispatcher at that point. It does a lot of different things. Our Stephanie's Overwatch program, where we will escort people to the courthouses or go to hearings or whatever they have to do if they're in fear, if they have to do a child exchange, custody exchange, we'll go with them just to make sure they have somebody with them at all times. So many programs that we do. Our website has everything on there. snpfoundation.org. So if you want to help or be a part of Stephanie's story,

you can visit snpfoundation.org to learn more about the cause and how to become a volunteer, which I think it's just awesome that they want to educate people on this because it's really the only way that we can avoid situations like this in the future, right? Turn a potential victim into a survivor. And not only that, but they're also working to get a new bill called Stephanie's Law signed into action. And if they're able to do it, it would help establish a publicly accessible domestic violence registry. I imagine that it would probably work similar to how the current sex registry works, where you could go on, you could check out if somebody's name is on there, if they've ever been involved or arrested in a domestic incident, and how incredibly helpful

would that be? I can't believe that something like that doesn't already exist. Not only that, but the bill would also mean that law enforcement would have access to searching the registry right away when they were conducting an arrest. I mean, seriously, think of the lives that something like that could save. I can think of a few of them that we've talked about on this podcast, even outside of Stephanie's case. Which it never ceases to amaze me that after everything these families go through, all of the complete bullshit that John put the family through, all of the mess that he left behind for her family, for her friends,

for everybody to really clean up, this is their response. They've handled this whole nightmare with so much dignity, so much grace, and it's just incredible. Honestly, major respect to them for just, you know, staring evil right in the face and refusing to let it win. Obviously, it's heartbreaking for them, and there will never be a day that passes where they don't think about Stephanie and what happened to her. Also, all of the what-ifs that they'll never have answers to. That pain, that wonder, that not knowing, it just never goes away. But I do think something that we can all learn from this, and what we have to take away from cases like this, Stephanie's case and others alike, is the importance of checking on people. Really taking

the time to understand what it is they're going through and being the person who helps them see their own worth in situations, helps them realize that they deserve so much better. And if we can intervene and do that before somebody takes it all away from them, even better. So for everybody who's out there listening, I genuinely hope that you have somebody that you can reach out to if you ever need it. Thank you guys so much for hearing Stephanie's story today. And as always, take care of yourselves, take care of each other and stay safe. And just please watch your back. Thank you guys for tuning into another episode.

I will be back on the mic with you first thing Thursday morning with headline highlights where we go through everything happening this week in the true crime world. Thanks again, guys. Bye.