Police Confirm Body Found Is Missing L.I. Mom
NEW YORK (1010 WINS/ CBS 2 / WCBS 880) -- After specially trained police dogs searched through the woods for 31-year-old Nicole Tessa, police confirmed late Tuesday they have found the body of the Long Island mother.
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WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reports
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1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reports
Tessa, 31, of Patchogue, had been missing since Friday night, and her friends and family said they feared the worst.
Suffolk County police said her body was found near her home on Prince Street. At the home of Tessa's twin sister Tuesday night, the family kept their thoughts to themselves.
"I don't even know what to say with something like that. I'm sitting here shaking now...I'm shocked," neighbor Doreen Cesarino told CBS 2's Sean Hennessey.
Police questioned Tessa's husband Joseph Jones, who said he didn't have a clue about his wife's disappearance, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported. Despite the questioning, police have not labeled Jones as a suspect.
"We don't comment on whether we do or we don't have suspects," Suffolk County Homicide Squad Lieutenant Gerard Pelkofsky said.
When asked by CBS 2's Jennifer McLogan what he believed happened to his wife, Jones responded "I don't know."
On Tuesday afternoon, he made the following plea for her return: "I just want you to come home...call... let us know that you're all right, let your family know you're all right. Please honey. I love you and miss you. Come home."
Among the cadaver dogs brought in for the search was 'Blue' -- part of the team that found the bodies of four women along Ocean Parkway last week.
Jones said the couple argued Friday night and that he left the house for about 2 1/2 hours and returned around 2 a.m. to find that his wife wasn't home.
Jones said Tessa has left when they've argued before, but this time she left without her cell phone and without her anti-seizure medication.
The couple's landlord said she heard the couple shouting.
"I hope they find her. She's always been very kind to me. She's a nice girl," the landlord told McLogan.
Friends say Tessa, a medical student at Briarcliffe College, was not the type of person to willingly leave home without her 3-year-old son
