01x05 - Hashtag Halloween Horror

[bunniefuu]

[typing]

[mouse clicks]

[Brianna Parze] Stephanie's
online world showcased
who she was as a person

and as an artist.

Hey, guys, welcome
to my channel.

[Stephen Galayda] She was
a 4'11" firecracker.

Party!

[Brianna] Because of
her personality, she attracted
more followers.

If you'd like to see
how I got this look,
please keep watching.

[Ed Parze] The social
media exploded.

Stephanie had become
an influencer online.

Don't forget to like,
comment, and subscribe.

[Ed] But with the Internet,
you don't know who's on it.

There's so any predators
out there.

[Stephen] And then,
I noticed her social media
coverage dropped.

And nobody's heard from her.

Stephanie Parze had
become a ghost.

[woman speaking]

[Ed] Days became weeks,
weeks became months.

Was she stuck, trapped,
being held?

We checked every dumpster,
any alleyways,

waterways.

[David Mound] We thought
it was as bad as it could get.

And then, it just took us
down a level we didn't
know was there.

[police siren wailing]

[somber music playing]

[Karissa Parze] The day before
Halloween 2019,

my mom arranged us to have,
like, a girls' night out

and go see a medium,

'cause we were all
interested in that

and we'd always talk about it.

My sister Steph was
always posting on Facebook.

[Brianna] That night was
like any other evening.

We were having so much fun.

Talking, laughing,

and we even had
an interaction with
the medium.

She told me that I would have
a very successful future

and then, she kinda, like,
switched it up and was like,

"But you're gonna experience
a very hard heartbreak."

And I was very confused
in the moment,

'cause I just had no idea
what to expect from that.

Was trying to
figure out, like,

what would that be?
Would that be a breakup?

What else could it be?

[ominous music playing]

[tearfully] At the time,
I didn't understand it,

but, uh...

The night after, I did.

They have me
in the middle,
my wife Sharlene,

my oldest daughter Stephanie,

my second oldest
daughter Brianna,

my third daughter Karissa,

and my baby Hailey.

I'm very outnumbered
in this picture. [chuckles]

That's the happy family
right there.

[Brianna] We grew up
going on many vacations.

-[Ed] Water rafting fight!
-[kids chattering]

-[Sharlene] Whoo!
-[Brianna] So we had
a lot of family time.

Hold on. All right,
we're live. That's good.

Doing our family games.

[all yelling indistinctly]

We would all be
so competitive
against one another,

but we would have
so much fun with it.

Put the hat on!
Exactly what I did!

[all laughing]

Stephanie was
a little firecracker.

Party!

For somebody so small,
she was always so loud.

Whoo!

[Stephen] Anywhere she went,
she was the life of the party.

Ohh!

That's probably
why we clicked.

Steph always had her heart
right on her sleeve.

Definitely tells you
what she thinks.

[camera shutter clicks]

[Ed] Very strong,
very independent girl.

And she loved animals,
loved children.

She was lovin' life.

[upbeat music playing]

Stephanie's art love
and her creativeness
came when she was young.

She picked up on drawing
right away.

But then, as she got older,

she went to cosmetology school

to get her license.

At that point,
she wanted to eventually
have her own business.

Hey, guys, welcome
to my channel.

[Ed] She started doing
her own thing on YouTube

and Instagram.

To see if she could
get noticed.

[Brianna] She was doing
special effects.

And makeup.

[Stephen] She was
very determined

to kinda get herself
out there.

I mean, I remember her
getting mad at me.

She said, "What the heck's
wrong with you? You don't
follow my makeup page!"

[Karissa] Steph definitely
wanted to become
an influencer.

[Stephanie] For today's look,
we're gonna be focusing on
a cracked galaxy look.

[Brianna] Because of
her personality, she
attracted more followers.

And she grew.

Started noticing
people were recognizing her

because they've
seen her online.

I had so much fun
creating this look.

It's so different for me.

[Brianna] She was so happy
that she was being noticed.

Stephanie was on the road
to kinda be more of
an influencer online.

Don't forget to like,
comment, and subscribe.

Steph's dream was eventually
to make her living out of it.

I'll see you guys next time.

[Brianna] Her online world
was definitely blossoming.

But her offline world
wasn't in the place that
she wanted to be in.

[dreamy music playing]

[Ed] One of
Stephanie's priorities was
definitely to settle down

and start a family.

She used to tell me
all the time, "Dad,
I'm getting old."

I said, you know,
"Don't rush life.

You know, when you rush life,
sometimes bad things happen.

So just be patient."

But Stephanie is sometimes
a little strongheaded.

And she wanted to
get out there and jump the g*n
as fast as she could.

So she turned to the Internet.

[upbeat music playing]

[Brianna]
It was on her profile,

she was looking for someone

who is just as outgoing
and creative as she was.

[Karissa] She wasn't
too picky.

But she knew she wanted
someone to have fun with,

she wanted someone
that would take care of her

and she would
take care of them.

She just would, like,
light up when she got,
like, a sweet message.

She would run over to me like,

"Oh, my God, look what
this guy said to me."

[Brianna] She would
show me her phone

and say, "Hey, what do
you think of this guy?

You think he's cute?"

Gave her my honest answer,
like, "No. Yes.
Maybe." [laughs]

She really was determined
to try to find the right guy.

And I told that,
"You definitely
have to be cautious.

So look into them.
Do your detective work."

[Ed] I didn't really like her
being on this dating site

because I have fears
about the Internet.

[ominous music playing]

You don't know who's on it.

And there's so many
predators out there.

I was always worried that,
dating online,

you can have anybody on
the other side of the phone
messaging you,

so you have to
definitely be cautious.

[Ed] There's so many
threats on the Internet.

People that are
not of good intention,

you know, I kept telling her,

"Just be careful.
Just slow down."

I got a little nervous
about that

'cause I knew if she showed
that weakness out there,

then she might open herself
up to a predator
that is online.

Stephanie, as far as
her relationships went,

I was always kinda that guy
that she would kinda ask,

and be like, "Hey,
so you met him finally.
What do you think?"

[Brianna] There was
a moment in the past

where Stephanie was seeing
a guy named Alex.

That was, like, her world.

We had the "next rule",

so whenever you had
a bad feeling about
somebody's significant other,

you would tell them, "Next.
Move on. That's it." [laughs]

And it wasn't
the case for him.

[ominous music playing]

[Stephen] But there was one
time I started realizing that

Stephanie was in
a toxic relationship.

[sinister music playing]

Stephanie was seeing
a guy named Alex

and he had hit her.

As soon as that happened,
she broke it off right away.

I was just hoping that
we wouldn't see him again.

I knew that Steph
was moving on

and actually going
back out and dating

because she had pulled out
her phone and asked me
what I think about this guy,

asking if I thought
he was cute. [laughs]

And then, she was like,
"Okay. Maybe, maybe not."

And then she would
swipe. [laughs]

And then, Stephanie was
telling me that she finally
found Mr. Right

and she couldn't believe it.

Stephanie had met John
on a Facebook dating website.

[Ed] He was 29 years old,
stockbroker in Staten Island.

He was making good money

and according to Stephanie,
he was treating her good,

he was a nice guy.

John told me to go
get him another beer.

[giggling]

She said that her relationship
with him was like a fairytale

and she's never been
so in love

and had such
a perfect guy before.

She was
head over heels. [chuckles]

So it wasn't just
her online world blossoming.

Don't forget to give it
a big thumbs up.

[Brianna] Now her offline
world was blossoming.

She had a line asking her,
"Can you please do my makeup?

I have a party to go to."

[Karissa] She knew
this was gonna be,
like, her first step

makin' a living out of it,
doing what she loved.

And then, she started
to get a few job offers.

Remember when Stephanie
got the opportunity to do
the New York Fashion Week.

She came home.
She was nearly crying,
that's how excited she was.

She ran in the house
like, "Oh, my God!
I got it!" [laughs]

[Ed] Was starting to get
her career going.

Now she thought that
she had found the right guy.

Was really starting to
come together for her.

[Brianna] There was nothing
that was gonna get in her way.

-[siren wailing]
-[ominous music playing]

A few weeks later,
I got a call from my mom.

She told me that she was
on her way to the hospital
with Steph.

This is a post that
Stephanie had written
on Instagram.

"Woke up, my chest so tight,
could barely breathe.

Felt like I was
being strangled.

My body's drained,

every ounce of energy
I had was gone.

I went into the hospital
for them to tell me I had
gotten severe pneumonia

in both lungs."

[device beeping]

[Ed] She was there
for four days.

During that time,

John would go
into the hospital room

and he would pretty much
take care of whatever
she needed.

[Brianna] John stayed at
the hospital every day
taking care of Steph.

He was loving her,
he was being
the perfect guy.

That's something
she's always wanted.

But after she got out
of the hospital...

Stephanie didn't seem herself.

[Stephen] Something
was different about Stephanie.

That's when I noticed
her social media coverage
dropped.

She wasn't posting
as much anywhere.

It was weird. It was almost
like Stephanie Parze had
become a ghost.

[eerie music playing]

One day, Stephanie called
my mom in a panic

saying that the house was
haunted or possessed.

[Ed] Yeah, when she went
to the bathroom, she saw
a handprint on the mirror.

Looked like somebody put
their hand on it and dragged
their fingers down it

like something you see
in a horror movie.

A few days after
the mirror incident,

Steph found her parakeet dead
on the bottom of the cage,

cold as stone.

[eerie music playing]

[Brianna] With the handprint,
the parakeet,

it was very, very strange.

When she asked me
about the baby monitors,

I thought
something was going on
more than she was telling me.

Was like, "I hope this makes
you feel more comfortable,

sure, take the baby monitors."

But unfortunately,
she never got them.

[somber music playing]

[Ed] On the night
before Halloween,

my daughters and my wife
had decided to go out
to a show

and to see a psychic.

They saw the show,

and then they all came back
together to the house.

Me and her mother,
we says when she
leaves the house,

"You get home, just text me
or give me a call, let me know
you got in okay."

Stephanie kissed her mother
a couple of times goodnight

and got in her car
and went home.

It takes about six minutes
to drive from our house to
where Stephanie was living.

And, uh, we waited,
see if she would text us
or call us.

And she never did.

So we looked at each other,
and we said, you know,

"Maybe she still has
her phone on silent

because she was at the show
and she forgot to turn it
back on.

And she probably got tired
and fell asleep, 'cause it was
getting late."

But we left it at that
and we went to bed.

[door creaks]

Next morning, we still
hadn't heard from Stephanie.

Just wasn't like her.

She was supposed to be
going in to work as a nanny
in the morning.

[line ringing]

[Ed] So we started
calling her again

knowing that she had to
get up for work.

There was no answer.

So my wife took Karissa
over to the house,

see if she's there.

[Karissa] When we
initially pulled up,

we were confused but relieved
that her car was there.

And we were like, "Okay,
so she has to be sleeping."

[sinister music playing]

[Ed] The first thing they said
was the door wasn't locked.

All the lights were on
in the house.

Her coat and shoes are
still here next to the couch.

But she's nowhere to be found.

We knew Stephanie wouldn't
leave without her car,

and she had to be at work.

So things weren't adding up.

[Karissa] To have her have
a knife literally not even
a foot away from her head,

there was something
that she was worried about
or scared of.

My mom's next thought
was to ping her phone.

So my mom started
to ping the phone.

[phone chiming]

And we heard it.

[chiming continues]

Phone actually rang.
My wife said her heart
just dropped.

This is big, and this is,
like, weird for Steph.

"You always have
your phone on you.
Why isn't it with you?"

[chiming continues]

I then found the phone
in the couch.

We tried to unlock the phone,
and we couldn't get into it.

But we did see
a message from work

and asking her, like,
why isn't she here?

Like, she was a nanny.

She was always, like,
very good with that job.

Like, she would be there
on time.

So it was very, like,
shocking to us.

And a million questions
were running through
our head.

"Why wouldn't she be
at work? Why wouldn't she
have her phone?

Why is her car here?"

[Ed] When she tells me
that she found the phone,

right then and there,
I had a feeling that

something tragic had happened.

[tense music playing]

[Brianna] My mom and Karissa
got back to the house after
discovering her phone.

I was trying to
keep everyone calm,

I was like, "No, she's fine.

She's just with her friend.

We just didn't get
ahold of the right friend."

[Ed] We started
reaching out to friends,

and see if they've seen her.

I opened the Snapchat,
I looked at it.

You could almost feel
the panic behind the message.

Already, I'm thinking,
"What happened?"

[Ed] We just kept
coming up with blanks.

Nobody had seen
or heard from her.

Was like she had fallen
off the face of the Earth.

[Brianna] So I hacked
into Steph's Facebook

and started checking to see
her last conversations

and seeing if there was
a clue of where she was.

The night before,
she had spoken
to some people.

And the last message...

Was from John.

[somber music playing]

And then, the messages
got worse.

He was very angry
and very upset.

So I logged into my Facebook
and messaged
John straightaway.

Almost an hour later,
he responded...

As soon as he said
that he had seen her,

I was worried due to
their relationship

and their past.

[sinister music playing]

[cell phone ringing]

[Ed] Wife and I are
sitting in our living room.

She answered the phone,

and I can hear in
the background, there's some
kind of commotion going on.

I hear my wife say,
uh, "Who hit you?"

I jumped up...

Got in my car,
I'm heading towards
Stephanie's house.

She lives only six miles away.

[tense music playing]

-Come around the corner and...
-[woman sobbing]

...I notice out of
the corner of my eye

Stephanie running
through the woods.

So I slam on the brakes

and I jump out of my car.

I yell for her. She hears me.

And she immediately turns
and starts running towards me.

She's still in
her nightclothes.

She has no shoes or socks on.

She's bleeding from
the side of her head
and her hand.

She gets to me
and she grabs hold of me.

And I said, "Who hit you?"
And she said, "John."

I pull her away from me.

And then, when
I pulled her away
and I looked at her,

I didn't see her.

All I saw was black.

And, uh... [sobs]

That scared me,
because I was, uh...

I guess I was in such a rage

that I wasn't in control.

And I couldn't...
I couldn't see her face.

I said, "Where is he?"

And... You know, she said,
"He's still in the house."

So I floored the car.

I was prepared to take
matters into my own hands
at that point.

[ominous music playing]

[Ed] I'm heading towards
Stephanie's house.

I was very, very mad.

When I got to the driveway,
by some miracle,

a police car had cut me off,

uh, going into her driveway.

[sirens blaring]

It turned out my wife
had called 9-1-1,

uh, before I left the house.

They told us to stay
by the car and they got him
and arrested him.

And then, I went
to the police station
at that point.

[indistinct radio chatter]

On the way to
the police station,

she said to me, "I'm not
gonna file charges on him."

Um, which kinda
caught me off-guard.

[melancholy music playing]

So we had a major discussion
on John.

I was as serious
as a heart attack.

"He's done.

No more.

You're gonna break up
with him immediately.

He's not welcome in the house.

He's never gonna be
welcome in the family."

And I said, "You're gonna
promise me you're gonna
take care of it before I do."

She did.

She held up her end
of the bargain.

She broke up with him.

Then she said to us,
"It's definitely over
and I'm moving on."

This is a post from
Stephanie's Facebook wall

on October 5th.

[reading]

"Starting over is okay.
Moving on is okay."

[reading]

"What is not okay is..."

[reading]

[dispatch speaking]

[operator speaking]

[Ed] After Brianna
had spoken to John

and all the stuff
that had happened,

your mind just
starts spinning.

The unknown
will drive you mad.

Where she might be lying,
or where she might
be stuck trapped,

being held.

And all that stuff
just starts going through
your head.

You know, with the fear
that, if she is alive,

what the fear is
she's going through.

Um, is she cold?
Is she under rain? [sobs]

[voice breaking] Yeah.

Plays on your mind bad.

[David] When Ed told me that
Stephanie was missing,

you could hear in their voices
the dread.

You know, this was,
"Something's wrong."

At that point, we were all
a little afraid to speculate.

I mean, it could have been
something random, right?

It could have been
some random person
who broke into her house

or some random person
who was waiting for her
in the bushes.

But we had a strong suspicion
it was John-related.

[dramatic music playing]

The question at that point
was, is she tied up somewhere
and still alive?

Or was she buried
or dumped somewhere, dead?

[tearfully] And if it was
this guy John,

who's six-foot-whatever...

[sniffles]

And a roided-out
muscle builder...

It doesn't matter...

How many times
you play-fought
with your daughter.

She doesn't stand a chance.

[Ed] At that point,
the police served
some warrants

where they had
searched his house
and got his cellphone.

But they didn't find
Stephanie at all.

[tense music playing]

[Brianna] I decided to go
on her Facebook page

and put a post out for
all her Facebook followers.

"Hi, everyone,
this is Brianna,
Steph's sister."

[reading]

"If so, please contact me."

The social media exploded.

We had the posts saying,
"Oh, maybe she ran away."

You had posts saying,
you know,

"She's probably with a friend
you can't get ahold of."

Then you had people contacting
about where you could look.

I read every single post,
just in case one was right.

[Ed] Then the media
picked up on it.

[reporter 1] In the midst of
an intense search to help

finding a missing
YouTube makeup star,

family, friends,
and her followers

are taking to social media

to help in the search
to track her down.

[Ed] And once
the media picked up
on it, it went national.

After that, it just
went everywhere.

[reporter 2] Fears are growing
for an American
makeup artist...

[reporter 3 speaking French]

Stephanie, know, you know,
we're looking for you.

We'll do everything we can
to find you.

I was about six months
into my first job after
graduating college

working in news

when I was assigned this story

on the disappearance
of Stephanie Parze.

Twenty-five-year-old
Stephanie Parze

disappeared from
her Freehold Township home,

which you can see
right behind me

where her car was found
parked in the driveway.

But for me, it wasn't
just a story

because it was the community
that I lived in,

the community
that I grew up in.

And so, it kind of just
became a part of my life.

[mysterious music playing]

At that time,

it was about five days
after she was initially
reported missing.

It wasn't just
an offline search
on the ground.

But it also was
an online search

for more information.

[Ed] Finding her
became an immense task.

We decided that it's time
to get involved with
people searching.

We sat down
and we started
breaking out maps

and it was like a w*r room.

I wrote this post on Facebook

saying that we were
gonna do a search.

[reporter 4] The father of
missing New Jersey woman
Stephanie Parze

is taking the search
for his daughter
into his own hands.

[reporter 5] Thousands of
acres of woodland with
nearly 200 volunteers

searching for any trace
of Stephanie.

They came out in the hundreds.

They must have put
thousands of flyers up
all over the place.

And not just here. From
here through Philadelphia,

all the way into New York,
all the way down south,
they were everywhere.

Uh, if you do know something,
if you know anything,

feel it in your heart
and just let us know.
Let somebody know.

Every day,
checked every dumpster,

any alleyways, waterways.

We had come to
a location one day
and I'll never forget it.

We saw a bunch of
black garbage bags
all tied together.

[dramatic music playing]

I really got
a cold feeling
at that point.

And when I put my knife in
and cut the bag open...

Nothing but blood came out.

Um...

Kinda jumped back.

Scared me to death.

Um, my friend reached
his hand in the bag and...

-Pulled out a deer.
-[flies buzzing]

Somebody had discarded
a deer over the guardrail.

And we did things
like that every day.

[tearfully] You get that
brief sigh for a second

that you didn't find her.

But then again,
it's back out there.

It's like, where
do you go next?

Where could she possibly be?
Did you miss anything?

Did everybody turn
every rock over? [sobs]

They look at every shed?
Did they look, you know,
in every abandoned building?

It just, it doesn't ever stop.

[David tearfully]
How do you decide
what to do next?

You can't!

But there's no manual
that says what to do.

You wanna drive.
You wanna drive somewhere,
do something.

But you don't know where to go
and you don't know what to do.

[in normal voice] We thought
it was as bad as it could get,

and then, it just took us
down a level we didn't know
was there.

[ominous music playing]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[reporter 6] Breaking news.
The ex-boyfriend
of Stephanie Parze...

-[camera shutter clicks]
-...has been arrested.

[Ed] I'm thinking he got
arrested because of

the investigation
for Stephanie.

But I was way off.

[Heather] We quickly learned
that it had nothing to do
with Stephanie.

[reporter 6] Authorities
have now confirmed

that during their
investigation into
29-year-old John Ozbilgen,

they discovered
disturbing images

of child p*rn*graphy
on his phone.

The police stressed that
he has been charged for that,

and not in relation to
the disappearance of
Stephanie Parze.

[Heather] They did not
have any evidence

connecting him to
the disappearance
of Stephanie.

But I thought,
"He's arrested.
They're gonna hold him.

They're gonna be able
to get more information
out of him."

But that ultimately
didn't happen.

[reporter 6] After 11 days
in police custody,

John Ozbilgen
has been released.

The judge says that
the single charge he faces

is not enough to keep him
detained until trial.

[Heather] In that time,
we were thinking,

if the police don't have
enough evidence to connect him
to Stephanie's disappearance,

then did something else
happen to her?

Was there
somebody else involved?

[siren wailing]

[Ed] I got a phone call
from our detectives.

And they said, "We got
some news for you."

I said to 'em, I said,
"What did you find?
Did you find a body?"

They said, "Yeah."

But then, in the same breath,
they said...

"It's not Stephanie."

[reporter 1] The Monmouth
prosecutor put out this
message on social media.

[reading]

[Heather] We found out that
John had hung himself
in his parents' garage.

[Ed] When they told us
that he hung himself,

I immediately went into
a nervous breakdown.

Because in my heart...

Uh, in my mind,
he's the only one...
[voice breaks] Which is...

[in normal voice]
So I said, "Did he
leave any notes?"

Among other items
recovered from his home

after his suicide

was a note that John Ozbilgen
left for his parents.

In the note,
Ozbilgen stated that
he had had enough,

and that he could not
do life in prison.

He also admitted what
his parents would hear
in the news was true,

except child p*rn*graphy.

We saw that as an admittance
that he was responsible

for whatever happened
to Stephanie.

[tearfully] I was still
not giving up.

And, uh, I wasn't never
gonna give up. [sniffles]

And we were gonna
keep searching,

keep doing whatever
we had to do.

[eerie music playing]

We got the alert.

We jumped in the car
and headed over there

and immediately saw
a huge, huge police presence.

I hesitated because I got
a very, very bad gut feeling.

[reporter 2] There is a lot of
police activity down here.

A body has been found,
but an identification
has not been made.

[tearfully] We knew
it was her.

They didn't even
have to confirm it.

I already knew it was her.

[reporter 3]
In New Jersey tonight,

investigators have confirmed
they have found the body
of Stephanie Parze.

The remains of 25-year-old
daughter Stephanie found along
route nine in Old Bridge.

She'd been outside
for three months.

Fifteen feet from the highway

that we had driven up
and back and forth

looking for her body
countless times.

Thousands of people
drive by it every single day.

But because of the slope...

And there being a tree
right there that stopped

her body from
rolling further...

She was, like, 15 feet
off the highway.

Of course,
this is an extremely
somber day for us.

Um, goes without saying
that our family is devastated.

Our friends, our community...

And our lives
are never gonna be the same.

They found the body very close
to The Grand Marquis
reception hall.

My wife and I were
married there 32 years ago.

Stephanie had her prom there.

We had some closure
by finding her.

Of course, we'll never know
the full story of what
happened to her.

When you look back
at everything in
their relationship,

I think that she was
veering away from him.

[sinister music playing]

But then, he was scaring her
with the handprint,

the parakeet,
back into his arms.

[Ed] When she finally
broke up with him,

she had no idea that
she was in danger
of her life.

What we suspect
and what we think happened...

She was at
the psychic's show
the night before Halloween.

He was blowing her phone up
trying to reach her.

And one of his triggers
was to be ignored.

Since he didn't get in touch
with her, he became enraged.

And he wound up going
to her house shortly after
she got home.

Located Stephanie,
we believe, in the bedroom.

He strangled her

and proceeded to carry
her body through the house,

and put her in the trunk.

And then he, uh,
pulled out to the side
of the guardrail

and heaved her
over the guardrail

like she was
a piece of garbage.

[tearfully] That was where
she was dropped, and that
was where she stayed

for 87 days.

[Karissa reading]

[tearfully] "It rushed through
my body like nothing before.

There was no holding back.

I found myself sitting
in the car screaming,

crying at the world and God.

I screamed, 'Why? Why her?
Why Steph?

She doesn't deserve this.'"

[David] Your daughter
gets k*lled...

[tearfully] And you know
you had a chance to stop it.

Even if it meant...

[sniffles] You went to jail.

And how do you live with that?

[sobs] But you have a wife
and three other daughters,
so you have to.

[sniffles]

And then...

I have to tell 'em it's okay.

And it's not.

It's just not.

If you look back at
this whole thing
and, you know,

and think about
what could we have done

or is there anything
we could have done different,

I, myself personally,

I have to go back
to the conversation I had
with Stephanie in her house.

I would go back, definitely,
and I would have took matters
into my own hands

at that point. And, uh...

One way or the other,
you know, we would have...

Got John out of the picture

as far as leaving
Stephanie alone.

That's one of
my biggest regrets.

And, uh, obviously,
I have to live with that.

[reporter 3] A Freehold family
is turning the tragic loss
of their daughter

into a foundation
to help others.

The more we started learning
about how many people

are actually going missing

and how bad domestic violence
actually was,

'cause we decided that,

we have to try to do something
to not let this happen
to somebody else.

And, in the same moment,

we don't want anyone
to forget Stephanie.

Keep her name out there
by doing good to others.

So we all decide
to start the foundation.

[reporter 3]
The foundation will
undergo extensive training

to learn how to respond
to calls regarding
domestic violence,

sexual as*ault,
and missing children.

When I give advice to people,
to families out there,

to parents, um,
I always say, you know,

"Don't hesitate.
If you hesitate,

it could be the difference
between life and death."

♪♪

They kind of all took care
of each other.

Hello, Denver.

He kind of recognized how
important social media could be.

Energy clear.

Some people really liked
what we said,

but there was also a lot of
people who really did not.

People can connect online

in the exact same way
that evil can propogate.

♪♪