Vinessa Hoera

mom said it was just on the news....her body was found in Westhampton


I am so sad, I have been keeping the faith, and praying for her to turn up....now her little boy is officially without his mommy, her parents without a daughter, and her boyfriend, without a soulmate....

I just saw this and it is very sad

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Posted by allure

I just saw this and it is very sad

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Me too

How sad

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-libody223768235apr22,0,1682165.story?coll=ny-top-span-headlines


BY SAMUEL BRUCHEY AND JOSEPH MALLIA
STAFF WRITERS, Staff writers Zachary R. Dowdy and Mitchell Freedman contributed to this story.

April 22, 2004


Seven weeks after her burning car was found abandoned on a Southampton road, the search for Vinessa Hoera came to an end last night after police discovered the body of the 23-year-old Mastic Beach mother dumped in a wooded area of Westhampton.

'By all appearances, it's Vinessa,' Homicide Commander Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said.

The body was found about 4:10 p.m., covered in low-lying brush about a quarter-mile into a wooded area just west of Francis Gabreski Airport.

Late yesterday, detectives were still waiting for officials from the county medical examiner's office to inspect the body and had no information on how she died.

Hoera's father, Mark, said last night that he was relieved but saddened his daughter's body had been found. 'We knew there must have been foul play right from the start; we knew it would come to this,' he said.

Last night, a friend of the Hoera family said that Hoera's co-worker, who has been charged with setting fire to her car, admitted from jail he knew that her body was in woods.

John Lombardi said he and Mark Hoera had visited Fausto Chavez, 26, at the Suffolk County jail in Riverhead. Hoera pleaded with Chavez to tell him where he could find his daughter.

Lombardi said he accompanied the father to see the suspect both times, on April 14 and on Tuesday.

During the Tuesday visit, Hoera went into a private room for a 15-minute talk with the imprisoned man, Lombardi said.

As they left the jail, Hoera turned to Lombardi and said, ''He told me. He told me where she was,'' Lombardi recalled last night. 'This guy gave us directions. He said it was a soccer field near the airport.'

Lombardi said they decided to tell the authorities right away. 'We went directly to my house and called the lead detective and told him,' Lombardi said.

Fitzpatrick would not say what investigative leads led police to the wooded area. Police had searched through the wooded area and adjacent fields about 10 times since last month, each time widening their probe until they came upon the body.

The body, Fitzpatrick said, was clothed in the same blue jeans, light-colored jacket and sneakers Hoera was wearing when she was last seen leaving the seafood store where she worked in Westhampton Beach at about 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 27.

Vinessa Hoera left Cor-J Seafood, where her family had worked for years, to pick up her son Xavier, 5, from day care in Riverhead, but never arrived.

The next morning, her car, a Toyota Camry, was found abandoned and on fire at the corner of Riverhead Road and Squiretown Road in Southampton.

Two hours later, Chavez was found inside a burning car, parked on the side of a road in Ronkonkoma. Badly burned, he was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital.

On April 5, Chavez was charged with arson in connection with the fire set to Hoera's Camry. After his arrest, he retained a lawyer and refused to speak with investigators, police said.

Neither car provided evidence Chavez was involved in Hoera's disappearance. By then, however, the family has said, they were convinced he must have known something.

Chavez had an unrequited romantic interest in Hoera, her sister DeAnna Hoera said. He bought her earrings last Christmas and lavished her with attention inside the store.

But Hoera, who had a longtime relationship with her son's father, was at times annoyed by Chavez's interests. Once, she hit him in the face after he touched her buttocks, DeAnna Hoera has said.

Last night, Mark Hoera said he wanted to think about his daughter's life, not her death. 'I've been so proud of my daughter and the things she's done and people she's touched,' her father said. 'I just love her so much and I knew she loved me. That's what helped me get through the time she was missing and that's what will help me now.'

Staff writers Zachary R. Dowdy and Mitchell Freedman contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc. | Article licensing and reprint options

OMG this is really sad.. She was young!