Police have arrested a 14-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man after the girl’s mother was found dead, submerged in a New Jersey creek with multiple stab wounds.
Divna Rosasco, 51, of Cresskill, New Jersey, was found dead in Overpeck Creek in Overpeck Park, in Teaneck, New Jersey, early Monday, according to the Hudson Daily Voice.
Nicolas Coirazza, 19, of Lodi, New Jersey, was arrested and charged with murder, desecration of human remains, evidence tampering, hindering an investigation and weapon possession.
Nicolas Coirazza, 19 (pictured), faces murder and other charges after police found the body of Divna Rosasco, 51, submerged in a creek at Overpeck Park in New Jersey Monday
Police have not yet identified the 14-year-old girl who was arrested, because she is a juvenile, but she is reported to be Rosasco’s daughter.
The girl has been charged with disturbing human remains, evidence tampering and two counts of hindering apprehension, according to NorthJersey.com.
Rosasco had been reported missing by the girl’s father just after midnight on Monday.
Her body was found not long afterwards, when a Bergen County sheriff’s officer came across her abandoned car in Overpeck Park at about 2am Monday while carrying out a routine park check, authorities said.
Rosasco’s SUV was parked near a boat ramp and had blood and debris, which originated from inside the car, next to it, the Hudson Daily Voice reported.
Rosasco’s body was found after a sheriff’s officer was conducting a routine park check and found her abandoned SUV (pictured). He then called the K-9 unit which led officers to her body
Rosasco’s SUV was said to have had blood and other debris surrounding it when it was found
Authorities said Rosasco was stabbed and slashed inside her own home and taken to the park
Rosasco was found weighed down with concrete and other substances, wrapped in a bedsheet and bound with duct tape. She was initially reported missing Monday just after midnight
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office’s Chief of investigators, Robert Anzilotti, told NorthJersey.com that the officer saw that someone had tried to conceal who owned the car, realized that something was amiss and called in the K-9 unit.
Police dogs then led authorities from the car to the creek, near a boat basin, where Rosasco’s body was found.
Police said that Rosasco’s body was found weighed down with a five-pound bucket that had been filled with concrete, kitty litter and other items. She was also found wrapped in a bed sheet, with a plastic bag over her head, and bound in duct tape.
It’s unclear what time Rosasco died, but authorities believed that she had not been in the water long.
First responders told the Hudson Daily Voice that Rosasco’s throat had been slashed and that she had multiple additional stab and slash wounds.
Anzilotti said that the stabbings had occurred at her home.
Although the exact relationship between Coirazza and the 14-year-old girl has not yet been revealed, prosecutors alleged that he knew Rosasco’s family and had been visiting her home at the time of the murder.
Police said that Coirazza asked the girl to help him dispose of Rosasco’s body, according to ABC 7.
Coirazza and Rosasco’s daughter were caught by police after they were seen at a nearby hotel parking lot, trying to get an Uber ride to leave the area.
Inmate records indicate that Coirazza is being held in the Bergen County Jail, pending an appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack, New Jersey.