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- UPDATE (Jan. 19): The bodies of a New Jersey couple whose families reported them missing last month have been found in a car in the Wayne garage of the woman’s mother, law enforcement sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. READ MORE ….
Local police thought they might’ve caught a break last week, when a woman in Burlington County said she’d given a man and woman fitting the description of a woman and man resembling Melissa A. Pereira, 25, of Wayne and 24-year-old Jorge E. Rodriguez of Garfield a ride.
The woman said she picked them up on Route 12 and took them to the Hunterdon County Library in Flemington, Garfield Police Capt. Darren Sucorowski told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. But nothing materialized.
The couple left Pereira’s home on Dec. 27, telling people they were “going for a short ride,” then were reported missing by their loved ones three days later.
Police learned that they had New Years’ Eve reservations at the Cherry Valley Manor, a bed-and-breakfast in the Poconos, but never showed up, the captain said.
Pereira didn’t take her wallet and Rodriguez didn’t call out of work, they added.
Rodriguez was driving a two-door, white 1998 Honda Prelude with the license plate E77-AYX and tinted windows, in addition to a New York Giants decal on the back.
Pereira is 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds and Rodriguez 5-foot-10 and 181 pounds, Sucorowski said. Both have black hair and brown eyes.
Information on both was entered into state and national missing persons databases, the captain said.
Perriera worked as a production assistant for FOX News and, before that, as a technology director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America in Paterson.
Anyone who knows their whereabouts is asked to call either Garfield police at (973) 478-8500 or Wayne police at (973) 694-0600.
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