Police this afternoon said that the two bodies discovered late yesterday in a car in Flatbush, Brooklyn, are those of a Guyanese couple who went missing 17 days ago in New Jersey.
Evande “Cassy” Orna, 39, and her boyfriend Troy Edwards, 40, disappeared after leaving on a trip to Richmond, VA, over two weeks ago.
This afternoon, the Associated Press quoted a police official as confirming that the bodies were those of Orna and Edwards.
Richmond police Detective Jamie Baynes said today that Orna and Edwards were found dead in the trunk of a rental car in Brooklyn yesterday. He told the Associated Press that the cause of death is still unknown.
The Nissan Altima found on E. 52nd and Snyder in Flatbush had the same licence plate as the one the two were last seen travelling in.
Orna’s mother, Veronica Ramessar, had told the New Jersey Star-Ledger that she suspected foul play in the case.
She also gave a sample of her DNA to police in case a body was found. “I think my daughter’s dead, because my daughter calls me every day,” she said.
Ramessar had told reporters that she was suspicious of the man her daughter was dating, and when Orna told her she would give her life for the man, “I hit her in her face,” Ramessar told the Star-Ledger. “I don’t like Troy.”
“I think she died for him for real,” Ramessar said.
Police had suspected foul play after searching an apartment used by Troy Edwards
Among the forensic evidence taken from the scene on March 1, the station reported, were red-stained sheets, a stun gun, duct tape and packaging materials, scales, baggies, as well as fingerprints and carpet samples.
Orna’s mother said Orna, 39, and Edwards, 40, have dated on and off for nearly two decades. Recently, Orna told her mother that “my heart and soul are with Troy.”
Ramessar, who resides in East Orange, told The Star-Ledger that during her last conversation with her daughter, on Feb. 20, “she said, a million times, I love you.”
“To be honest, she didn’t tell me she was going. I didn’t know she was going to Virginia. I don’t know why my daughter went down there.”
New York City police Detective Brian Sessa told the Richmond Times-Dispatch last night that the bodies were found in a silver Nissan Altima in the 400 block of East 52nd Street in Brooklyn. New York police said this morning that the bodies still have not been positively identified and that the cause of death had not been determined.
Orna’s father, Aubrey Mann, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch late last night that his sister, who lives in Chicago, had called him earlier that evening and told him she had heard that the body of Edwards and a woman were found in Brooklyn. Mann and Orna’s mother both said they had not spoken to police about the discovery.
“I was holding out hope,” Mann said.
Richmond, Virginia authorities had said they believed Orna and Edwards might be victims of foul play. Authorities said they traveled from Plainfield and arrived at the Town & Country Apartments in South Richmond.
