Evie Ramos last spoke to her best friend, Melissa Ortiz-Rodriguez, more than a decade ago. On an April day in 2013, the two women spoke on the phone and made plans to catch up at Ramos’ house in Newark, N.J., the following day. Ortiz-Rodriguez never showed up.
It’s been more than 10 years since the then-31-year-old Collingdale mom was reported missing. Since then, investigators have all but exhausted any leads to her whereabouts, interviewing neighbors and family members while conducting a series of searches of her Delaware County home — to no avail.
Despite their hope for police to close the case, Ortiz-Rodriguez’s loved ones are left only with memories.
Ramos, who met Ortiz-Rodriguez when they worked as pharmacy technicians at a CVS in Newark, described her missing friend as full of laughter and love for her children. Not knowing what happened to her has been an enduring source of pain, a wound that, she says, has only partially healed.
“I’ve learned to cope with it,” Ramos said in a recent interview. “I’m not happy about it, but deep inside me I know she’s living in my mind, definitely in my heart.”
Looking for answers
Ramos believes she’s one of the last people who spoke to Ortiz-Rodriguez before she was last seen by her husband, Jose Rodriguez, on Friday, April 19, 2013, before she left for Newark from their home on Lafayette Avenue.
Rodriguez waited four days to report her missing. The couple had separated, but the two were still living together, family members said, and Ortiz-Rodriguez was considering a divorce after discovering that Rodriguez had an infant son with another woman.
That February, Ortiz-Rodriguez had sought a protection-from-abuse order, alleging that Rodriguez locked her and her children out of the family home and damaged items inside. She withdrew the complaint two weeks later.
Police questioned Rodriguez about his wife’s whereabouts, but after providing an initial statement, he refused to participate in further questioning and hired a lawyer.
His lawyer, Michael Diamondstein, told reporters in 2013 that Rodriguez had done everything he could to assist the investigation. When reached for comment this week, Diamondstein said he had no comment.
Investigators noted inconsistencies in Rodriguez’s account.
For example, police said, Rodriguez told them he left the house early for work as an Amtrak engineer on the day his wife disappeared, but cellphone data obtained through a search warrant placed him at their Collingdale home at noon. Those records showed no calls between Rodriguez and Ortiz-Rodriguez, although police said he told investigators the two had spoken over the phone.
And puzzlingly for police, neighbors reported that Rodriguez told them his wife had been found even though she was still missing. Investigators were also surprised to learn from one of Rodriguez’s coworkers that he’d checked out a mop and cleaning supplies from their office that weekend.
Shortly after reporting his wife’s disappearance, Rodriguez put the family home up for sale and moved with the children to Ocean Township, N.J. He’s not spoken to investigators since.
Rodriguez is in federal prison on a fraud charge and could not be reached. His lawyer in that case did not return a request for comment.
Ortiz-Rodriguez’s aunt, Yolanda Ortiz, said her niece’s disappearance was “heartbreaking” for the entire family, including her mother, Olga, who died two years ago without learning what happened to her daughter.
Ortiz said her niece was a devoted mother and a warmhearted woman who had a natural charm and loved to sing. As she grappled with the prospect of divorce, Ortiz-Rodriguez was about to start a new job on the Monday after she went missing, her aunt said.
Ortiz said her family hasn’t been in touch with Rodriguez in recent years, and she said he’s kept the couple’s children away from them. Years later, she said, the family is still struggling for answers.
“What happened?” Ortiz asked.
“Only he knows that,” she said of Rodriguez. “He was the last person to see her.”
Exhausting all efforts
After their initial inquiries yielded few clues, police pivoted to more intensive methods of investigation.
In the months following her disappearance, they dug up the backyard of the Rodriguez family home but found no traces of a body. A foreclosure on the home stalled further searches for years until police received permission from the bank to return.
In 2016, they combed the property with cadaver dogs — with no success. A subsequent search with ground-penetrating radar also ended without a trace of remains.
Cpl. Pat Crozier of the Collingdale Police Department was assigned to conduct a fresh review of the case in 2019. He said he’s looking for any information that would help move the investigation forward.
As he delved into Melissa Ortiz-Rodriguez’s disappearance, he learned in late 2021 that Rodriguez had been charged with stealing scores of chainsaws and other equipment from Amtrak, where he worked as a senior engineer.
Between 2012 and 2020, federal authorities said, Rodriguez stole — and later resold online — $76,000 in purloined goods to buyers across the country.
After learning of the thefts, Crozier got a warrant to search Rodriguez’s office at the Amtrak facility, but he said it didn’t turn up anything that shed light on the missing wife’s fate.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in 2022. He is expected to be released soon.
Ortiz-Rodriguez’s children were just 8 and 10 years old when she went missing. They were about the same age as Ramos’ kids, and the two women arranged playdates and continued to socialize after Ortiz-Rodriguez moved to Pennsylvania and Ramos stayed in Newark.
Ramos, for one, dismisses any notion that Ortiz-Rodriguez may have simply run away. She is certain, she said, that harm befell her friend.
“She was a very sweet girl,” Ramos said. “She would never abandon her kids.”
Authorities ask that anyone with information about Ortiz-Rodriguez’s disappearance I contact the Collingdale police at 610-586-0502 or Delaware County detectives at 610-891-4700.
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