Friends Worried About Missing Mother-of-Three Who Sent Strange Texts

Published: 4/3/2019, 12:18:43 PM EDT

Friends Worried About Missing Mother-of-Three Who Sent Strange Texts — Jeanine Cammarata, 37, was last seen on March 30, 2019. (NYPD)

Friends said they're growing increasingly concerned about a missing mother-of-three who hasn't been seen since March 30.

Jeanine Cammarata, 37, works as a substitute public school teacher in Staten Island and part-time at a Dollar Tree.

She was reported missing Saturday night by her boyfriend. According to the New York Police Department, Cammarata was last seen that night at a residence on McVeigh Ave.

The boyfriend and a Dollar Tree co-worker were taken in on April 2 for questioning, reported WABC.

Cammarata left her boyfriend's apartment to meet her estranged husband to see her children, according to the broadcaster.

"She let me know Friday she was going to go pick up her children Saturday," said Elizabeth Torres, who works at the Dollar Tree.

The girlfriend of Cammarata's estranged husband told the Staten Island Advance that Cammarata did show up at her and the man's house in Queens but left without the children after a brief conversation.

Jessica Pobega, Cammarata's best friend, told WABC that she received strange text messages from her friend's phone on March 31.

Jeanine Cammarata, 37, in a file photo. (NYPD) — Jeanine Cammarata, 37, in a file photo. NYPD

When Pobega wrote that she was going to call the police, a reply came. "I don't want that," it read. "I have the kids...I apologize. I have to do this for the children."

Police officers said another friend received a similar text message from Cammarata's phone stating that she just wanted to get away.

"She is a mother of 3 children, she’s a school teacher. She’s never once NOT called into school. She’d never risk her job at the board of Ed in NYC. She’d never NOT check in with me or her sister Christine. She didn’t call her mother for her bday, which was yesterday. There are a lot of people very worried," Pobega added on Facebook.

The missing woman is described as 4 foot 11 inches, weighing 120 pounds, with brown eyes, blonde hair, and a medium build.

Anyone with information was asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

A police car in a file photo. (Mira Oberman/AFP/Getty Images) — A police car in a file photo. Mira Oberman/AFP/Getty Images

Missing Persons

Over 600,000 people go missing in the United States every year, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Many of the missing adults and children are found safe but others are never found or are found dead.

"It is estimated that 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered each year, with approximately 1,000 of those bodies remaining unidentified after one year," the center stated. As of Jan. 22, there were 15,325 open missing person cases in addition to 12,449 open unidentified person cases.

As of Dec. 31, 2017, the National Crime Information Center had over 88,000 active missing person cases across the country. But hundreds of thousands of cases were resolved that year. Approximately 651,000 missing person records were entered but about the same number were removed.

"Reasons for these removals include: a law enforcement agency located the subject, the individual returned home, or the record had to be removed by the entering agency due to a determination that the record is invalid," the center stated.

The first 72 hours in a missing person case is the most critical, according to criminology experts. That's partly because investigators have the best chance of following up on leads before people's memories start to fade, Dr. Bryanna Fox, former FBI agent and criminology professor at the University of South Florida, told ABC News.

"The information that law enforcement gets tends to be a little more accurate, and they are able to act on the information and hopefully get that person who is missing quicker," Fox said.

Later, there are fewer "bread crumbs," or leads, to follow. Dr. Michelle Jeanis, criminology professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said that time is of the essence because the missing person could be in danger. After about a week, the person could very likely be dead, said former FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Gomez.

"There's a certain point after about a week or two where you have to think, the potential that the missing person is dead and now it's a matter of trying to find their body and bring closure to the family and to determine if you now have a homicide investigation, or suicide, or some kind of accidental death," he said.