Missing Florida Firefighter: Person of Interest Named
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Comstock/Thinkstock(JACKSON, Maine) — Police in Maine who say they suspect foul play in the disappearance of Florida firefighter Jerry Perdomo have named Daniel Porter a person of interest.
Porter, 24, and his girlfriend, Cheyanne Nowak, are believed to be the last people who saw Perdomo, a husband and father of two who went missing 12 days ago shortly after he traveled in a rental car up the East Coast to visit a friend.
Police are now testing evidence removed Saturday from the Jackson, Maine house where Porter’s father lives, and is believed to be the last place Perdomo was seen, according to the Maine Department of Public Safety.
“The work being done at the lab will hopefully give us some of the answers to our questions,” Christopher Coleman of the Maine state police said. “At this point we remain hopeful, but as days go on, we have to be realistic. We do suspect foul play was involved.”
A friend of Perdomo’s told ABC news affiliate WFTV in Orlando, Fla. that Perdomo went to Bangor, Maine to sell prescription pills, and that he’d mentioned someone named “Daniel” previously.
Perdomo’s family told WFTV that he has never used or sold drugs. His wife, Tonya Perdomo, is pleading for her husband’s safe return.
“I love him. He is my only love, he is my only love,” she said in a news conference Monday. “I just want to talk to him, I just feel like I need to talk to him. I do.”
Tonya Perdomo acknowledged that her husband, whose rental car was found abandoned in a Walmart parking lot on Feb. 16, made the 1,600 mile trek from Florida to Maine to visit another woman.
“I knew that he had a friend, but he has female friends. I can’t comment on the extent of their relationship because I don’t know,” she said. “My understanding is that he was going to help someone. It would not have been unusual for him to go and help someone because that’s what he always did.”
WESH-TV interviewed a woman who was only identified as Lisa, who said she was the friend Perdomo was visiting. The woman said Perdomo stepped out the evening he disappeared to visit another friend, and had said he would return shortly to take her to dinner, but never came back.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio