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Mar 21, 2008 6:59 pm US/Eastern
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Man Charged With Killing N.J. Mother
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS 3) ―
A former New Jersey man was arrested Thursday on charges of murder and tampering of evidence following the disappearance of his mistress last year. While they have not yet recovered her body, police believe the 27-year-old mother is dead.
Rosario DiGirolamo, 33, was arrested Thursday in the basement of his parents' home in Brooklyn, N.Y., prosecutors said. He is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Amy Giordano of Hightstown, N.J., and disposing of her body.
Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini declined to comment on what led to the arrest, but said evidence shows that Giordano is dead.
"We've accumulated a lot of evidence at this point," Bocchini said, but declined to give any specifics.
Two days after Giordano disappeared in June, her 11-month-old son Michael was found abandoned in the parking lot of a Delaware hospital.
Sources tell CBS 3 DiGirolamo allegedly murdered Amy inside her Hightstown apartment and dismembered her body following an argument over his young mistress' lifestyle. A friend allegedly helped DiGirolamo dump the remains in New York.
News of the arrests comes weeks after investigators announced they were renewing their efforts to locate the Mercer County woman who was last seen June 7, 2007.
Detectives and investigators from the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office discovered trace amounts of blood in the apartment Giordano shared with her young son.
At the time of her disappearance, Giordano had been carrying on an affair DiGirolamo, who was married to another woman.
Authorities were alerted to Giordano's disappearance after her son Michael was found in the parking lot of Christiana Hospital in Newark on June 9 with a note pinned to his diaper that read:
"Please help my baby John Vincent I can no longer take care of him. Lost job, lost medical. God have mercy on me."
A short time after his abandoned child was found, Rosario DiGirolamo fled to Italy. Upon his return, DiGirolamo was sentenced to 18 months probation and a $2,500 fine for abandonment. He was also forbid from contacting his son Michael, who remains in foster care.
If convicted, DiGirolamo faces a term of 30 years to life in prison. He is currently being held in New York on $1 million bail.
No extradition hearing was immediately scheduled as courts are closed on Friday for Good Friday.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)