Global search for slain Hicksville woman's husband
Riza Cosa, left, and Hatice Corbacioglu, in an undated photo. Corbacioglu, was reported missing in the summer of 2009. Cosa, her boyfriend, is considered a person of interest, authorities said. Credit: Handout
Toronto police fear that a Canadian woman has met the same fate as the Hicksville woman whose decomposing body was found in a plastic bag in New Cassel earlier this month, the detective on the case said Tuesday.
Now, there's an international search for a Turkish man from Hicksville who police say was romantically involved with both women, each reported missing separately last summer in two countries within two weeks of each other. Police say Riza Cosa, 29, the man from Hicksville, is a "person of interest" in both cases.
Canadian detectives said Cosa was married to Winsome Angela Perez, 45, the woman found in the bag, while he was also dating Hatice Corbacioglu, 33, the Canadian who drove to New York to see him.
Cosa was last seen arriving in Turkey on July 31 after flying there on a one-way ticket, Canadian police said.
His wife's remains were found last week stuffed in a bag at a former workplace of Cosa's in New Cassel.
Corbacioglu, who crossed the border on June 15 to visit Cosa, was reported missing on Aug. 13, Canadian authorities said - about two weeks after Perez was last seen alive at the Wantagh bank where she worked.
In a series of phone calls with a Turkish-speaking Toronto cop, Cosa claimed he'd gone home for compulsory army service, and said his wife may have taken a vacation, visited her mother in Florida or gone to a casino, Toronto police said. And he said his girlfriend returned to Canada, visited his parents in Turkey or visited a friend in Saudi Arabia, Toronto police said.
"He gave us a million - well, three - different excuses of where she might be," said the case detective in Toronto, Stacey Davis.
His excuses all appeared to be false, and he stopped answering his cell phone around Christmastime, Davis said.
Through Interpol, Cosa's family said they don't know where he is, Davis said.
Since her disappearance, Corbacioglu's Facebook profile, phone and bank accounts haven't been used.
Corbacioglu, who is a Canadian citizen of Turkish descent, visited the Turkish consulate in Manhattan on June 18, Davis said.
Then, on July 29, a day after Perez was last seen alive, Corbacioglu's beige 2007 Toyota Corolla was ticketed for being parked in front of a fire hydrant on 92nd Street, Davis said. Cosa also had a job as a metal worker at a site near 92nd Street, she said. The car was found Nov. 25 parked at Kennedy Airport.
Corbacioglu's family and best friend reported her missing on Aug. 13, said Davis, of the Toronto's Youth Bureau and Missing Persons section.
Meanwhile, Perez's co-workers, concerned that she didn't show up for her bank job, reported her missing in July, Nassau police said. Her remains were found in the bag at Express Steel Supply Company at 110 Hopper St., which police had repeatedly but unsuccessfully searched in the months before last week's discovery. An autopsy later concluded that Perez died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Toronto and Nassau police are cooperating, said Nassau's Det. Michael Bitsko.
Davis said police fear Corbacioglu "has met with harm as well."
"I don't know," Davis said. "It's not good."
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