Strange texts sent in case of missing teacher, mother of 3
NEW SPRINGVILLE, Staten Island -- A New York City public school teacher and mother of three has been missing since last weekend.
Jeanine Cammarata, 37, was last seen Saturday in the vicinity of Denker Place and McVeigh Ave around 9 p.m.
She did not show up to work Monday or Tuesday at PS 29 on Staten Island. She also has a second job at a Dollar Tree on Staten Island.
Tuesday night at the Dollar Tree, detectives took her co-worker and boyfriend in for questioning.
Saturday night he called 911 and said Cammarata was gone, last seen leaving his New Springville apartment to meet her estranged husband and see their kids.
"She let me know Friday she was going to go pick up her children Saturday," said Elizabeth Torres, who works at the Dollar Tree.
"And that's the last anybody actually saw her," said Cammarata's best friend, Jessica Pobega. She received strange text messages from someone claiming to be Jeanine the day after she disappeared.
Jessica wrote she was calling the police. "I don't want that," came the reply. "I have the kids...I apologize. I have to do this for the children."
She also did not show up for a custody hearing in court this week.
Police also say that another friend got a text allegedly from Cammarata saying she just wanted to get away.
"But she didn't see the children this weekend so I don't know who that was and what they were covering for," said Pobega. "She's my oldest friend. My mother is distraught. Something happened. Something bad happened. And I don't know what it is and I really hope I'm wrong."
Police say they just want to hear from her for themselves so they know she is okay.
Cammarata is described as being 4'11", 120 pounds with brown eyes, blonde hair and a medium build.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
