A Bronx mother of four has been missing for a week and police sources tell the Daily News and Post that her estranged husband, a former NYPD cop, is a "person of interest." The News reports that four years ago, she "was terrorized by her ex-cop husband while she held their crying baby in her arms... Edwin Coello, the chief suspect in the disappearance of Tina Adovasio, smashed the cordless phone in a fit of fury by hurling it twice against the wall." The Post adds, "Collo [was] arrested twice on domestic violence charges" involving Adovasio.
Adovasio, 40, has been missing since Friday. Coello, who was, according to the Post, "forced to retire from the department in 2000 over a domestic incident with a previous wife," apparently told cops that he and Adovasio had a fight on Friday, then she left. Their landlord said he heard arguing and that Coello beat her up "black and blue" once.
Sources told the News there's "a blurry image of a man believed to be Coello was caught on tape around 1:30 a.m. Saturday taking a small bag out of the house and placing it inside a double-parked car. A short time later, he is seen dragging a duffel bag 'big enough to hold a body' to the vehicle... Investigators tracked Adovasio's cell phone and got hits in High Bridge and Morris Heights on Monday, leading them to believe that her body may have been dumped in one location and her belongings in another, the sources said." Adovasio, who has three children from a previous marriage, had recently filed for divorce.
Coello's lawyer says he is cooperating, "He's the one who filed the report. He doesn't know where she is." One neighbor told WCBS 2, "We hope there’s a glimmer of hope in that she’s still alive and it’s not for a bad reason that she left her kids behind. You wonder what’s going to happen to her kids now if mom’s not found.
