Mother of All Secrets(18)

And maybe a young missing mom wasn’t even a big news item. Especially since it had only been a couple of days. Still, the lack of publicity concerned me. How would they ever find Isabel if no one, save for a few detectives who’d already ruled out my prime suspect, was looking for her?

But while the story of Isabel’s disappearance wasn’t making national news, Upper West Side Moms on Facebook did catch wind of it. I was mindlessly scrolling through it early in the morning while nursing Clara when I saw:

Hope Grutman: I heard a mom in this neighborhood was abducted, or attacked, or something like that. My nanny heard the grandma talking to someone about it at the grocery store. Does anyone know anything about this? So worried for her, and so scared this could happen in our neighborhood.

14 replies

Cece Asher: Yes. She’s my neighbor. She’s been missing since Friday, apparently. She has a three month old. I feel so terrible for her family. But I don’t know about abducted. I heard she just bailed. My girlfriend has seen her with the baby and said she seems like a total space cadet.

Andrea Sweeney: I heard about this. I heard that she committed suicide but the family is trying to keep it a secret. It’s so sad but thank god she didn’t hurt the baby. Moms, if you’re struggling, get some help. Don’t suffer in silence.

Sarah O: Does the family need anything? Food? Is there anything we can do? Where do they live?

Tina Butler: They’re like millionaires based on his linkedin title and the fact they apparently live in a town house by themselves so I really doubt they need anything from us. It’s always rich people involved in shit like this. Just wait—dirty little secrets will start to come out.

Marni Becker: Isn’t it always the husband in these situations . . . googled her husband and he’s a big shot . . . probably the kind of guy who thinks he can get away with murder, if that’s what he wanted. Poor woman and poor baby.

Annie Schwartz: Disgusted with the above comments. What do you mean “shit like this”? This is a tragedy, not gossip. This is none of our business. Respect the privacy of the family. Does anyone in this group even know her?

Katherine Rodksy: She goes to my yoga studio. She wasn’t very friendly, though. Also way too thin for someone who just had a baby. Prayers that she’s okay.

Angela Hunter: Stuff like this never used to happen in this neighborhood. This is EXACTLY why they shouldn’t have moved the homeless men to the Two Parks Hotel. It’s ridiculous to have these CRIMINALS living as our neighbors. And now one of us is dead. When will our council people come to their senses and get those men relocated?

Laurie Balick: @Angela Hunter Think before you type, please. You can’t just blame innocent people for murder, and we don’t even know that there WAS a murder. If it were a hotel filled with white people, would you make that assumption?

Natasha Glaze: @Angela Hunter Ew. Good to know racism is alive and well on the UWS. Not that I ever doubted it.

Eric Weinstock: @Natasha Glaze To come to @Angela Hunter’s defense, the fact is that there is a hotel filled with criminals and drug addicts a few blocks away from the scene of the crime. You can call it racism, but a healthy dose of suspicion is valid here. Crime has gone up since they moved here. It’s a fact. It’s not a race issue.

Natasha Glaze: @Eric Weinstock Nothing is a race issue for you because you’re white. You don’t get it. They are human beings who need a place to live, and because of their race, they’re presumed guilty about anything and everything, and always have been. So yes, it’s a race issue to accuse them of something based on no evidence whatsoever. Btw dude why are you even in this group? It’s for MOMS.

Eric Weinstock: @Natasha Glaze Excuse me for wanting to be part of our local parenting community. Based on the hostility I see here regularly, it might not be the right resource for our family after all.

Natasha Glaze: @Eric Weinstock Calling out someone for blatant racism isn’t hostile, but I’m not surprised you’d see it that way. Have a nice day.

The chain continued to veer further away from Isabel’s disappearance. I was familiar with the conflict they were referring to: a couple of months ago, Project Renewal had partnered with the Two Parks Hotel on Seventy-Ninth Street, using it as a temporary shelter for eighty homeless men in treatment for addiction. The neighborhood seemed divided on this: some people were outraged by their newfound proximity to recovering addicts, some of whom did have criminal records, and others thought it was a great use of the space and the neighborhood resources, an example of effective housing justice that we should all be proud to be participating in. I personally hadn’t noticed any concerning behavior near the hotel, or sensed any decline in safety in the neighborhood whatsoever, but for a while, you couldn’t walk a block without a NIMBY approaching you asking you to sign a petition to remove them, insisting that there were too many families and schools in this neighborhood to safely host these men. Which made me wonder: Where in New York, or the world, weren’t there families and schools?

I wasted time scrolling through other, more trivial, posts, trying to take my mind off Isabel:

Valerie Baker: Hi moms! Where can I find XXXXL (lol) sleep sacks?! My 3 y/o does NOT like sleeping with a loose blanket. It hurts his legs. Yes. Hurts. But it’s hard to find a sack that fits because the kid weighs 40 pounds. Lolol. Help please.

27 replies

Melissa Gross: Moms of kids in gifted and talented programs—when did you start practicing for the test? Are you happy with the programs at PS 9 and PS 166? My girl is 2.5 but it’s never too soon to think ahead right! Also interested in music programs for her if anyone has any recs.