Autopsy Identifies Reservoir Remains as Missing Oakland Woman

A body discovered by police divers in a Passaic County reservoir Wednesday has been identified as an Oakland woman last seen in the borough over five years ago, state officials announced Friday.

Cathy Ann DeBono, 49 at the time of her disappearance, was last seen in the borough on March 23, 2008, according to a state police missing persons database. According to a report by The Record, police said after she went missing that her cell phone and purse had been left at the home she shared with her husband and two children.

Authorities say that New Milford police divers conducting training exercises in the Monksville Reservoir Wednesday afternoon came across the 2004 Toyota Camry that DeBono was driving the night of her disappearance.

A spokesman from the Department of Environmental Protection, which has jurisdiction over the reservoir and led the investigation, said that the car was submerged under 18 feet of water, and found about 30 yards from the north boat ramp of the reservoir.

The Passaic County Prosecutor’s initially confirmed a woman’s remains were found in the car that state park police hoisted from the water Wednesday. Based on the matching description of the vehicle with DeBono’s, there had been speculation that the missing borough woman may have been found.

The Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s office conducted an autopsy on the body yesterday, and the DEP announced that it had been identified as DeBono’s. No cause of death had been determined as of Friday afternoon.