Body Believed to Be Missing Florida Firefighter Jerry Perdomo
Investigators found a body in a wooded area one day after suspect was arrested.
Feb. 29, 2012— -- A body believed to be missing Florida firefighter Jerry Perdomo was recovered from a wooded area in Maine today, one day after a suspect in his death was arrested.
A Maine game warden and his dog found Perdomo's body at 9:30 a.m. on land believed to be owned by suspect Daniel Porter's relatives, state police said.
Maine State Police, assisted by Bangor Police, arrested Porter Tuesday at a home in Jackson, Maine, that was rented by Porter's father, according to a news release by the Maine Department of Public Safety.
He will make his first court appearance in Waldo County Superior Court on Thursday.
Porter, 24, and his girlfriend, Cheyanne Nowak, are believed to be the last people who saw Perdomo, a husband and father of two who went missing 13 days ago shortly after he traveled in a rental car up the East Coast to visit a friend.
Police had been testing evidence removed Saturday from the house in Jackson, believed to be the last place Perdomo was seen, according to the Department of Public Safety.
A friend of Perdomo's told Orlando, Fla., ABC affiliate WFTV that Perdomo went to Bangor, Maine, to sell prescription pills, and that he'd mentioned someone named "Daniel" previously.
Perdomo's family told WFTV the firefighter had never used or sold drugs.
His wife, Tonya, acknowledged that her husband, whose rental car was found abandoned in a Walmart parking lot Feb. 16, made the 1,600-mile trip from Florida to Maine to visit another woman.
"I knew that he had a friend, but he has female friends. I can't comment on the extent of their relationship because I don't know," she said. "My understanding is that he was going to help someone. It would not have been unusual for him to go and help someone because that's what he always did."
WESH-TV interviewed a woman, only identified as Lisa, who said she was the friend Perdomo was visiting. The woman said Perdomo stepped out the evening he disappeared to visit another friend, and said he would return shortly to take her to dinner, but never came back.
Porter and Nowak, 23, reportedly left town after Perdomo's disappearance. The couple bought a used car and abandoned the one they had been driving at the dealership, saying they had to leave town quickly because of an emergency.
Police tracked the couple down at Porter's mother's house in Connecticut Friday.
Cheyanne Nowak had also posted a cryptic message on her Facebook page: "I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sorry your friend is missing. It is a terrible thing. I am so sorry about this. But I can do nothing further. Night."
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