Saturday, May 22, 2010

Long Island, NY: U.S. man accused in wife's death, Canadian mistress' disappearance may have killed himself

BY DOUGLAS QUAN, CANWEST NEWS SERVICEMAY 21, 2010

A file photo of Riza Cosa (left) and his alleged mistress, Hatice Corbacioglu of Toronto, who disappeared in the summer of 2009 while on a visit to Cosa in New York. Riza Cosa's wife, Winsome Angela Perez's decomposed body was found May 10, 2010, on Long Island, N.Y. Authorities say Cosa was a person of interest not only in Corbacioglu's disappearance, but in the slaying of his wife.
Photograph by: Toronto Police Services, Handout
A man wanted for questioning in the slaying of his wife in New York and the disappearance of his Canadian mistress may have killed himself in his native Turkey.

Turkish media reports say Riza Cosa jumped to his death from a 10-storey building. Police detectives in Toronto and Long Island, N.Y., said Friday they are still trying to verify the information through Turkish authorities.

Cosa was named a person of interest last week in the murder of his wife, Winsome Angela Perez, whose decomposing body was found stuffed in a plastic bag at the steel company where Cosa used to work on Long Island, had been reported missing last July.

Toronto police have also declared Cosa a person of interest in the mysterious disappearance of Hatice Corbacioglu, 33, with whom Cosa was having an affair. She vanished after travelling to New York last June to visit him.

Family and friends said earlier this week they fear Corbacioglu, a forklift operator at a Toronto rubber plant, may have suffered the same fate as Cosa's wife.

"I have a bad feeling," said her sister, Aysel Corbacioglu. "I believe she is not alive."

Toronto police Det. Stacey Davis said she has a "strong suspicion" that Corbacioglu met with foul play while in New York, and that Cosa likely held key information about her whereabouts.

Corbacioglu met Cosa in early 2009 through one of Cosa's cousins. She thought she had met the man of her dreams and wanted to marry him, family and friends said.

She knew that Cosa was married but he told her that he and his wife were getting a divorce, according to her best friend, Nevruz Acikgos.

On June 15, Corbacioglu drove to New York to visit Cosa, never to be seen or heard from again.

Toronto police said three days after her arrival in New York, Corbacioglu went to the Turkish Embassy to update some documents.

An airline ticket to Turkey was also purchased under her name. On the day of her scheduled flight, June 21, her Toyota Corolla was spotted at John F. Kennedy International Airport and then left the airport about an hour and a half later.

Police said she never got on that flight or any other flight to Turkey.

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