Daughters say search for missing mom Neida Monge led to identifying Bronx Jane Doe from 1990 cold case
A Jane Doe who remained unidentified for more than three decades after her body was discovered in the Bronx got her name back just a week after her daughter, Jacqueline Velez, made a Facebook post inquiring about the fate of her missing mother, Neida Monge, late last March.
Almost a year later, Velez and her sister Brenda Vazquez said they are closer to closure thanks to what they call an online “network of angels”—social media users who volunteer their time to help find missing people. They didn’t get the answer they hoped for, but it was an answer that eluded them for three decades.
“There is a lot to unpack because she was, for all intents and purposes, missing for 33 years, so we are grateful that we know what happened to her,” said Velez. “But there’s a lot to unpack in terms of 33 years of not knowing what happened to someone…it’s a roller coaster of emotions, because you have the happiness of finding her, sadness [that] she’s gone, anger [for] what happened. There’s a lot of emotions that go with it.”
Monge’s daughters remember her as an awesome mom. They were adolescent girls when they last saw her, and too young to report her missing. Vazquez was 11 at the time. Velez was 10. Both ended up in foster care. The two aren’t shy about their mom’s struggle with substance abuse—like many New Yorkers of color, she was a victim of the racist 1980s crack cocaine epidemic. Yet no challenge was big enough for Monge to provide for Velez, Vazquez, and their brother.
“To know her was to love her,” said Vazquez. “She was funny. She was helpful. She had a heart of gold. It didn’t matter how little we had—and we had very little. She would share with everyone.”
Decades later, Monge’s daughters had left New York City and started their own families. They now live in Connecticut. Yet the question of what happened still crossed their minds. Velez said she would run the occasional cursory search on her mom’s name. She never found anything.
Then on March 22, 2023, Velez posted in a group named “Missing people of NYC,” asking about her mom. “I know this is a long shot but my mom, Neida, has been missing since 1990,” she wrote. “She was 28 at the time of her disappearance and is 61 years old today.” She attached photos of Monge to the post.
Within three hours, a user suggested Monge could be the 1990 Bronx Jane Doe. Velez was unfamiliar with the case: a murdered woman who was found on May 2, 1990, in Morrisania’s Claremont Park and remained unidentified up until then. The Jane Doe’s photo, description, and timeline matched up. The daughters reached out to their aunt, Monge’s sister, who they say also saw the resemblance. They moved quickly, calling local NYPD precincts and the medical examiner. Vazquez said authorities confirmed her mom was the Bronx Jane Doe the following Wednesday, exactly a week after her sister posted to the Facebook group. The police contact did not respond by press time.
Velez and Vazquez also credit Los Angeles-based entertainment journalist Erika Marie Rivers and her website Our Black Girls for spreading awareness about the Bronx Jane Doe. The platform takes on cases of women listed as Black in databases of missing people who are disproportionately neglected.
“I believe law enforcement and federal authorities already [know] their shortcomings at this stage, and any that don’t make the necessary changes to create equity in their departments are then, purposefully and plainly, stating that Black women and girls are not, and won’t be, their priority,” said Rivers. “I also believe that we, and everyday, hardworking folks, can enact change within our own communities. The 1990 Bronx Jane Doe case is a perfect example of people being aware and having their ears to the ground. That was connected through community, and hopefully, Our Black Girls can help more families receive closure.”
The same disparities that inform Our Black Girls’ mission also fuel the anger of Monge’s daughters. Velez said she was “tossed aside” as a young Puerto Rican woman battling addiction. Vazquez says she was dismissed by the whole system.
Even now, Velez isn’t exactly sure what compelled her to post to the Facebook group. She joined roughly two years beforehand and never really engaged with the page, but on further reflection, she provided an armchair theory.
“[Our mom’s] mom passed December of 2021 [and] coincidentally, [the] Our Black Girls article was published November 2021, so we feel it was divine intervention that led us to the site,” she said. “…I’m happy my grandmother passed before she found out, because I think it would have absolutely devastated her to learn that her child was murdered. I don’t think any parent would be easy with that information.
“But because we found her, we were able to bury her ashes with my grandma and reunite them.”
Vazquez said her mom lives on whenever she looks at her own daughters. And in her own reflection.
“Once we found her and we gave her back her name, we were able to give birth to her again and bring her back to us, which I think is the most amazing thing,” said Vazquez. “It gives me hope, not only for [my] family, but for others out there as well, who are still holding on or even losing that hope that they will ever get reunited with either the name or the actual individual.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
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