Saipan Tribune

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Monday, February 25, 2013

TIMELINE

-Feb. 5, 2012: At about 3am Emerita “Emie” Romero was last seen by her co-worker boarding a tinted car near her residence in Garapan. Shortly later, Romero was heard crying in a 911 call. At 5:49pm, Scott Dotino, owner of Godfather's Bar, reported to DPS that Romero was missing.

-Feb. 7, 2012: DPS launched a search for Romero. Co-workers, relatives, and friends joined the search. At 2:24pm, FBI special agents Joe Auther and Haejun Park located a decomposing body of woman at the abandoned La Fiesta Mall in San Matuis. The body was identified as Romero's.

-Feb. 8, 2012: A detective received tip from a confidential source that on the evening of Feb. 4, Joseph Acosta Crisostomo was seen operating a rented tinted car. Investigators traced the rented car to Islander Rent A Car and seized the vehicle.

-Feb. 10, 2012: A Guam Motorola technician extracted Romero's 911 call that lasted about 4 minutes. Investigators suspected that the male's voice was of Crisostomo's.

-Feb. 14, 2012: Police arrested Crisostomo for possession of “ice” that happened at a secluded beach in Susupe on Jan. 11, 2012. Two FBI special agents interviewed Crisostomo at the Department of Corrections. Agents were able to obtain a water bottle that was later discarded by Crisostomo for FBI lab for analysis.

-Feb. 17, 2012: Crisostomo's girlfriend for 17 years was brought to DPS where she identified the male voice in the 911 call as that of Crisostomo.

-Feb. 21, 2012: Witness interviewed by two officers confessed that on the early morning of Feb. 5, Crisostomo was driving a tinted rent a car and was acting weird.

-May 18, 2012: FBI special agent Park provided DPS a report of examination done by FBI Lab. Nuclear DNA examinations were conducted on the swab samples from Romero's body during autopsy. The results indicated the presence of DNA of two or more individuals. DNA samples from water bottle compared to DNA taken from Romero indicate Crisostomo's DNA was potentially a major contributor.

-June 1, 2012: FBI lab results concluded that a hair strand collected from the rental car matched Romero's hair strands.

-June 18, 2012: FBI lab results found that cotton fibers found in the vacuum sweepings of a rented vehicle were consistent with black clothing found around Romero's neck that were used to strangle her.

-Feb. 22, 2013: Police serve an arrest warrant on Crisostomo for the murder of Romero.