“Within what can often be a busy and overwhelming police environment, this room was thoughtfully designed to be warm, calming, and welcoming—a place where victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse can find comfort and refuge,” Old Bridge police officials said in a social media post. The department is the sixth department to open Stephanie’s Sanctuary through the Stephanie Nicole Parze Foundation.
Currently, a large number of police agencies, courthouses and hospitals throughout New Jersey receive victims of domestic violence, and sexual abuse into their facilities and placed them in interview or examination rooms, spare or occupied offices, empty storage rooms, criminal interrogation-holding areas or worse.
There are some agencies that do not have any available space designated for these victims. This becomes an issue with scrambling to accommodate a victim during their time of need, leaving them in lobbies and hallways while waiting for assistance, adding to an already terrifying and stressful situation.
In most cases, these rooms, even if they are designated, are scary, and not victim friendly by any stretch of the imagination, making the victims feeling afraid, and insecure. These rooms offer little or no sense of well-being, comfort, or the feeling of being safe.
For Stephanie Nicole Parze’s family, they found it unacceptable.
Parze was just 25 when she was killed by her ex-boyfriend, John Ozbilgen in 2019.
Her family found out that Ozbilgen was abusing her, mentally tormenting her, also physically abusing her, according to her father Ed Parze in a video on the Stephanie Nicole Parze Foundation website.
Stephanie, who lived in Freehold Township, vanished the night before Halloween in 2019.
That night Ozbilgen went to Stephanie’s home, got into the house and strangled her to death, Ed said.
“Dragged her out of the house, put her in the trunk of his car, pulled up on the side of the road in Old Bridge and discarded her in the brush up there near the Grand Marquis.”
Stephanie had been missing for nearly three months before her body was found in January 2020.
“It seemed like it would never end,” Ed said holding back tears.
Ozbilgen was found dead by suicide in November 2019. The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office announced that Ozbilgen was responsible for her homicide.
Stephanie’s family began the Stephanie Nicole Parze Foundation (SNPF), a nonprofit organization with a mission to raise awareness for battered women and domestic violence. Part of that mission is creating Stephanie’s Sanctuary. These are newly renovated spaces providing a soothing, non-authoritative atmosphere that is comfortable and non-threatening.
These spaces will allow victims, as well as, police officers and responding advocates to deescalate and decompress from the initial situations, allowing all parties to be more at ease and relaxed as they sort things out, according to the foundation’s website.
These spaces will also provide basic essentials for victims such as, a change of clothing, water, snacks, a cell phone charging station, coloring books or small toys for children, informational literature and other basic items.
The SNPF, at no cost to the agencies involved will renovate, furnish and stock these spaces and its membership will maintain the integrity of each by inspecting, restocking and monitoring them throughout the year.
Now the police department in the town where Parze’s body was found six years ago, is the most recent police agency to open Stephanie’s Sanctuary. The first sanctuary opened in the Freehold Township Police Department.
Old Bridge is the sixth sanctuary to open with others in Manalapan, Sayreville, Matawan and Woodbridge.
Police Chief Thomas Montagna and Mayor Debbie Walker joined in cutting the ribbon on Old Bridge’s new comfort room for victims of domestic violence in March.
“Within what can often be a busy and overwhelming police environment, this room was thoughtfully designed to be warm, calming, and welcoming—a place where victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse can find comfort and refuge,” officials said in a social media post.
“We are honored to provide this safe space to those who need it most. We would like to thank all involved in the creation of this space, especially Ed Parze, Maureen Spataro, and our own Domestic Violence Response Team members.”
For more information about the Stephanie Nicole Parze Foundation visit www.snpf.org.
