Jerry Perdomo, Florida Firefighter, Missing In Maine Since Feb. 16

A Florida firefighter has gone missing in Maine after leaving Seminole County to visit a friend last week.

Jerry Perdomo, 31, has not been seen since Feb. 16, the day before police found his car abandoned in a Walmart parking lot in Bangor, Maine.

A woman named Lisa told WESH 2 News that Perdomo was staying with her. Lisa said Perdomo stepped out during the night and never returned.

"He said he was meeting a friend, and I wish I could remember that friend's name," she told the station.

On Friday, police interviewed Daniel Porter and Cheyanne Nowak, a couple from Maine, who might have been in contact with Perdomo before he went missing.

The couple bought a new car on Tuesday. Rod Pelkey, a manager at Lee Credit Now, said Porter looked a bit unkempt at the time, but said Porter credited his appearance to a family emergency.

"He looked like he had bed-head," Pelkey told WKMG Local 6 in a phone interview. "He looked a little bit disheveled that way."

The couple reportedly asked Pelkey "if they could leave their old car until they returned from a trip to Florida," according to the Portland Press Herald.

Details of the interview between police and the couple weren't immediately available, but neither person is a suspect in the case.

Firefighters from Central Florida are heading to Maine to aid in the search for their friend, NECN reports. They've asked firefighters in Bangor for help distributing flyers.

Investigators have found no signs of foul play, which only adds to the mystery behind Perdomo's disappearance.

"It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense," John Higgins, a firefighter at the Bangor Fire Department told NECN in a video interview. "He's got a wife and two kids down there; he's dedicated to his job."

The case remains under investigation.

For more on the story, watch the full report by NECN in the video below.

Comments

[CAPE COD]

03:46 PM on 02/29/2012

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57387613-504083/daniel-porter-charged-in-the-murder-of-missing-fla-firefighter-jerry-perdomo/

[FaceTheTruth00]

10:06 AM on 02/27/2012

This is a more up to date story with video, which mentions the police search and possible evidence.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/missing-florida-fireman-family-friends-search-maine/story?id=15798604

[jwald1]

12:10 AM on 02/28/2012

ty, hp is often a day behind.

[FaceTheTruth00]

09:52 AM on 02/27/2012

HuffPo, please update this story!

Maine State Police have said there was foul play, and Daniel Porter is a person of interest. Porter's dad's home has been searched as this is the last place the missing fireman was said to have been seen.

[David Faisel]

12:53 PM on 02/27/2012

There was foul play from the start: Murder most foul...

[fran glass]

09:32 AM on 02/27/2012

My parents are from Bangor and they have told me the weirdest stories from their time there. It's a strange town.

[FaceTheTruth00]

09:22 AM on 02/27/2012

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/os-missing-firefighter-jerry-perdomo-wife-20120227,0,656328.story

According to that story, the wife is going to have a press conference, so there may be some more information come to light.

From that link, the police DO suspect foul play, and the male half of the Daniel Porter/ Chayenne Nowak couple mentioned in this article, is a person of interest.

No big surprise since police have said that Porter and Nowak were with the missing fireman prior to his disappearance. Also, police apparently searched the home of Porter's father; saying that is the place they think the missing fireman was last seen.

[David Faisel]

01:15 PM on 02/27/2012

I understand why she would want to do a press conference. She is not going to shed any more than we already know. Perdomo met with foul play while having an affair with a woman in Maine. she knows this as well as most.

[jwald1]

12:12 AM on 02/28/2012

you don't know that.

[degirl]

07:53 AM on 02/27/2012

this missing guy had some secrets. he was traveling once a month to maine and his wife never knew.? 3 cars involved in this all sitting in a walmart parking lot? and than the same couple who he went to visit was found in conn. / alot of questions here. for sure.

[FaceTheTruth00]

09:58 AM on 02/27/2012

All three cars weren't at Walmart. The car that was rented in Florida by the missing fireman was found at Walmart.

The abandoned car was left at the car dealership by the couple who ditched it -- Nowak and Porter -- who bought a new car. The couple had asked the employee where the nearest Walmart was because they were going to ditch their old car there because they allegedly had to go to Florida for a family emergency. The car dealer employee told them that they could leave the car at the dealership, which they did.

The third car is the one they bought for cash and were driving when police picked them up in Connecticut.

So, only the missing fireman's car ended up abandoned at Walmart. But clearly it's suspicious that Walmart was where the couple was going to abandon their old car as well, but they left it at the dealership instead.

Police didn't know they had bought a new car until they put out an alert about the couple and the old car, and the dealership employee recognized the couple and their abandoned car and called police.

[Wanda Diaz]

05:19 AM on 02/27/2012

Check out the girlfriend, it seems that he met her in a ad online and set him up. Foul play for sure.

[FaceTheTruth00]

09:29 AM on 02/27/2012

I'm sure they have/are checking the girlfriend. I have doubts that she is involved because no one knew she existed, until she approached a news crew and asked if they had any information on the case.

Logically, if she was involved, she would never approach anyone but stay hidden and hope she wasn't linked to his disappearance. Now that is NOT to say she is a logical person; but, just saying, it seems unlikely.

Especially since police have already said Daniel Porter (who with his girlfriend were the last to see the missing fireman) is a person of interest. Not that this couple AND the girlfriend couldn't all be involved; just saying at worst she's one of three; at best she's not involved at all.

As for how he met her? She knows that he knows the missing couple; maybe the girlfriend was an acquaintance of the couple. Maybe he met her in a bar on one of his trips. Maybe he was from that area and knew her from before. We don't really know at this point. I don't think it has ever been said that he met her on the internet though.

[thatstheway53]

04:19 AM on 02/27/2012

Whatever it is that happened, I hope he's happy. Maybe he wanted to leave, no one knows what goes inside a mans brain. No one. He could have had it and left. Wanting no connection, who knows why? You can't say he wasn't the guy.

Let him be, because if its not this way. Then he's already dead.

[FaceTheTruth00]

10:01 AM on 02/27/2012

It's unlikely he walked away. Police say they do suspect foul play and that Daniel Porter is a person of interest. They've searched his father's house.

[realguyinfl]

04:33 PM on 02/27/2012

You're absolutely right. He would not have just walked away from his family. His brother is a very close, life long friend of mine and these guys are VERY family oriented people.

[David Faisel]

01:01 PM on 02/27/2012

You postulated: "no one knows what goes inside a mans brain." Some people can read others like a book. So they don't have to know what goes on inside a man's brain.

He was cheating on his wife and kids and met with foul play--plain and simple. He will be found in the woods somewhere. Let me tell you: it is a long drive from Florida to Maine. There has to be something really worth it to drive that far.

[nancy kriescher]

10:12 AM on 02/28/2012

Very Good :)

[anitafeeney]

02:46 AM on 02/27/2012

ok i have read this story a few times now and ok this guy does not seem like the type to disappear for no good reason ( from what i have read and they dont give a lot of info ) i truely hope they find him safe and sound really i do but SOMETHING is just not right here and i have a bad feeling about it

[nobodyknowsme28]

02:24 AM on 02/27/2012

He went to meet another guy he met from the net. The guy killed him, and dumped the body. He will be found this spring.

[vinny5717]

03:28 AM on 02/27/2012

you sound very sure about this......hmmmmmm suspicious

[David Faisel]

01:31 PM on 02/27/2012

Missing for over 10 days without a peep? Where will they find him safe and sound? He was an adult and I hear he was also a Marine. So the man could take care of himself in natural circumstances.

[nykittyo2]

02:18 AM on 02/27/2012

this story sounds like a complete set up.. why would he even buy a car.. this is a very odd story and clearly not the truth of what happened. how many people does he know in maine that he leaves one friend to go see another? whole story stinks!

[riggallamarillo]

05:54 AM on 02/27/2012

Read the story, he did not buy a car, his was found abandoned in the parking lot.

[victorzeller]

01:12 AM on 02/27/2012

Maybe one of those Maine Black bears got him?

[David Faisel]

01:46 AM on 02/27/2012

I think it was a Polar Bear that got him.

[nobodyknowsme28]

02:21 AM on 02/27/2012

They don't have POLAR bears in Maine. Maine is not in the North Pole.

[connginmac]

12:59 AM on 02/27/2012

I have read this story more than once and it still seems a little weird to me that a husband leaves his wife and children in Florida goes to Maine to meet a "friend", then decides to step out at night and meet another friend (which she wish she could remember the name of) then ends up missing, and there is no foul play suspected yea right.

Well it sounds to me like he found him a internet chick went to meet her and her hubby or boyfriend realized what was going on and axed his ass, while he was leaving wal-mart.

[David Faisel]

01:19 AM on 02/27/2012

smart connginmac, except wal-mart was only the place the car was stashed. See what can happen if you betray your wife and children...

[anitafeeney]

02:48 AM on 02/27/2012

well we dont know for sure yet that he did betray his wife and kids admittedly we dont know that he did not but we dont know if he did either i will agree that SOMETHING is off in this story for sure

[edeword]

01:32 AM on 02/27/2012

definitely something funny here, I agree

[msfixit3325]

12:51 AM on 02/27/2012

Forget about trying to watch the video that is posted above! All it does is play the commercial for the ski resort and then supposed to kick into the video about the missing Jerry Perdomo. I've tried to watch it three times and same thing kept happening. Guess it got messed up somewhere along the line. I hope there will be a good outcome of all this. I feel sad for his wife & kids. It's a good thing that some of his co-workers are going up there to help with the search of their fellow firefighter! He's in my prayers.

[David Faisel]

01:26 AM on 02/27/2012

Do you feel sorry for his wife and kids because you suspect what has happened to him or because of what he was doing? His co-workers are going "up there" to search because they have a really good idea what he was doing and what happened to him.

[msfixit3325]

01:51 AM on 02/27/2012

I said I felt sorry for his wife and kids, because they may not have heard from him or know where or what may have happened to him ~ that's all. I read the article just like everyone else and took note of the fact that he was staying with a lady named "Lisa." She could also be a friend of his instead of what the article implies her to be. Yes, there is quite a bit of speculation about the whole situation. As I stated in my last comment, I hope it has a good ending. Without being able to watch the video, I only have the article to go by.

[doctorw2]

12:46 AM on 02/27/2012

it is quite obvious that Mr. Perdomo simply decided to be with someone else and start a new life else where. the man was leading a double life, he had a lover whom he wanted to be with and decided to cut the cord from his family and job and start over.

[noodles865]

01:31 AM on 02/27/2012

not just you ,mine did the same as well

[BeachSurfer]

04:54 AM on 02/27/2012

BeachSurfer
noodles865 I am sorry that happened to you, may you find Happiness and Peace in your life!! God Bless you Beach Surfer!!

[BeachSurfer]

04:58 AM on 02/27/2012

BeachSurfer
doctorw2 your post makes alot of sense, also does it seem odd he is staying with a woman and she says he got up and left!!
To me it seems like maybe she has something for do with his disappearace!! doctorw2 your post is excelent very good points! Beach Surfer!!