Police search home of Delco mother missing 3 years

Delaware County police searched a Collingdale home with cadaver dogs in their latest effort to try and find a missing woman, officials said Wednesday.

On April 19, 2013, Melissa Ortiz-Rodriguez walked out of her Collingdale home to catch a train to visit her best friend, Evie Ramos, in Newark. She never arrived. It took her husband Jose Rodriguez four days to report her missing.

On Tuesday, contractors dug up the basement of Rodriguez home in the 400 block of Lafayette Ave. in Collingdale but found nothing, according to a story on NBC.

Police have hit one dead end after another searching for the 31-year-old mother of two young daughters.

She never called her daughters or other family. She failed to report to a new job she was to have started that week. She did not have credit cards or a phone in her own name.

Shortly after her disappearance, Rodriguez listed the two-story corner Collingdale house for sale and moved the girls – then 8 and 10 – to New Jersey.

Family members have said Ortiz-Rodriguez wanted a divorce after she discovered that Rodriguez had an infant son with another woman.

In June 2013, police dug up the backyard of the Collingdale home but did not find a body.

When contacted by phone on Wednesday, Evie Ramos said she heard of the new search and hoped police would find the body of her friend.

"In my heart I really thought she was there," said Ramos, adding she was baffled when nothing was found after the dogs got a hit.

"Something was there," she said. "I don't understand."

Ramos said the Ortiz-Rodriguez's family still calls Collingdale police for regular updates. She expects the case will eventually be solved.

"I have faith and a lot of prayers. We cannot give up hope," she said. "At least I don't."