A wake has been scheduled for Friday, March 14, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Park Funeral Chapels, 2175 Jericho Turnpike, Garden City Park and a funeral service will be held on Saturday, March 15, at St. Mary’s Syromalabar Catholic Church, 875 Hempstead Ave, West Hempstead at 9:30 a.m.
The parents of 22-year-old missing Syosset woman Jasmine Joseph positively identified the body found in Joseph’s car Tuesday as their daughter.
“It is with great difficulty that we will lay my beloved daughter, Jasmine, to rest,” Sony Joseph, Jasmine’s father, posted on the Jasmine Joseph Is Missing Facebook page. “Please join us as we pray for the repose of her soul. We are thankful for all of your prayers and support during this difficult time.”
Police said at a press conference that her death “appears to be a suicide” and that she inhaled “a noxious substance.”
Joseph’s gray Nissan Altima was discovered in the Syosset Plaza parking lot just a few blocks away from her home early Tuesday morning with the keys inside. All that is left of the early morning crime scene is yellow police tape near the fence where the car was parked. Police towed the car away on a flatbed.
Police said while it appeared Joseph had been there for a long period of time, because she was on the floor of the back seat she was not visible to those who passed by.
Dozens of cars lined both sides of Stuart Drive in Syosset Tuesday morning as family and friends gathered at the Joseph family home to await official confirmation that the body found inside the car was in fact Joseph.
Joseph was last seen driving the car on Feb. 24 in the vicinity of Stuart Drive in Syosset.
Just last week, community members, friends and family of Joseph gathered at a Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall on Queens Street to post missing person fliers and search for Jasmine’s missing car. Police say the 22-year-old called her mother at 5:17 p.m. on Feb. 24 and cell phone records show she was at Lifetime Fitness on Robbins Lane. Joseph said she would be home within an hour.
Joseph was a nursing student at the New York Institute of Technology’s Old Westbury campus, but the school issued a statement saying Joseph had not been enrolled in classes since May 2013.
“She was somewhat deceptive in her personal life, which made the investigation more difficult,” said Inspector Kenneth Lack of the Nassau County Police Department.
Her parents said they have been paying her tuition and did not know she was no longer attending classes.
But Lovely Joseph, Jasmine’s mother, said she didn’t care if her daughter stopped attending school or not.
“For me, she’s always been like a blessing,” Joseph told the Tribune of her daughter. “I’d just tell her no matter what it is, come back home, we are waiting for her.“
