NORWICH – While the car belonging to a Norwich woman missing since Friday has been located, there is still no trace of the woman herself, as police were called to the Norwich Wal-Mart at approximately 5:30 p.m. yesterday after employees at the local retailer discovered what they suspected to be her vehicle.
Krista M. Kosowsky, 51, was first reported missing by her husband, Gary D. Kosowsky, at approximately 8 p.m. June 28. Her car was located near Wal-Mart’s Garden Center, according to authorities.
Norwich Police and New York State Police responded to the scene and confirmed that the car was indeed the missing Kosowsky’s 2007 gold colored Pontiac Grand Prix, bearing license plate FCX-3112. Police immediately began combing the surrounding area and adjacent properties for any sign of the missing woman, to no avail.
“The focus is still the same, locating her,” said Norwich Police Chief Joseph Angelino. “We knew the car would be found first,” he added, alluding to the fact that a large hunk of metal is rather more conspicuous than a person.
Kosowsky’s husband reported her missing after she had failed to report to work in Clinton on Friday. The Norwich Wal-Mart, however, is located along state Route 12, south of the city and in the opposite direction it was believed she regularly took to work.
Kosowsky’s last known contact was with her husband, at approximately 11:15 a.m. Friday, when she spoke with him on the phone, according to authorities. Her Clinton employer, it was reported, called her husband to inform him she had not arrived at approximately 3:20 p.m. that day, 20 minutes after she was due to work. Prior to the discovery of Kosowsky’s car, police had been conducting a joint search of her possible routes to work throughout the regions of Chenango, Madison and Oneida counties, using patrol cars and a helicopter; and authorities had already begun to review camara footage from convenience stores along those routes. It had been speculated that Kosowsky’s disappearance was somehow related to the extremely heavy rain and flood conditions Friday, which closed many of the roads it was speculated she may have been traveling on. The discovery of her car in Norwich, however, calls that theory into question. And while authorities said Gary Kosowsky is not a suspect at this time, the Norwich man has a checkered past and a number of felony convictions. Convicted of three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment – a class D felony – as a predicate felon in 1992, Kosowsky was sentenced by Supreme Court Justice Thomas W. Keegan to a four and a half to nine year stint in state prison in Albany County Court. In the indictment, it was alleged that Kosowsky had injected candies with mercuric chloride – a toxic substance – and that other individuals had subsequently consumed the laced candies, becoming ill as a result.
At 5’07 and 240 pounds, the missing, 51-year-old Kosowsky is described by authorities as a white female with brown eyes and brown hair, and is also a diabetic. She is not believed to have been carrying an extra dose of medication nor a cell phone with her at the time of her disappearance.
“We are going at it again today and in time we’ll find out what happened, we always do,” stated Angelino.
Police are asking that anyone with any information or who saw the gold Pontiac – license plate FCX-3112 – parked near the Garden Center of The Norwich Wal-Mart to call the Norwich City Police at 334-1212 or the New York State Police, Norwich Barracks at 334-3296.