Woman’s Body Found In Delaware River February 1999



Seven weeks after the disappearance of Marianna Parent, the body of the 63-year-old Brookhaven woman was pulled from the Delaware River.

An autopsy completed determined the cause of death to be drowning, according the the Delaware County medical examiner. Though the manner of death was undetermined, it was most likely a suicide, he said.

On December 23, 1998, Parent walked out of her elderly mother’s senior citizen complex in Ridley Township after making coffee stating that she was going to get candy from her car and would be right back. She was never seen again until the recovery of her body.

Her car was recovered in late January at the bottom of a 100’ steep embankment in Ridley Township about a block from her mother’s home.

Subsequent to finding the car, officials called in Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue, a tri-state emergency response search and rescue department based in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. They were assisted by Northeast Search and Tactical Rescue, Gloucester County Search and Rescue and the Pennsylvania State Military Reserve.

Utilizing 50 searchers with specially trained canines, they were able to determine after a full day of searching, that the victim was not in the area in which her vehicle was found.

Chief Labov of Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue stated, “more than likely the victim fell into the creek and was carried into the Delaware River during a storm in late December which created a swiftwater effect in the creek.”

Apparently, this was confirmed in early February, as the victims body was spotted by a tug boat operator along the edge of the Delaware River approximately half a mile from where the creek feeds into the Delaware River.