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Body Found In South Jersey Lake Identified

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By Robin Rieger

OAKLYN, N.J. (CBS) – Friends and co-workers of a South Jersey woman are coping with the bizarre circumstances surrounding her death.

Fifty-five-year-old Charlene Ferrero of Oaklyn drowned accidentally, according to the Oaklyn Police Department. Her body was pulled from Newton Lake Monday evening.

Police believe it’s possible that Ferrero may have been sleepwalking down her street Saturday night into Sunday.

They say she may have fallen from a train trestle that crosses the lake between her neighborhood and Collingswood.

“I’m going to miss her. When I would walk with her, I’d be laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe,” said Teresa Cerini, Ferrero’s friend and neighbor.

Cerini says she got worried Sunday morning when Ferrero’s cell phone was found in the grass nearby and her apartment door was unlocked.

“I noticed her pocketbook sitting on the chair, and her wallet and key’s sitting on top. The only thing I touched was her keys, (I) locked the door and called police.”

Ferrero’s car was damaged and police say witnesses confirm she drove it Saturday night, but they don’t know what she hit.

“Everybody’s in denial, we just can’t believe it”, said Rita Brown.

Ferrero’s customers and co-workers at the Starview Diner in Somerdale are trying to cope with her death and the circumstances surrounding it.

“Wouldn’t she wake up when she hit the water if she was sleepwalking,” asked Brown.

“It’s really disturbing to all of us. Sleepwalking, none of us knew that ever happened with her,” said coworker Susan Murtaugh.

The flag outside the diner has been lowered in her memory.

“Good friend, good worker, never let me down. When I needed her, she was always there,” said diner owner Michael Vasilakis.

After midnight Saturday, police responded to Ferrero’s Oaklyn neighborhood when they got a call about a woman walking around in her pajamas. They never found the woman.

Sunday morning Ferrero was reported missing.

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  • noname

    @ Raps – Ambien is exactly what i was thinking. i never believed it until i saw it first hand. One morning a family member was in the kitchen, i had a full pleasant conversation with her while she was making coffee. then i turned my back to say good bye and she snapped. What…what did you just say. she’s yelling at me. i said nothing and ran out the door. i called her later before returning to inquire what was the matter and she had no idea what i was talking about. no memory at all. checking with the rest of the family they seen this too as soon as she started taking Ambien. scary. you can function yet be asleep. i doubt the water would of woken her up.

  • Sean Patriot

    This is a complete BS story and a lie.

  • John C

    Sounds more like suicide, especially since there was no history of sleep walking.

  • Reverend Justito

    All the more reason to use cannabis as a sleep aid and not chemicals produced by multi-billion dollar corporations.

  • Raps

    Another Ambien user?

  • Hawaii Ray

    Was she on one of those perscription sleep aids?

  • Ben Dover

    Cops have got to be the biggest dips in the world….maybe she was abducted by by aliens and dumped in the lake after being “examined”…i’d believe that horsedump as much as their Einstein Theory….

  • http://www.fastnews.tv/?p=133210 COPS: Woman Sleepwalked Down Street, Fell Off Train Trestle Into Lake, Drowned… | Breaking News

    [...] (Third column, 20th story, link) [...]

  • Humpy J. Brown

    If cops had to investigate EVERY suspicious death in their jurisdiction, how would they EVER get time for lunch and a little snooze mid shift? C’mon. Some things just happen.

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