Police call disappearance of bar owner suspicious

WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — Police are calling the disappearance of a Connecticut bar owner “suspicious,” and want to question her boyfriend after his car was found at a New Jersey airport.

Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo on Monday said “things right now are grim” in the search for 26-year-old Janet Avalo-Alvarez.

Avalo-Alvarez was last seen Nov. 12 at La Guacara Taina, the Waterbury bar she co-owns with her boyfriend, Alfredo Esmerli Peguero-Gomez.

Police went to the home the couple shared the next day, and he said he didn’t know where she had gone.

Police say Peguero-Gomez left the home at about 1 a.m. Nov. 14. His car was found in short-term parking at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Spagnolo says Peguero-Gomez has family in the Dominican Republic, but it’s unclear if he flew there.