Missing Orthodox Woman Found Dead in New Jersey River

Devorah Stubin found dead in Passaic River. Image by Google Earth, Handout

By John A. Oswald January 18, 2016

Mourners bid farewell Sunday to 22-year-old Devorah Stubin, whose body was found in her submerged car in New Jersey’s Passaic River the day before.

Details are emerging about the final hours before Stubin, who was known to suffer seizures, vanished.

CBS2 in New York reports that she was stopped by cops in Maywood, N.J. around 8:30 p.m. this past Thursday. She was driving without headlights said cops, who sent her on her way with directions after she told them she was lost,

JTA reports the Orthodox woman’s upside down car was pulled out of the river in Wallington Saturday night and her body positively identified Sunday morning.

Services were held at the Jewish Memorial Chapel in Clifton.

“But for a girl who had so many difficulties even waking up, a girl that had so much trouble utilizing her energy throughout the day because of fatigue and chronic syndromes of all types, she never stopped yearning,” the dead woman’s dad Avraham Stubin, reportedly said.

“Despite her medical issues she graduated college and was going to start a new job Monday,” longtime friend Vanessa Meghnagi told NJ.com.

Hundreds of people, many of them Jewish, searched for Stubin through the Sabbath, and were heartbroken when it all ended in tragedy.

Police continue to investigate.

John Oswald is The Forward’s deputy digital media editor.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO