Police are searching for a Bronx woman who law enforcement sources say vanished on her way to the Veterans Affairs hospital with one of her sons earlier this week, and detectives say blood was found in her car.
Joan Viau, 52, was reported missing by her boyfriend after she was last seen in front of her home on Carlisle Place in Olinville around 1 p.m. Monday, police said.
Viau was headed to the VA hospital with Garcia when she vanished. It's not clear why the mother and son were headed there.
"I think something happened, terrible. I think something happened. But I don't know what happened," Nelson Moreno, Viau's boyfriend of 15 years, said Friday.
Viau's son was being questioned by police on a charge unrelated to her disappearance.
"We have spoken to her son Josef Garcia, we have arrested him for grand larceny for using her credit card at a location," said NYPD Chief Robert Boyce.
Police wouldn't elaborate on why Garcia was using his mother's credit card.
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Viau's car was found in the Bronx Wednesday with blood on a back seat, police say. That prompted crime scene detectives to search her home Thursday, and they were seen walking out with bags of evidence.
Viau's boyfriend and Garcia each has a long history of arrests, but no one has been named a suspect in her disappearance.
Neighbor Wayne Hall said police have been at the building for the last two days, at one point asking for access to the roof, possibly to search for evidence.
A neighbor says Viau always parked her car on the street in front of her home and the neighbor says she saw the missing woman every day until recently.
"I'm just hoping and praying she's OK," said neighbor Damaris Ruiz.
"The woman is such a nice woman, very friendly, and her son very friendly, very nice," said another neighbor, Troy Barber.
She's described as about 5 feet 7 inches, weighing 135 pounds, with brown eyes and salt and pepper hair. She was last seen in a pink shirt and black pants.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
