Police Search For Body Of Edina Woman Killed By Boyfriend
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Police are searching for the body of a missing Edina woman, as her boyfriend sits in an Arkansas jail.
Cristina Prodan, 27, has not been since last week. Her mother, Livia Prodan, said her daughter's boyfriend – 25-year-old Joseph Porter – is in custody, and appears to have burns across his face.
"She liked very much to help people, and very beautiful," Prodan said.
It was that desire to help that Prodan believes is behind the Facebook relationship that first connected her daughter to Porter, who is from Arkansas.
Prodan says Porter moved to Minnesota to live with her daughter in her Edina apartment this past fall.
"She wanted to get married," Prodan said.
Before long, Prodan says she was begging her daughter to call it off.
"Even if they're saying, 'I love you,' they're lying," she said. "It's not love from the heart, just from the lips, from the mouth."
WCCO looked into Porter's troubled past: charges for burglary and battery. In one case, a girlfriend wrote that Porter "beat her unconscious … and killed her dog violently."
In December, it was Cristina calling for help. Porter was ordered to stay away from her after his arrest last month.
But Prodan says her daughter took him back, leading to her worst fears last week.
"I know … something is wrong because she didn't answering the phone, no message, no nothing," Prodan said.
Edina police are not saying much yet about this case, only that they responded to a call about a missing person on last Friday.
Online records show Porter was booked into an Arkansas jail on Wednesday with what appears to burns on his face.
While police are not publicly saying what happened, Prodan says two officers told her Thursday that her daughter is dead.
"He took the life of my daughter, so young," Prodan said.
She says police also told her they have not been able to find her daughter's body.
The FBI also confirmed to WCCO they are aware of the case.
Edina police said several other law enforcement agencies are also involved.
