NEW YORK — A case out of the New York-New Jersey area has gotten my attention and it’s something you may want to follow, especially if you watched our network’s coverage last year of the Melanie McGuire case. McGuire was convicted in New Jersey in April of killing her husband, cutting up his torso, and putting the remains in three suitcases, which ultimately washed up on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

Rosario DiGirolamo, 33, has been charged – also in New Jersey — with first-degree murder in the death of his 27-year-old girlfriend, Amy Giordano. Giordano was last heard from June 8, 2007, and the couple’s young son was found abandoned the next day.

Now, nine months after Giordano disappeared, law enforcement divers are fishing human remains out of a pond in nearby Staten Island and yes, those remains were also originally put in a suitcase. But this suitcase had a hole, so the torso is being recovered piece by piece.

It will be some time before DNA tests can tell whether the remains are Giordano. News reports do not say whether the victim’s entire body was recovered, and this could possibly impede a conviction for the prosecution. Take, for instance, the Texas case of Robert Durst, where the victim’s head was missing, which precluded finding a cause of death.

Durst was acquitted of the murder of victim Morris Black because there was reasonable doubt in the mind of the jury that Durst committed the murder.

One puzzle in the Rosario DiGirolamo case is that John Russo, DiGirolamo’s best friend, was charged with tampering with evidence. He is now cooperating with police and led them to the pond and the remains.

What evidence do prosecutors believe Russo tampered with? A murder weapon? Body parts that could help in an identification? And will New York medical examiners confirm the torso is that of Giordano? Stay tuned, this murder case is just beginning.

– Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent