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Police search woods for missing New Jersey mom

  • Story Highlights
  • Anonymous call on August 20 reported Liza Murphy missing, police say
  • Search centers on woods around a reservoir in New Jersey
  • Her husband hospitalized after walking into oncoming traffic last week, police say
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From Sarah B. Boxer
CNN
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Police on Tuesday scoured a wooded area surrounding a large reservoir in New Jersey, trying to find any evidence of a woman who has been missing for more than a week, police said.

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Liza Murphy was reported missing on August 20, police say.

Investigators do not plan to search the water, according to Brian Yehley, an Emerson, New Jersey, police dispatcher.

Police conducted a preliminary search of the area Friday for Liza Murphy, 42, of Emerson. Authorities increased their manpower Tuesday and plan to comb through "several hundred acres," Yehley said.

He would not comment on why that area was being searched.

Emerson police received an anonymous phone call August 20 that Murphy had last been seen the previous day.

Murphy has "made no contact with any of her family members or close friends, which makes us concerned, of course," Emerson Police Chief Michael Saudino told CNN's "Nancy Grace" on Monday.

"And more so that she hasn't tried to contact her three children."

The Bergen (New Jersey) Record reported on its Web site that 200 people, including police officers from dozens of departments and civilian volunteers, took part in the search effort.

Murphy's husband, Joseph Murphy, remained at Hackensack University Medical Center with injuries sustained after walking into oncoming traffic Friday, police and hospital officials said.

Reports quoting police said he had tried to commit suicide, but Yehley would not confirm that information to CNN.

Police told The Record that Murphy told them his wife had left the house on August 19 after an argument. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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