Coroner: Death Was Suicide

The coroner for the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office has determined that Lilia Esperanza Aucapina, who disappeared in October and whose body was found six weeks later, committed suicide, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said Tuesday.

The coroner’s report was presented to him on Friday by Chief Robert Pearce of the Southampton Town Police Department, in a briefing that focused on the police investigation of the woman’s death. Mr. Pearce was joined in the briefing, said to have lasted a few hours, by the detectives who led the investigation. The coroner’s report was just one aspect of the presentation.

“I do believe the police took the matter extremely seriously from the start,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “Though it began as a missing person investigation, it was treated as a possible homicide, and all necessary precautions and steps were taken to secure evidence.” He said that town police were in contact with the county’s homicide and detective squads throughout the investigation. “The amount of man hours devoted to this were significant. It is a very sad, very tragic incident. I will make everything available to the family.”

The supervisor is meeting with the family, along with Foster Maer of JusticeLatino, a civil rights group based in Manhattan, on March 18.

Ms. Aucapina was last seen alive on the morning of Oct. 10, during a confrontation between a male companion, Angel Tejada, and her husband, Carlos Aucapina, in the parking lot of the Meeting House Lane Medical Practice on Montauk Highway in Wainscott. Also involved in the confrontation between the two was her brother, Carlos Parra.

Ms. Aucapina, who had applied for and received an order of protection against her husband shortly before her disappearance, failed to show up about two hours later to pick up her daughter in Sag Harbor. She was reported missing at about 9:30 that night.

Intensive searches were conducted in the woods surrounding Topping’s Path in Sagaponack, where she and her estranged husband lived, to no avail. A hunter found her body on Nov. 21 in a densely wooded area, after the leaves were off the trees.

“There is no question that this woman, Lilia Aucapina, took her life under very sad circumstances,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

It was important, he said, “to prevent similar situations. I think this exposed within the community a certain distrust that we need to explore and address. I want everyone to know that no life is less valuable than another, we need to make sure that our public has full confidence in our law enforcement.”

Mr. Maer has criticized what he called a lack of communication between the police and the Aucapina family. Mr. Schneiderman said steps would be taken to improve connections between police and families caught in similar situations.