Husband of Missing Sagaponack Woman Vows To Help Cops

A Sagaponack man questioned by police and then arrested after the disappearance of his wife last month proclaimed his innocence this week and said he believes she is still alive.

Lilia Aucapina, 40, was reported missing on Oct. 10, a little more than 12 hours after her husband, Carlos R. Aucapina, allegedly met her and a man she was with, Angel Tejada, in the parking lot of the Meeting House Lane Medical Practice in Wainscott. Police said there was an altercation between the two men, and that Ms. Aucapina did not get involved. Still, police said, the incident was a violation of a court order of protection she had against her husband.

Mr. Aucapina said he had provided the police with a full accounting of his whereabouts in the immediate aftermath of his last meeting with his wife.

He is a freelance carpenter, and after leaving the Wainscott parking lot, he went to pick up his work truck and met with several clients throughout the day, he said by phone yesterday.

The first sign that something was wrong, he said, was when his wife failed to pick up their 14-year-old daughter at 11 a.m. The girl was playing field hockey in Sag Harbor.

The couple’s 21-year-old son, Ronald Aucapina, reported his mother missing at about 9:30 that night. “Her car ends up in the driveway of her house, with her pocketbook and keys inside,” said Colin Astarita, Mr. Aucapina’s attorney.

Also troubling, he said, were the final two text messages that she sent to each of her children from her phone, telling them to always remember “that mommy loves you,” Mr. Astarita said. The phone has not been found.

While no crime could be proven, police immediately treated Mr. Aucapina as a suspect in his wife’s disappearance, Mr. Astarita said. They picked him up for questioning an hour after receiving the call from her son.

Ms. Aucapina was granted an order of protection against her husband in family court in Riverside just days before her disappearance, but Mr. Aucapina contends that the two were not in the process of getting a divorce, as had been previously reported. His wife had asked for the order, and he had consented to it, he said, because she needed “more space.” Mr. Aucapina was questioned throughout the night following his wife’s disappearance and into the morning, before he was finally placed under arrest, charged in Southampton with an earlier alleged violation of the order of protection, for driving by her house. Mr. Astarita said that the Aucapinas had agreed that the husband would move out of their house on Topping Lane, and into a house owned by a friend next door. He said the charge should never have been brought, since it was not possible for Mr. Aucapina to drive to and from work without passing his family’s house next door.

Mr. Aucapina’s truck, his car, and his trailer with his tools in it were seized by police, Mr. Astarita said, and have not been returned.

After being charged, he was arraigned on Oct. 11 in Southampton Town Justice Court, where bail was initially set at $15,000. It was Columbus Day weekend, and, according to Blanca Aucapina, Mr. Aucapina’s sister, who was also at the attorney’s office with him on Tuesday, the family could not immediately raise the money for bail.

Mr. Aucapina spent the next few days in county jail in Riverside, with East Hampton Town police obtaining a warrant on a second charge of violating the order of protection, this stemming from the alleged incident in Wainscott on Oct. 10. After his bail in Southampton was reduced, at the request of Mr. Astarita, to $10,000, and posted, Mr. Aucapina was then turned over to East Hampton Town police. He was arraigned on the second charge a week after his wife’s disappearance.

"We got him; let’s find the body” was the attitude of the police, Mr. Astarita said.

Mr. Aucapina posted bail at the East Hampton Town Justice Court after his arraignment and was released, having spent a week in jail.

Police have mounted manhunts for Ms. Aucapina using K-9 units, helicopters, and even harbor patrol, searching 200 wooded acres near the couple’s house, among other places, to no avail.

"I believe in my gut that Lilia is still alive,” Mr. Aucapina said Tuesday in his lawyer’s office.

He and his wife, who originally come from Cuenca, Ecuador, have been married for 21 years. They were members of the Ministerio Restauracion a las Naciones church in Southampton. Ms. Aucapina was described by both her husband and her family as very religious. Both said she had never disappeared or gone off alone before.

"She has been a very dedicated wife and mother,” Mr. Aucapina said.

Their extended families were very close. That day in the parking lot in Wainscott, Mr. Aucapina had even called his wife’s brother, Carlos Parra, who joined him there.

Mr. Tejada had told police that Ms. Aucapina had spent the night with him before the confrontation in Wainscott. He told them that Mr. Aucapina knew about his friendship with Ms. Aucapina, which he described as “close.” Mr. Aucapina denied this, but said he was aware the two were friends on Facebook. Mr. Aucapina said his wife had four Facebook accounts.

According to him, it was Mr. Tejada, who is from Guatemala, who was the aggressor, challenging him to a fight.

Since Oct. 10, a divide has opened between Mr. Aucapina and his wife’s family. That, Mr. Astarita said, is one of the reasons his client consented to take a polygraph test at Suffolk County Police headquarters in Yaphank on Monday.

It is his hope that the two families can work together to find the missing woman. He has released several new images of his wife, and said he will request that a bilingual detective be assigned to the case. “Lilia’s close friends speak Spanish and little English,” he said.

Results of the polygraph, which are not admissible in court, are expected to be available by Monday.

"I feel powerless,” Mr. Aucapina said. “I want to do something myself to search for my wife. I want to do more.”

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