Fears rise over fate of mom
77-yr.-old vanished before suicide of mentally ill son
Precious time is slipping away in the search for a Brooklyn woman who has been missing since her troubled son’s fiery suicide.
Patricia Ventre, a dog trainer, vanished before her son Jeanpaul Ventre, 46, poured two cans of gasoline on himself and went up in flames in the backyard of their home on Bedford Ave. in Sheepshead Bay before dawn on Tuesday.
“We are very hopeful that we find her, but with each passing day it gets more and more discouraging.” said close family friend Donna Sciacca, 60. “This has just come as a total shock.”
On Thursday afternoon, police continued their search inside 77-year-old Ventre’s home. Blood was found throughout the house and there was evidence of possible decomposition in one closet, a law enforcement source said.
Ventre founded a nonprofit called the World Canine Freestyle Organization, which sponsors doggy dance competitions. Una Meier, a judge with the group, said she has been trying to reach Ventre for about three weeks.
“Her son was having some issues,” Meier said. “He walked the streets, and he heard voices.”
Another friend, Anna Schloff, called Ventre on Monday and spoke to her son, who said his mother was out looking at land to buy to move out of the city.
“It was very unusual for her not to call and tell me she was going out of town. I was just worried about her as a friend,” Schloff explained. “She loved her son. He was her top priority in life. Family was important.”
Schloff called Ventre’s niece, who asked police to do a wellness check. Sources said her son told cops his mom was on a trip.
Jeanpaul Ventre suffered with psychiatric issues — possibly schizophrenia, sources said — and had been on medication for years.
Sciacca said the family didn’t want him demonized.
“He’s struggled. He’s faced his demons all his life. He was diagnosed with a mental illness. He was doing well, and he was on medication,” she said. “Until facts are provided, people may think the worst.”
In 2006, he was arrested by the Secret Service for trespassing at a temporary residence for then-President George W. Bush and his staff near Waco, Texas, court records show.
He received four years probation after serving 30 days in jail, then returned to New York City, where he underwent a mental competency hearing.
“They had their struggles,” Sciacca said of Ventre and her son. “She chose to keep him at home, provided he take his medication. She didn’t want him to be in an institution.”
Meier said the last time she spoke with Ventre, about three weeks ago, the worried mom expressed concern about her son. “He wasn’t doing well,” Meier said. “I suggested she 302 him [have him taken for a mental health evaluation]. She said she’s not doing that.
“She said the last time he was taken to an institution, they mistreated him. She said he would never harm her.”
Sciacca, who shares an apartment with Ventre’s sister, said the last time she saw the pair was over the holidays.
Before she started World Canine Freestyle, Ventre was a competitive ice skater and ballroom dancer. She also ran her own advertising agency and created a popular cat poster, Schloff and Meier said.
The doggy dance group’s Facebook page contains a video of her training her beloved dog, Sassy.
“Canine freestyling is a sport where you must share and bond with your dog,” she says on the video. “You can’t go out and do a routine in front of an audience if you don’t have an electric bond with your dog.”
In addition to clubs in the states, there are also chapters in South Africa, Japan, Australia and Germany.
“I hope they find her,” Meier said.