'Somebody may remember': Friends hope for closure in 1990 missing woman case

Friends of a Long Island woman missing since 1990 say they will never give up hope for closure in her case.
Norine Brown was a mother of two from New Hyde Park. She would have been 32 years old on the day her car was found abandoned in a parking lot on Jericho Turnpike in Garden City Park, the former site of a Pathmark Super Center. That was Dec. 13, 1990.
Elaine Commando, a friend of Brown's, drove up from her current home in South Carolina to meet News 12 at the spot where she found Brown's car. There's now a King Kullen there.
"I wasn't sure why she would park in that spot, at 11 o'clock at night," Commando recalls, pointing to where she found the car. "She probably would have parked closer to the store."
The parking lot is more than a mile away from where Brown was living with her husband John, who told friends and family that his wife had gone out at night to buy ingredients for Christmas cookies.
Brown's sister told News 12 in the early '90s that John and Norine had a rocky relationship and that she believes John killed her.
John Brown hired an attorney, was never named a suspect, and denied any involvement. He answered the door of his New Hyde Park home on Tuesday.
"I think she was murdered," he said. "That's what I think, and we just haven't ever found her. There was a report that a lady seen an argument there."
Extended interviews with Commando and John Brown
The head of Nassau County's homicide unit said in a statement Tuesday: "At the time of the investigation, no other witnesses came forward to support this report, so it could not be verified nor could it be ruled out."
Commando still holds out hope for a resolution to the case.
"Somebody may remember," Commando says. "Somebody maybe, after 28 years, will just come forward and clear their conscience."
News 12 asked detectives if police ever searched the home or backyard of the New Hyde Park apartment where the Browns were living. Police say John Brown "did not grant permission to search any of the family properties and there was insufficient probable cause to obtain a search warrant."
Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800- 244-TIPS.