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When Stephanie Parze’s father learned that his daughter was missing, he immediately had a suspect in mind: her ex-boyfriend.

“I didn’t like this person from day one,” Ed Parze told Fox News Digital. “There was never any eye contact with this guy. He was there and there was not. I even said to my daughter, ‘I don’t like this. You have to be careful with him.’ He was weird. I had a gut feeling from day one. … I just said, ‘It’s him.'”

The New Jersey-based makeup artist’s case is being investigated in Investigation Discovery’s (ID) true-crime series “Deadly Influence,” which delves into the underbelly of social media and sheds light on the dark reality of toxic online communities.

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Stephanie Parze was a social media influencer and makeup artist from New Jersey. (Investigation and discovery)

“I’m talking about this because we need to raise awareness so this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Ed said. “It’s also keeping Stephanie alive.”

Ed described his daughter as a 5-foot-tall “firework” who had a passion for art. She quickly developed a following on social media.

“I didn’t realize she had such an influence on social media until after the incident,” Ed admitted. “I knew she was active on social media and posted art there. She was always sending me stuff and I thought it was great. But I didn’t realize how quickly she had built up a following.”

Ed Parze, Stephanie Parze’s father, spoke out in the ID true crime series “Deadly Influence.” (Investigation and discovery)

On an online dating site, Parze met John Ozbilgen, a New Jersey stockbroker who worked on Staten Island, Ed said. The pair interacted through social media before hitting it off in person.

“It happened very quickly,” Ed recalled.

But the relationship was turbulent. According to the series, Parze accused Ozbilgen of physical assault. She wanted to end the relationship.

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According to the series, Stephanie Parze met John Ozbilgen on a dating site. (Investigation and discovery)

Ed said he initially tried to warn his daughter against a relationship with 29-year-old Ozbilgen.

“She always said, ‘Give him a chance, he’s shy. Once you get to know him, you’ll like him,'” Ed said. “What do you say? Here’s my 25-year-old, independent, strong daughter. She knows what she’s doing. You hope you’re wrong. But I still had that gut feeling. And then my gut feeling was right.”

Parze was last seen on October 30, 2019. She left her parents’ home after a night out with relatives. She then drove back to her late grandmother’s nearby home, but did not show up for a nanny job the next day. Her car and phone were discovered on the property, but there were no signs of forced entry.

According to the series, Stephanie Parze was killed on October 31, 2019. (Investigation and discovery)

“Stephanie only lived about six minutes from here,” Ed said. “She always called and texted when she came home. But when 25 minutes went by and we didn’t hear anything, we knew immediately something was wrong.”

Parze’s mother frantically called her daughter, but got no answer. Ed had hoped that his daughter, probably tired from the evening’s celebrations, would put her phone on silent and go to bed. But he still felt uneasy.

“If you blew up her phone, she’d call you right away,” Ed said. “We went to bed that night not knowing what had happened. The next morning, we still hadn’t gotten the call. Then we went to the house. … We couldn’t find her at all. No one had seen her. And that’s when the search began.”

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The Parze family held a rally at Freehold Township High School to continue the “Bring Steph Home” campaign, and several volunteers went to search for her. (Picture)

Parze’s family organized a search party to find the influencer. More than 100 volunteers, many of them online followers, helped.

“I went on Facebook every night and started posting,” Ed said. “More and more people started reaching out and wanting to help. It really touched me. … I didn’t realize how far those posts were reaching people. … A lot of people just recognized Stephanie by her face and the fact that she was constantly online.”

Ozbilgen became a target of investigators. According to the series, they found that he had sent Parze 10 angry, unanswered text messages the night before she disappeared.

John Ozbilgen, the ex-boyfriend of Stephanie Parze, arrives at State Superior Court in Freehold on November 19, 2019. (Thomas P. Costello/Asbury Park Press/Image Press)

On November 8, 2019, Ozbilgen was arrested and charged with third-degree child endangerment – possession of child pornography, the Monmouth County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. During the investigation into Parze’s disappearance, images were found on his phone. He remained in custody until November 19, when he was released.

On November 22, 2019, Ozbilgen committed suicide. Although he was never charged in Parze’s disappearance, he left a note claiming he was responsible for her murder.

Ed said he received an anonymous call that day. All he heard was, “He’s dead. He hanged himself.” The mysterious caller hung up.

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Ed Parze said he “freaked out” after learning that John Ozbilgen, a person of interest in the disappearance of his daughter Stephanie Parze, had committed suicide. (Picture)

“I freaked out,” Ed said. “I lost myself. I was punching the walls. I was throwing things. I was screaming. I freaked out because I thought he was the only one who knew where she was. I got in my car and drove to his house, which was only about three minutes away.”

“There I met a detective who got me out of there. … But I resisted. I said, ‘I have to know. Is that true? Is there anything left behind? Are there any notes? … Someone has to know something.’ (The detective) said, ‘Yes, it’s true. He’s gone. He hanged himself, but that’s all we can tell you.'”

A tribute to Stephanie Parze in front of her family home. (Picture)

“There were two notes,” Ed said. “But no one still knew where she was. We were going to keep searching until we found her.”

In the message to his parents, Ozbilgen said he had had enough and could not go to prison for life. What his parents were hearing on the news was “true, except for the child pornography charges,” said Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni. Ozbilgen also wrote that he had “dug himself into a deep hole” and “this was the only choice.”

Investigators near the site in Old Bridge where Stephanie Parze’s body was found. (Picture)

In January 2020, human remains of two teenagers walking south on Route 9 were discovered in Old Bridge. Authorities confirmed they were Stephanie. Due to the state of decomposition, authorities reportedly could not determine how Parze was killed.

Ed’s work didn’t stop after Stephanie’s funeral. On his daughter’s birthday that same year, he founded the Stephanie Nicole Parze Foundation. Its goal is to “provide education, intervention and support to families and individuals facing domestic violence, sexual abuse and missing loved ones.”

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Stephanie Parze’s casket is carried from St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Freehold on January 31, 2020. (Picture)

“We want to save lives and prevent this from happening to other people,” Ed said. “Our membership has grown from six to 128. Right now we cover the entire state of New Jersey. … We offer about 13 different programs to the public … from self-defense classes to alarm systems. We are trying to get a bill passed for Stephanie’s Law, which would create a public registry for domestic violence cases.”

Ed Parze founded the Stephanie Nicole Parze Foundation to keep his late daughter’s legacy alive. (Investigation and discovery)

Today, Ed hopes Parze’s story will encourage other parents to be as vigilant as possible with their children.

“I always tell students, ‘Love is blind,'” Ed said. “It’s an old cliche, but there’s truth in it. You don’t know what’s happening to you because you’re blind to it. You don’t realize you’re being manipulated. You don’t realize the person is controlling you and isolating you from your friends and family. But your friends will see. Your siblings will see. Your parents will know.”

“Love is blind,” Stephanie Parze’s father Ed told Fox News Digital. (Investigation and discovery)

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“If you’re going through something, don’t hide from your loved ones,” Ed said. “Tell someone what’s going on in your life, especially if you’re breaking up with someone. Make sure you tell someone you broke up with someone because you don’t know what’s going on in the other person’s head at that point. The most dangerous part is during the breakup. That’s when people are most vulnerable. That’s when most murders happen.”