A long time after a girl was killed and her physique was dumped within the woods of New Jersey, a suspect has been extradited from Canada to face homicide fees, in line with regulation enforcement.
It was through the afternoon of Nov. 4, 1997, that the physique of Tammy Tignor was discovered close to a mountain climbing path off Gilbride Street in Bridgewater, close to Washington Valley Park. The 23-year-old had been strangled and her loss of life was dominated to be a murder.
It was an ATV rider who had discovered Tignor’s physique on the dust entry highway that resulted in a cul-de-sac, Somerset County Prosecutor John McDonald mentioned. Bridgewater police and Somerset County investigators searched the woods for days, in search of any proof or clues that might cause them to the killer. However for years, the case remained unsolved.
DNA proof discovered on the Newark girl’s physique offered no solutions. Her household, in the meantime, suffered the agony of shedding their daughter whereas understanding the one who killed her was strolling free.
“Tammy’s mom called our office every year on November 4, the anniversary of Tammy’s death, looking for an update,” mentioned Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Mike McLaughlin.
Tignor has been lifeless longer than she was alive.
For years, investigators with the county’s main crimes and chilly case items, together with city police, continued to look into the mysterious killing.
In Jan. 2023, proof within the case was allowed to be resubmitted for DNA testing, which the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned could not have been doable in earlier years. Just a few months later, state police acquired a excessive stringency match based mostly on on resubmitted proof for a doable suspect within the case: Robert Creter.
A primary-degree homicide cost in opposition to Creter was licensed in Might 2023, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned, however there was a problem: Creter had since moved to Winnipeg, Canada, in 2002. After the Somerset County prosecutor’s workplace labored with the U.S. Division of State, Creter was taken into custody on June 27, 2024, by Canadian authorities based mostly on the warrant for his arrest in New Jersey,
Simply earlier than Thanksgiving, there was a giant improvement within the seek for justice for Tignor: On Tuesday, Creter was extradited again to New Jersey and brought into custody in connection to the killing practically three many years in the past.
“It has been 27 years, 9,885 days since her body was found,” mentioned McLaughlin. “I spoke with the victim’s mother. I told her that we had arrested the man who killed her daughter. It was incredibly emotional. She was very thankful to our detectives today and our detectives at the time.”
Prosecutors mentioned it was not a genealogical DNA discovering made by way of a member of the family, however slightly was a case the place New Jersey State Police used new DNA testing to run the pattern once more and examine it to CODIS, a DNA index system, which led to a match for Creter.
“I spoke with the victim’s mother— I told her we arrested the man who killed her daughter, it was very emotional and she was grateful to our detectives today and at the time,” mentioned
Creter’s first court docket look was scheduled for Wednesday morning in Somerville.
County officers mentioned Monday that there are eight different chilly instances they had been investigating, and hope the DNA expertise will give households of these victims hope that justice remains to be doable, even many years later.
“The arrest of a suspect on this decades-old case is a testomony to the unwavering dedication of regulation enforcement to hunt justice, irrespective of how a lot time has handed,” mentioned Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.
