1990 New Jersey cold case cracked after North Carolina man's arrest, police say
A North Carolina man has been arrested in connection with the decades-old murder of a woman in Vernon Township, New Jersey.
Robert William McCaffrey Jr., 54, was taken into custody Friday night at his home in North Carolina and charged with the 1990 kidnapping and murder of 27-year-old Lisa Marie McBride.
New DNA evidence solves cold case, police say
The Sussex County Prosecutor's Office said McCaffrey used to reside in the county and that the case was solved through advancements in DNA technology, "combined with the relentless investigative efforts of detectives" across the state.
The New Jersey State Police said McCaffrey's DNA was entered into an FBI database and they were able to match it with a key piece of evidence after exhuming McBride's remains in 2022.
Police said McCaffrey's DNA was collected in 2018 when he served a prison sentence in South Carolina for obstructing an investigation into his wife's disappearance back in 2012. His wife's body has not been found.
McCaffrey is being held at a North Carolina detention center pending a hearing for extradition to New Jersey. He is being charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree burglary, Prosecutor Daniel Perez said.
The death of Lisa Marie McBride
McBride was reported missing from her home in the Highland Lakes neighborhood of Vernon Township. Her remains were discovered near the Pennsylvania border on June 23, 1990.
Daryl Eastlake, who was 9-year-old at the time, remembers when the disturbing case came to light.
"The day that they found her body, unfortunately me and my family were coming across the Dingman's Ferry Bridge, we saw that. I happened to move on to the street that she lived on and I also worked for the same company that she did," Eastlake said. "There's a lot of people who wanted some sort of closure to what was going on."
Eastlake, who lives nextdoor to McBride's old home, said investigators came to her house in 2022.
"They were just asking if, when I bought the house, if there was anything unusual that we found, maybe during construction or anything," Eastlake said.
Anyone with information related to this case is urged to contact the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office at (973) 383-1570.
