NORTH BERGEN AND BEYOND – At a press conference held this afternoon, Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel officially announced that a North Bergen man who went missing in Atlantic City two weeks ago was murdered.
Atlantic County Medical Examiner Dr. Hydow Park determined that Martin Cabellero, 47, of North Bergen, was allegedly killed by multiple stab wounds to the chest. Caballero’s body was found on a west Atlantic County farm on last Sunday.
Housel also announced that the additional charge of murder had been made against his alleged captors, Craig Arno, 44, of Atlantic City, and Jessica Kisby, 24, of Egg Harbor Township.
Arno and Kisby, both of whom had been released from jail in the last three months, appeared in front of Judge Michael Donio at the Atlantic County Criminal Court this past Wednesday. Both pleaded not guilty for the carjacking and kidnapping charges brought against them. Kisby waived the reading of the charges against her, according to the Atlantic City Prosecutor’s Office.
Housel announced the additional charges of murder, felony murder, and weapons offenses against the couple.
Arno was charged with arson and hindering apprehension for allegedly setting fire to Caballero’s vehicle in Gloucester Township.
The couple’s bail was increased to $2 million, with no ten percent bail bond option.
North Bergen resident Martin Caballero, 47, travelled to Atlantic City on May 21 to help celebrate his daughter’s 22nd birthday. After he dropped off his wife, he went to park his car in the Trump Taj Mahal Casino’s self-park lot, where Atlantic City Police said he was carjacked and kidnapped. The couple allegedly used his ATM card and bought gas before setting his car on fire behind a building in Gloucester County.
The duo was arrested last Friday at the Golden Key motel in the West Atlantic City section of Egg Harbor Township, the same place where four dead prostitutes were found outside in a drainage ditch in 2006.
“I want to say for the benefit of the public that according to the allegations, the alleged offenses were random in nature,” said Housel on Thursday. “This crime is not indicative of a pattern of crime in Atlantic City. It is one of those things that happens once in a generation or in a decade.”
For more on this story, read this weekend’s North Bergen Reporter. – Tricia Tirella