After two vigilant Secaucus police officers recovered a murdered girl’s body last Sunday, accolades poured into the department, although both officers involved declined to discuss their heroism last week.
Secaucus Administrator Anthony Iacono said that both the Morris and Bergen County prosecutor’s offices called Mayor Dennis Elwell to praise the officer’s part in the apprehension of the suspects.
The events unfolded last weekend after Sgt. Glenn Amodeo, a 22-year veteran of the Secaucus police force, spotted two teenaged boys struggling with a trunk on a bridge over the Passaic River while he was on the way back from issuing summons to speeding motorcyclists he had pursued from Secaucus to Clifton.He and Secaucus Police Officer Robert D. Ulrich Jr., who had responded to his call for backup, were heading back to home base when he saw the youths with the trunk near a Jeep parked on the bridge. The officers stopped to investigate and found a dismembered body in the trunk. The body was that of 16-year-old Jennifer Parks, a Randolph, N.J. resident. She had apparently been stuffed into the large steamer trunk and was about to be thrown into the Passaic River off the Union Avenue bridge on Route 3, near Rutherford. Jonathan A. Zarate, 18, who was at the wheel of the Grand Cherokee Jeep, was arrested along with his 14-year-old brother and another teen. The trio were next-door neighbors and acquaintances of the murdered girl. “The town of Secaucus is extremely proud of the above-and-beyond efforts of these officers in their alertness and attention in this horrific crime,” said Iacono. “I would like to believe that every officer would be that exacting but we are proud to have these guys as our own. As parents, we can all understand how terrible this must be for the Parks family.”
The unthinkable
According to a press release from the Morris County Prosecutor’s office, after Amodeo discovered the body, he called Rutherford police and secured the scene until Bergen County prosecutor’s office personnel arrived. The body of the murdered girl was taken to the Bergen County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. The cause of death was determined to be blunt trauma to the face and body; stab wounds to the neck and abdomen, and mechanical asphyxiation.
According to Morris Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation so far indicates that Parks had gone over to Zarate’s house on Friday night to watch TV. The two had an argument, officials said, and Zarate allegedly “punched [her] in the face, beat her with a metal pole, and stabbed her multiple times … then severed the legs of the victim and placed her body in the trunk.”
Parks parents reported their only daughter missing on Saturday at 11:45 a.m., officials said. Parks’ body had been in the Jeep, which belonged to Zarate’s father, for over 24 hours when Amodeo found her.
The unconscionable
Zarate is in custody in Morristown at the Morris County Correctional facility. His bail has been set at $1 million, according to the Morris County Prosecutor’s press release. He is charged with first-degree murder, four weapons charges, hindering apprehension, and two charges of employing the use of a juvenile. The murder charge can carry a sentence up to 30 years incarceration.
Anthony Fusco Jr., the attorney for Zarate, said Zarate is considering an insanity plea or diminished capacity defense, according to a report in the Star Ledger newspaper.
The two juveniles were charged in Bergen County with unlawful disposal of human remains and tampering with evidence. In Morris County, they were charged with conspiracy to commit hindering apprehension. They were sent to the Morris County Juvenile Detention Center.
Parks and Zarate may have traded text messages prior to the murder, according to the Record of Hackensack.
Investigators have seized the two teens’ computers to pursue the belief that they had been communicating over time. A motive or cause of the murder had not been established as of press time.
Many law enforcement officers in effort
Law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation include Secaucus Police Department, Rutherford Police Department, Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, Randolf Township Police Department, Morris County Sheriff’s K-9 and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent State – a computer crime cooperative) Units, Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, and Bergen County BCI (Bureau of Criminal Investigation) Unit.
“I would like to thank all the officers involved for their effective, efficient and timely response to this crime,” said Morris County Prosecutor Michael M. Rubbinaccio.
Police officials also expressed their condolences to the parents, family members and friends of the victim and her family.
Detective Captain John Buckley of the Secaucus Police Department and Deputy Chief Paul Kalleberg of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office said they could not comment on the case or release any additional information due to the nature of the investigation and out of respect for the family of the victim.