NJ - Nancy Noga, 17, murdered, Sayreville, 7 Jan 1999 *arrest in 2021*

It's been 16 years since the body of 17-year-old high-school student Nancy Noga was found in a wooded area behind the Mini Mart Plaza shopping center...

Noga was killed Jan. 7, 1999, some time after she left her job at Rag Shop on Route 9 in Old Bridge and began walking home to the Skytop Gardens off Ernston Road about 15 minutes away. Her frozen body, however, wasn't found until Jan. 12, when a man walking his dog noticed her. Investigators said she was killed by a blow to the head with a blunt object.

Click to expand...

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/stor...cy-noga-murder-sayreville-cold-case/21654391/
A reward (undetermined size) is being offered.

I hope someone comes forward.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/14/nyregion/after-a-schoolgirl-s-slaying-fear-grips-a-community.html


"The death has shattered the comfortable suburban rhythm. ''Of course, there is the shock, there is the grieving process, but there is also anger,'' said Arnold T. Oftedal, the principal at Sayreville War Memorial High School, where Miss Noga was in the top half of her class of 299 seniors. ''The female students in particular are angry that it happened and that it happened here in town or Old Bridge, right across the street.''

Cold case: Who killed Sayreville High School student Nancy Noga 20 years ago?

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Jan. 7, 1999 day Noga was reported missing by her family. Her body was found Jan. 12, 1999 and in the years since, no one has ever been charged with her killing.

And despite the two-decades-long time gap, Noga's unsolved death remains on the minds of law enforcement and her friends. A reward of up to $1,000 is offered by Crime Stoppers of Middlesex County for information that leads to the arrest of a suspect in the case.

Click to expand...

Nancy Noga's murder may have been found: Man charged in 22-year-old cold case murder of N.J. teen

Arrest made in 1999 cold case murder of Sayreville teen

SAYREVILLE — An indictment returned by a grand jury Tuesday led to the arrest of a Barnegat man who is now charged with killing a 17-year-old high school senior decades ago, in one of New Jersey's most notorious cold cases.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office said Bruce A. Cymanski, 49, was arrested near his home following a brief foot pursuit involving members of that office as well as the Barnegat and Sayreville police departments.

DNA cold case: New Jersey man charged in 1999 bludgeoning death of high school senior

SAYREVILLE, N.J. — Genetic genealogists have once again used DNA evidence and ancestry websites to track down an alleged killer.

New Jersey authorities earlier this month announced the arrest of a Barnegat man who has been linked by genetics to the murder of Sayreville high schooler Nancy Kathleen Noga. The 17-year-old was reported missing Jan. 7, 1999, when she failed to come home from her part-time job.

oh wow this is amazing. Havent checked on this case in years, was just going through some of my old followed threads checking for updates and glad to see they have found this monster and her family can know hes been caught

Paywall for me:


Murder trial depends on DNA

Excerpts from the article in the Asbury Park Press are below--I tried to trim as much extraneous info as I could before sharing, but frankly this is written and organized in such a poor way that it's unclear what the actual issue with the DNA even IS--I'd be grateful to anyone who can summarize the goings-on here in a few short, easy to understand statements because I'm lost. My comments are in bold.

"Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Alexander Battey plans to send a formal request to the FBI through the state laboratory this week, about whether the federal database DNA profiles of two brothers of defendant Bruce Cymanski can be provided for comparison to the DNA found on Noga more than 20 years ago. (IS BATTEY REQUESTING THE ACTUAL DNA PROFILES OR IS HE MERELY ASKING THE FBI IF THE PROFILES CAN BE LEGALLY RELEASED?)

It's unclear how long a response to the request will take.

"This is the biggest issue that remains for the defense," said defense attorney Jason Seidman, who wants to have his own DNA expert analyze the data.

During a 60-minute court hearing Thursday, Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone said he has already denied a motion to dismiss the indictment. (IMO, this is an example of poor journalism--what indictment is being referred to here? What relevance does this sentence have to the material that precedes it?)

[...]

Paone explained that at a previous court session, he issued an order at the request of the defense, and consent of the state, to direct that the Combined DNA Index System, a national DNA database known as CODIS, profiles for Cymanski's brother and half-brother be released as part of the case.

Paone said he later found that if the New Jersey State Police releases those DNA profiles, it would violate federal regulations, possibly resulting in fines up to $100,000, removal of the profile, as well as possibly prohibiting future access to the DNA profile program."

(So here's what confuses me: the judge ordered somebody (unclear to me whether he was asking the federal government or NJSP) to release 2 CODIS profiles for BC's brother and half-brother, and then he seems to have changed his mind and said that if NJSP actually releases those profiles, they'll be violating federal law, and as a consequence the DNA profiles could be removed from the database altogether?! So how does a high-ranking judge get away with issuing an order that, if complied with, will result in a law being violated?!)

"State Deputy Attorney General Lila B. Leonard wrote Paone a letter asking him to vacate his order.

Battey expressed particular concern about the risk of removing a DNA profile from the database even if the person is dead because the purpose of CODIS is to identify people who have committed rapes and murders a long time ago and removing that profile could be a hinderance.

Cymanski's brother was cremated after he died in April 2020 at age 53, according to his obituary. Seidman said his DNA profile is in the database but it's unknown if Bruce Cymanski's half-brother is in the federal DNA database system.

During the hearing, Leonard explained the state laboratory is bound by an operations manual that allows a person to request their own DNA profile but not another person's due to privacy regulations.

Paone said if the brothers had DNA samples in the federal system and if there was a match when the DNA found on Noga was entered, there would have been a hit, but since there wasn't a hit the inference is the DNA is not theirs. But there was a hit with the DNA found on Noga and Bruce Cymanski's DNA profile in the database, the judge said.

"It doesn't have to be a 100 percent match to be a hit," Leonard said.

Seidman said just because his client's DNA was found on Noga doesn't mean he killed her. He said his client wants the case to go to trial so he can go home to his family.

Seidman said one of his client's brothers lived in the same apartment complex as Noga at the time of her murder and he can't take the state's word that it's not the brother's DNA that was found on Noga.

Battey said he didn't think it was unreasonable to ask the half-brother to come to court to provide consent for DNA, but added the state is not required to provide new evidence in support of the defendant's defense.

Paone questioned if the prosecutor's office, as a criminal justice agency, could request the DNA profiles of the brothers, but Leonard said she's been told no by the FBI. The attorneys and judge also discussed whether the heirs of the deceased brother, which include Bruce Cymanski, could request his DNA profile."

IMHO This has been a long time coming. Sad that NKN and family have been waiting for justice for so long.