Post by Scumhunter on Oct 21, 2018 0:41:31 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: mycentraljersey.com via Middlesex County (NJ) Prosecutor's Office)
From mycentraljersey.com:
WOODBRIDGE - Dennis Clement loved his father.
"I talked to him every other night," Clement said. "I know he had a good heart."
That's why he's so frustrated, because after more than eight years he has no answers as to who killed his father, James Albert Clement, in his Fords home on March 25, 2010, in an apparent home invasion robbery.
"I want them to find the person who did it and prosecute them," said Clement, who is personally offering a $25,000 reward in the case. "I want them in jail."
No one has come forward to take responsibility for his father's death — the result of multiple blunt-force injuries following an alleged robbery, according to news reports about the autopsy.
And although Clement, 67, comes from a family with good genes and relatives who have lived into their late 80s and 90s, he wants to live long enough to see someone arrested and prosecuted for his father's death before he dies "so I can rest in peace."
The unsolved homicide of James Clement, 82, a U.S. Army Korean War veteran and Bronze Star recipient is again being reviewed by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.
"It's upsetting to law enforcement that someone who served his country honorably was murdered in this fashion and we would like to bring justice for him and a sense of peace to his family," said Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey.
Carey said Clement served his country, did his job, took care of his family, and then his wife passed away, and while he's trying to enjoy his golden years someone took advantage and broke into his house to steal and kill him.
"It's disgusting," said Carey, adding Clement was considered a nice guy by those who knew him.
For the past several years the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office cold case unit has taken old cases off the shelf and looked to see if there is more that can be done. Carey has said each one is assigned to a specific detective who concentrates on the cold case when they are not doing other things.
"Instead of looking at a bunch of cases on a shelf it becomes their case and they get to know the victims and the family and the story behind the story," Carey said.
Around 7:18 p.m. on that tragic day, Woodbridge police were called to 621 King Georges Post Road in the Fords section to check on the welfare of a resident, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office Lt. Scott Crocco.
When police arrived at James Clement's home, they found the front door open. Clement was found dead in his bedroom.
The daily routine
As part of their investigation, Crocco said investigators determined Clement had gone out that morning for a walk, and he returned home about 9:50 a.m.
Investigators are not sure precisely where Clement walked that day. Crocco said he used different locations. Generally in the winter months and during bad weather he walked in the mall, but he also walked in parks and around his neighborhood.
But the walk was part of his daily routine.
"At 10:50 a.m. the alarm was shut off at his residence, about an hour later (after returning home) he shut the alarm off for some reason, which leads us to believe something happened around that time period," Crocco said.
He added that throughout the day, Clement's girlfriend had been unable to reach him, and when he didn't respond, she reached out to police. The woman has since died, Crocco said.
Clement's death is believed to be related to a robbery. Two safes were found open in the home, one in the bedroom and another in the basement. The exact contents of the safe are not known, but Clement is thought to have kept his late wife's jewelry and a coin collection in the safes.
"Mom's jewelry, her diamond rings are all gone. Everything was gone," Clement said.
James Clement's body was found near the open bedroom safe and there were indications his body had been physically assaulted, according to Carey.
Clement was a war veteran in good health. Crocco said people who knew Clement described him as "a tough old guy."
"The investigation revealed that we don't think he willingly gave up the location or contents of the safe," Crocco said. "There was a struggle."
The fact that Clement's front door was found open was in contrast to his regular habit. Family, friends, neighbors and even the local postal carrier noted that Clement never used his front door. Dennis Clement said his father kept the front door locked. There was a sign on it urging visitors to use the back door. located along the Gordon Avenue side of the home.
Investigators believe Clement let the suspect into his home after turning off the alarm.
"It's our belief the suspect or suspects went out that front door," Crocco said.
Dennis Clement, who formerly lived in his family's Fords home before moving out in 1980, however, believes whoever entered the home came in through the garage or basement.
News report said it was not clear if Clement was targeted or chosen at random.
A life of service
James Clement had received about six or seven medals for his service, including the Bronze Star.
Clement said his father, a motor sergeant who worked on vehicles, didn't talk much about his time in the military. Clement has been told he was about 2 years old before his father returned home from his time in the service. James Clement's remains are in a mausoleum at St. Gertrude's Cemetery in the Colonia section of Woodbridge after receiving full military honors.
For more than 26 years, James Clement had worked as a truck driver for Esso, later Exxon in Linden. He retired in 1974, according to his obituary. Clement said his father, who had previously worked at a gas station, drove an 18-wheeler until he retired.
James Clement lived alone in the Cape Cod-style home he and his late wife had built. His wife, Rita, who worked in the kitchen at the nearby Liberty Tavern for 20 years, died in 2003. After his mother died, Clement tried to get his father to come live with him, but he wouldn't.
"I was afraid something like this would happen," said Clement, who along with other family members live out of state. "To come and kill someone in their home is a real violation to me."
Clement said he can no longer look at his family's home when he travels to New Jersey.
With time on his hands, Clement said his father would go grocery shopping, cook, clean the house and work on his car, but mostly his father liked to walk.
"He did a lot of walking. He was healthy as a bull," he said.
Neighborhood businesses, residents
Charlie Lehmann, owner of C & C Towing and Auto Repair on Kings Georges Post Road, said James Clement was friends with his late father, Charlie. They shared an interest in auto repairs.
"As he (James Clement) got older in life he would always toy with cars in the garage over here. At that time there were drum brakes, so he would bring drums over here and we would cut drums for him all the time," said Lehmann, adding James Clement would walk by the auto shop, located a block from his home, three or four times a day, sometimes on route to the deli deli across the street.
"My father knew him well," said Lehmann said.
Javier Trinidad, owner of Javi's Deli, located across the street from the auto repair shop, didn't recall James Clement by name, but upon seeing his photo recalled him as a former customer who ordered coffee and a buttered roll.
"I use to see him a lot but then he disappeared. I found out later on he got killed," said Trinidad.
Clement said his father also liked to garden and gave much of its bounty away to others.
"He was a friendly guy. He couldn't eat it all. He gave it to people, and they loved him," said Clement, adding his father grew tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and hot peppers.
Linda Teuber, a 25-year resident of Gordon Avenue in Fords, said both she and Clement planted gardens each year. After his wife died Clement would leave her zucchini on her doorstep so she made him zucchini bread and left it at his door.
"And then that happened," said Teuber, referring to her neighbor's killing. She had heard some furniture in the home had been broken during the struggle and Clement, who pretty much had kept to himself, had put up a good fight.
"It's sad and it was very scary for awhile," she said. "And it's a cold case."
Teuber recalls getting fliers every year around the anniversary of Clement's death, but not in the past few years.
"Oh my God it was a horror," said Teuber. "He was a Korean (War) vet, a tough guy."
Ed Moreira, a 40 year resident of Gordon Avenue, said he and another neighbor also were friendly with Clement who was always fixing cars or working in his garden. He said police told him Clement had been beaten and killed in his home.
"It was a hell of a way to go," said Moreira. "And they have no idea who it was because the front door was open."
Clement recalls not getting the usual telephone call from his father on March 25, 2010. But around 8 p.m. he received a call from a neighbor who told him his father was dead.
"I thought it was a joke. How can this happen," said Clement, who drove with his wife to New Jersey from their home in Delaware.
Clement thinks more than one person was involved in the attack, and his father, who was about 5-feet, 7-inches tall and 150 pounds, put up the fight of his life.
Charles "Chip" Blazas, who grew up with Dennis Clement and lived five doors from the Clements' house, agrees that it would have taken more than one person to take James Clement down.
"He was tough," said Blazas, a retired police officer, adding even though James Clement was 82 years old he was always outside doing things.
Neighbors did not see anyone enter the home or hear anything unusual from the home. And Dennis Clement finds that hard to believe.
"Nobody saw anything. I just can't understand," he said noting King Georges Post Road is a heavily-traveled roadway.
How you can help
The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office is hoping someone knows something.
In addition to the $25,000 reward offered by Clement's family in connection with the case, Crime Stoppers of Middlesex County is offering a reward.
The case is under investigation by Woodbridge Detective Timothy Laughery and Crocco. Anyone with information is asked to contact Laughery at 732-634-7700 or Crocco at 732-745-8390.
Information also can be provided to Crime Stoppers of Middlesex County, a nonprofit organization that partners with law enforcement to enable the public to anonymously submit crime information and will pay a cash reward should it lead to an arrest.
www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/cold-cases/2018/09/24/woodbridge-fords-james-clement-murder/1123636002/
www.middlesextips.com/Misc.aspx?PageNum=6 (scroll down for case)
Thoughts? This is such a tragic case. And adding to this tragedy, although this is only my opinion- the fact that James Clement had turned his alarm off, no sign of forced entry, the person seemingly knew there were safes with valuables in the house- I feel this was a person or persons who knew this beloved man and betrayed his trust in the worst way possible. I'm very angry these people are apparently still walking the streets six years later. They're cowards where even a jail cell is too humane for them.
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