Post by Scumhunter on Oct 10, 2019 4:05:53 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: patch.com)
From mycentraljersey.com:
SOUTH BRUNSWICK – The night before 39-year-old Aileen Morris was fatally shot behind the counter at the convenience store where she worked in 1989, she spent her last dollars on sub sandwiches for her nine children and sewed her son's varsity letter onto his jacket but positioned it upside down.
And for the last 30 years Renee Morris said her brother has kept it that way – a symbol of the care their mother always showed for others.
Thursday, Oct. 10, marks the 30th anniversary of the day Aileen Morris was shot to death while working in the morning as a cashier at the Krauszer's food store on Alston Road off Route 27.
She is believed to have been the victim of an armed robbery attempt at the store. An assailant fired several shots and took off with an unknown amount of money, according to an Oct. 12, 1989, Home News report. Not all the cash was removed from the register, according to the report.
A customer walked into the store at 11:40 a.m. and found Morris dead behind the counter. Detectives who worked on the case believe the murder took place during a 15-minute span. Detectives interviewed friends, customers and people who visited the store and pursued leads throughout the state, but have not been able to solve the case, according to release from the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.
And with no arrests in the case, this week Middlesex County acting Prosecutor Christopher L.C. Kuberiet and South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond Hayducka announced detectives are renewing efforts to generate new leads in the three-decade old case.
Hayducka was one of the first patrolman to respond to the scene. He is one of only two township officers who remain on the force from 1989.
"Time may have passed, but we know the answers are out there. Someone reading this has that one piece of information that can help us catch the killer and they can remain anonymous," Hayducka said in the release.
Renee Morris said her mother was "a bit of a firecracker, kind, loving and giving."
"She was always working two or three jobs. She was always helping other people. Our Constable Road home dinner table often had people eating at it because they had nowhere else to go," said Morris, who was 9 years old when her mother died. "She was kind of angel-like."
But Renee Morris, a twin in a family of five girls and four boys, ages 7 to 18 at the time of their mother's death, said her mother kept the children in line.
"She was the rule maker, and dad was the enforcer," she said.
Aileen Morris was raised in Manville, and Morris said her parents moved to South Brunswick in the late 1970s. Their father died in 1999, 10 years after their mother's murder, and Renee Morris's twin brother died of leukemia two years earlier.
A Home News report indicates Aileen Morris was born in Puerto Rico and came to the U.S. in 1955, lived in Manville for 15 years before moving to the Kendall Park section of South Brunswick in 1978.
Renee Morris said she doesn't know how much her father dug into her mother's death in those 10 years.
"He didn't talk much about it. He was a Marine in Vietnam, strong but silent. He kept a lot of emotion to himself," she said.
Over the years one of her brothers has been in contact with police about the case, but nothing has ever come out of those inquiries.
Morris said she contacted police a few months ago about her mother's case to "take a shot in the dark" in hopes of getting some answers.
"You spend 30 years hating a faceless man," she said. "I've allowed a stranger to control the dark side of my emotions. I want someone to give an answer, to say I saw this or I did this it," she said.
She would like someone to come forward and give police something new to look at.
"I want an answer to something," she said. "I just want to know. If nothing comes out of it, I can say we tried. To know the police department did put energy and effort into this is humbling."
Anyone with information about Aileen Morris' murder is asked to contact the Crime Stoppers of Middlesex County tip hotline at 800-939-9600, submit online tips at www.middlesextips.com or call South Brunswick Detective Sgt. Mike Pellino or Detective Rick Delucia at 732-329-4000, ext. 7496.
www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/cold-cases/2019/10/09/nj-cold-case-south-brunswick-krauszers-cashier-aileen-morris-killed-oct-10-1989/3917983002/
Thoughts?
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