Crime News

Update: Bertha Dyer has been found in Philadelphia and reunited with her family, police said. “I would like to thank of the agencies involved for their tireless efforts in this case,” township Chief of Police Lawrence Roberts said in a release. “I am thankful that Ms. Dyer was found safely and reunited with her family.” Original Story: Township police are …

Update: A GoFundMe campaign has been created to help the family. Donations can be made by clicking here. Superintendent of Schools John Ravally has issued the following statement: “On behalf of the Franklin Township Board of Education and the entire school community, our deepest condolences are extended to the Russoniello family. We will continue to offer whatever support we can …

A 45-year-old township man faces charges that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old in June. Felipe Dasilva was arrested Aug. 17 after an investigation by the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit and the Franklin Township Police Department, according to a press release from the prosecutor’s office. Township police were notified on Aug. 11 that Dasilva sexually assaulted the …

A Perth Amboy woman was arrested Aug. 17 on a charge that she cheated a township business out of more than $89,000. Veronica Cardozo-Cabrera, 37, was charged with 2nd Degree Theft by Deception in the scheme, in which authorities said she fraudulently credited the credit cards of relatives and friends while working at Forever Collectibles on Cottontail Lane. Also charged with 2nd Degree …

A 34-year-old Somerset man was one of eight people in the state indicted Aug. 16 and charged with running a “pill mill” that distributed “tens of thousands” of high-dose pills of oxycodone. Donn Rush was indicted with six other people from Somerset, Middlesex and Burlington counties and a Warren-based doctor in what the state Attorney general’s Office has dubbed “Operation Busted Script.” …

Three people were injured and Cedar Grove Lane as closed for about one hour during the evening of Aug. 14 after a three-car collision. Police said that at shortly after 5 p.m., a 2001 Nissan Altima driven by Jeffrey Georgiana, 55, of Somerset was traveling north on Cedar Grove Lane when it collided with a 2007 Honda Odyssey, driven by George …

The Rutgers University chapter of Black Lives Matter Aug. 9 launched an online petition demanding that the names of the officers involved in the April 9 Diahlo Grant shooting be made public. “Black Lives Matter Rutgers and the Grant family demand that the Andrew Carey, the Middlesex County prosecutor, release the names of the officers,” reads the petition, which is …

A township woman was killed Aug. 6 after she was involved in an automobile crash on Cottontail Lane, near Weston Canal Road. Police said that Adejoke Sanusi, 53, of Somerset, was pronounced dead at the scene after she was extracted from her Toyota Rav 4. Sansusi was driving a Toyota Rav 4 on Cottontail Lane around 12:30 p.m. when it was …

The Rev. DeForest “Buster” Soaries said July 21 that he will call for a federal investigation of whether a Franklin man’s civil rights were violated when he was killed in a shootout with township police. Several hours later, unrelated to Soaries’ statement, the Rutgers University chapter of Black Lives Matter took to the streets in New Brunswick, marching and chanting …

A Middlesex man was killed early in the morning of July 18, after his car hit a patch of trees and overturned along Easton Avenue. Police said 61-year-old Pedro Vazquez was entrapped in his Toyota Rav 4 after the 3:45 a.m. crash, and was unconscious and unresponsive when he was extracted. Vazquez was taken to an area hospital, where he was …