Former death row inmate linked to 1984 slaying of Mercer County woman
Almost four decades after the remains of a missing 19-year-old East Windsor woman were found in a wooded area in Cranbury, an East Windsor man who died in prison has been identified as her killer.
Nathaniel Harvey was identified through DNA as the person responsible for the sexual assault and killing of Donna Macho in 1984, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri announced Wednesday.
Harvey, who died in November 2020 at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, was identified through a multi-agency investigation by the Mercer County Homicide Task Force in conjunction with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Cold Case Network and the New Jersey State Police.
Macho went missing from the East Windsor home she shared with her parents and sisters on or about Feb. 26, 1984. Her skeletal remains were discovered more than 11 years later on April 2, 1995, in a wooded area near a farm in Cranbury where Harvey had once worked. Her vehicle had been found abandoned by a nearby sewerage plant, within walking distance of Harvey’s residence. Macho was identified through dental records.
Harvey, who was arrested around the same time Macho went missing and was held in connection with several sexual assaults and a killing in the Plainsboro area, was identified as a possible suspect in Macho's death but investigative leads dissipated, and the case went cold, according to the Attorney General's Office.
Prosecutors said Harvey typically entered unlocked homes where he would hold captive and rape young women.
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In February 2022, at Onofri's direction, the Macho case was presented to the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability’s Central Regional Cold Case Task Force, one of the task forces statewide that makes up the Cold Case Network, formed in 2019.
All viable physical evidence was resubmitted to the state police's Central Regional Laboratory, including DNA evidence and fingerprints.
During the initial investigation police found Harvey’s semen in Macho’s bedroom. But DNA testing was less precise at the time, and the testing conducted on that evidence was unable to match the bodily fluid to one specific individual, the Attorney General's Office said.
The new investigation and reexamination of the evidence with present-day DNA technology matched it to Harvey and determined that his DNA was the only DNA evidence in the room that should not have been present, the Attorney General's Office said.
An initial autopsy indicated Macho suffered a gunshot wound to her head, but a further examination of her remains by the Middlesex Regional Medical Examiner’s Office during the cold case investigation determined that a head injury caused the victim’s death, but not conclusively a gunshot wound, the Attorney General's Office said.
Harvey was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with a different homicide in Middlesex County, and he remained incarcerated from the time of his arrest in 1985 until his death in 2020.
Harvey was twice convicted of killing 37-year-old Irene Schnaps' in her Plainsboro apartment in June 1985 where her badly beaten body was later found by a co-worker.
Harvey was on and off death row from 1986 until 2007, when New Jersey abolished the death penalty. Harvey's convictions were both overturned on appeal. He died before a third trial could be held.
“By sharing personnel, expertise, and technological resources, the Central Regional Cold Case Task Force took a fresh look at this decades-old mystery and identified the suspect in this horrific crime,” Platkin said in a statement. “We are grateful Prosecutor Onofri referred this case to the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, and that all the agencies involved collaborated as a team to bring some resolution to the victim’s family. The life and the loss of Donna Macho was not forgotten, and this announcement illustrates the Cold Case Network will not relent in its pursuit of justice.”
Carolyn Murray, director of the integrity bureau of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, said this case illustrates the effectiveness of the Cold Case Network and its ability to dedicate resources, including cutting-edge technology, to revive old cases, apply previously unavailable tools to reexamine evidence and bring resolution to grieving families long haunted by unanswered questions.
She said it also ensures greater accuracy that the proper suspects are identified in connection with these cases, and others are not falsely accused of criminal conduct.
Onofri said through the investigation detectives were able to eliminate other potential suspects and they are confident Harvey is perpetrator in the sexual assault and murder of Macho and the case is now closed.
Email: srussell@gannettnj.com
Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Cold case NJ: DNA links Mercer County man to 1984 killing
