Police exhume body of Highland Lakes woman to collect DNA, 30 years after she was killed
The body of a Highland Lakes woman, whose body was discovered four months after she disappeared in 1990, has been exhumed by authorities who hope it may lead to a break in Sussex County's most prominent unsolved homicides, police said Monday.
Lisa McBride's death has long stumped investigators who have continued to keep the popular woman's cold case active over the past three decades. McBride, 27, disappeared from her small home in the middle of the night on June 23, 1990 and her skeletal remains were found on Oct. 20, 1990 by hunters in Sandyston. Her death was ruled a homicide and thousands of leads were followed and hundreds of people interviewed as local, state and federal authorities investigated.
But in the years since McBride's death, suspects have been considered, but no arrests have been made. First Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Mueller, in new details released Monday, said that nothing suggests McBride's death was committed by more than one person.
Mueller said on March 9, detectives with his office along with the New Jersey State Police and Vernon Police Department exhumed McBride's remains from Restland Memorial Park in East Hanover. A Sussex County medical examiner and a state police anthropologist performed an examination and collected DNA evidence from the remains, which were delivered to Bode Technology's forensic laboratory in Lorton, Virginia. McBride's remains were later reinterred.
During the COVID-19 pandemic when courts slowed, Mueller said his office's cold case unit, which he has led since 2006, doubled up on their efforts looking through physical evidence on the county's six cold cases. The team of prosecutors, detectives and the chief of detectives often researched cold cases any chance they could: late at night, early in the morning or when active cases slowed.
While looking through the McBride case files, which take up at least two filing cabinets, detectives felt they needed more evidence in order to move forward.
"We believed there was additional investigative step needed to be taken," Mueller said, "and that additional step required us to exhume the body."
Mueller's office filed an order to show cause with the court's Chancery Division and was granted approval by a judge to exhume McBride's remains to collect additional evidence.
McBride's cause of death was officially "undetermined," but Mueller said when she was found, she had a cheekbone fracture believed to be from blunt force trauma.
New details from the day McBride went missing
McBride, who was described as a popular and vivacious woman, ended her shift on June 22, 1990 at Lakeland Bank in Newfoundland, a community within West Milford, and made plans that evening to go into New York City, Mueller said.
She and three friends went to the Beacon Theater in Manhattan for a country concert and stopped around 12:30 a.m. at Big John's Pub on Route 23 in Newfoundland on the way home, Mueller said. Witnesses say McBride drank three beers, talked to several people and reportedly gave three old friends her telephone number, he said. Prior to leaving at 1:15 a.m., McBride reportedly commented that she was leaving because she had to work in the morning, Mueller said.
Neighbors observed her enter her home around 2 a.m., according to Mueller. That was the last time McBride was seen alive.
Mueller said a co-worker tried to call McBride around 7:30 a.m. after she didn't arrive for her shift, became concerned after several failed attempts and contacted McBride's brother.
McBride's brother arrived at his sister's home around 10 a.m., noticed her car was in the driveway and entered the home using a spare key, Mueller said. He did not find his sister, but allegedly made several observations: the light on her bedroom dresser was on, there were no sheets or blankets on her bed, the living room couch was pulled away from the wall about 6 inches and the kitchen light was on.
He called Vernon police, who arrived and found the telephone wire to the home had been cut from outside and a window screen had two slits, allowing someone to reach inside and gain access to the home, Mueller said.
A massive investigation by several departments, including the FBI, ensued. Nearly 70,000 reward posters were distributed as far as Canada, showing an image of the 5-foot, 7-inch-tall brown-haired woman.
Around 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 20, 1990, McBride's naked body was found by hunters off Old Mine Road in Sandyston, part of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Mueller said.
Several suspects have been ruled out over the years, including a secret admirer who had left her flowers and notes.
The advent of DNA technology has helped solve decades-old cases thanks to the use of forensic genetic genealogy, which scientists say led to the identification of the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper.
Bode Technology, where McBride's DNA will be examined, is the largest private forensic DNA laboratory in the nation and offers state-of-the-art forensic DNA collection products, DNA analysis services, and research services to law enforcement, according to their website.
McBride's parents, George and Norma, have since died: George McBride passed in 2015 and Norma McBride on 2018.
In an interview with the New Jersey Herald in 2010, the McBrides regretted their daughter's case had not been solved, but were glad investigators kept it active.
"We don't feel it's going to be solved after all these years, but you never know," Norma McBride said.
Anyone with information about McBride's disappearance is asked to call Lt. Nicholas Elmo with the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office at 973-383-1570.
Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.
This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Lisa McBride NJ cold case: Police exhume body to collect DNA evidence
