The ruling followed arguments over DNA evidence, an alleged confession and a prior obstruction conviction.
NEWTON, N.J. — A Sussex County judge ordered Robert William McCaffrey Jr. held without release while he awaits trial on charges that he kidnapped and killed Lisa Marie McBride nearly 36 years ago.
The detention ruling placed the 1990 cold case firmly inside the court system after years of searches, interviews and unanswered questions. McCaffrey, 54, of Manteo, North Carolina, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree burglary. Prosecutors say DNA testing and a renewed review of old evidence tie him to McBride’s disappearance from Vernon Township and to the home where investigators found signs of forced entry and a struggle. His defense has challenged the strength and meaning of that evidence.
Sussex County Superior Court Judge Janine Allen said at the hearing that the purpose of detention was to reasonably assure McCaffrey’s court appearance, the safety of the community and protection of the criminal justice process. She said she was most concerned about obstruction. Allen cited McCaffrey’s prior South Carolina conviction for obstructing the investigation into the disappearance of his wife, Marjorie “Gayle” McCaffrey, who vanished in 2012 and has not been found. “The fact he was convicted of such a charge is concerning,” Allen said during the hearing.
Assistant Sussex County Prosecutor Jerome Neidhardt argued that the state had enough evidence to keep McCaffrey jailed. He cited DNA found on a washcloth from the headboard of McBride’s bed, saying testing showed both McBride’s and McCaffrey’s DNA. Neidhardt also cited a witness identified in court by initials. “According to witness, R.I., on a job site in 1995 the defendant told him that he murdered Lisa McBride,” Neidhardt said. Prosecutors said the witness also reported that McCaffrey claimed he had left evidence behind at the home.
Defense attorney Thomas Militano pushed back against the state’s case. He said the defense was not conceding that the DNA test was accurate. Even if the test were assumed accurate, he argued, the result did not show where contact happened, when DNA got on the washcloth or how the item was connected to the killing. Militano also questioned a medical finding that McBride’s death was a homicide caused by external violence. He pointed to what he described as a missing signature on an amended medical examiner’s report. Allen still found probable cause, a threshold she described as a well-grounded suspicion.
The charges trace back to June 23, 1990. McBride, a 27-year-old bank employee, was last seen after a night out that included a concert in New York City and a stop at Big John’s Pub in Newfoundland. She left the pub about 1:15 a.m., saying she had to work in the morning. When she missed work and did not answer calls, her brother checked her Glen Road home in Highland Lakes. Police said the telephone wires had been cut, a window screen was damaged, the bed was stripped and items in the house were out of place.
McBride’s remains were found by a hunter about four months later in Sandyston near the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. She was identified through dental records, and her death was ruled a homicide. The case remained open through decades of dead ends. Investigators later returned to physical evidence and used newer DNA tools. Court records say evidence from the bed area was submitted in 2020, McBride’s remains were exhumed in 2022, and a CODIS match in February 2026 identified McCaffrey’s DNA. Authorities said they then confirmed McCaffrey had lived in Sussex County in 1990.
The arrest came April 10 in North Carolina, where a multistate task force took McCaffrey into custody at about 8 p.m. Sussex County Prosecutor Daniel M. Perez said his office worked with the New Jersey State Police, Vernon Township police and the Dare County Sheriff’s Office. Perez said advances in DNA technology and persistent detective work produced a major break. McCaffrey waived extradition and was brought to New Jersey, where he appeared before a judge April 20 and entered not-guilty pleas. He was later ordered held at the Morris County Correctional Facility.
The South Carolina case remains a major point in the background but not a charge in the New Jersey indictment process. Gayle McCaffrey was last seen at her West Ashley home March 17, 2012. Her husband reported her missing the next day and told officers they had argued before he left and returned to find her gone. Investigators later said he lied and gave them a fabricated farewell letter. He was convicted of obstruction in 2019, sentenced to 10 years and released in 2023. A grand jury declined to indict him for murder after Gayle McCaffrey was declared dead.
McCaffrey’s next scheduled court step is a pre-indictment conference at 1:30 p.m. May 18 in Sussex County Superior Court. Prosecutors are expected to continue presenting the DNA evidence, witness statements and crime scene findings that led to the arrest. The defense is expected to challenge the forensic timeline, the alleged confession and the homicide finding. McCaffrey remains jailed pending trial, and the separate investigation into Gayle McCaffrey’s disappearance remains open in Charleston County.
Author note: Last updated 2026-05-05.