ALLAMUCHY TWP, NEW JERSEY – Three men have been charged with murder after a New Jersey Department of Transportation worker found a body near a wooded area along I-80.
The victim, police learned, was shot and killed by Mustafa Manns, 28, William Dixon, 24, and Nishir Rios-Figueroa, 30, all of Newark, New Jersey, and buried near a wooded area off Interstate 80 in Allamuchy Township, Warren County, according to the New Jersey State Police.
A New Jersey Department of Transportation employee cutting grass on Interstate 80 eastbound at milepost 16.6 reported finding human remains on Thursday, August 18, 2022, at 12:26 p.m.
Troop “B” Hope Station responded to the report of the finding.
On August 9, 2022, Quadree Burch, 27, of Newark, N.J., was reported missing from Newark by the New Jersey State Police Major Crime North Unit.
During the 5-month investigation, detectives from the Major Crime North Unit established a timeline of events and determined that the homicide occurred on August 7, 2022. Detectives connected the suspects to the victim and put them in the vicinity of the crime scene using a variety of investigative methods. Manns, Dixon, and Rios-Figueroa are alleged to have kidnapped Burch and driven him to Allamuchy Township, where he was shot and killed.
Detectives interviewed Rios-Figueroa at the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office in White Plains, New York, on January 13, 2023.
On January 6, Nishir Rios-Figueroa surrendered to authorities on unrelated auto theft charges. He is awaiting extradition back to New Jersey on charges of felony murder, murder, conspiracy, and kidnapping.
The Major Crime North Unit, the Fugitive Unit, the Electronic Surveillance Unit, and the K-9 Unit of the State Police arrested Manns without incident at a home on Lyons Avenue in Newark on January 19.
Manns was arrested for felony murder, murder, weapons offenses, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and robbery.
William Dixon was charged with felony murder, murder, weapons offenses, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and robbery. Dixon had been lodged in the Essex County Jail since August 24, 2022, for allegedly threatening two associates of Quadree Burch.