Three months after New Jersey councilwoman slain, police remain silent on unsolved case

Robert Walker

SAYREVILLE, NJ – 30-year-old African American Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour was shot and killed while inside her car near her Sayreville home on February 4th.

Three months later, police appear to be no closer to solving her murder than they were the day it happened.

Worse, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and local police have clammed up when it comes to the Dwumfour case.

On that night, witnesses reported hearing as many as 13 shots in an obviously targeted hit on the young black elected official.


She was found dead in her car after having been shot multiple times.


The Middlesex County Prosecutors Office is now going through the extremely unusual process of denying the media and the public to records pertaining to the case. The office is seeking to block Open Public Records Act requests by the media for access to public records.

The office has also gone dark on the case, not returning media questions regarding the shooting or their investigation.

While blocking requests for records in a criminal matter is commonplace, the MCPO has gone a step further and last month filed a court action against journalists requesting documents, a very unusual act.

Family members of Dwumfour have criticized the prosecutor’s office on the matter.

In March, grief-stricken family members held a press conference to express their frustration with the investigation. The day after, the office replied, misspelling the deceased woman’s name twice.

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“The Eunice Dwumfor investigation is ongoing,” Brynn Krause, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office replied after the press conference. “The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office will continue to seek justice for Ms. Dwumfor in a responsible manner that balances the needs of the grieving family, and to protect the integrity of our investigation.”

John Wisniewski, a former state legislator and gubernatorial candidate, is handling the case. Family members now feel her death will go unsolved.

Family members aren’t the only ones worried. Sayreville Mayor Victoria Kilpatrick has announced she will not be running for re-election out of concerns for her safety.

“You have a woman that was seated right there to our left that is murdered, gone, in cold blood shot, killed and we don’t know why yet,” Kilpatrick said in a statement last month. She said she is also receiving numerous threatening emails.

“I’ve received some of the most vicious, nastiest language that I have ever even could consider being spewed out of a human being,” she added. “They’ve been sent to me privately, they were posted on social media publicly referencing how fat I am, how disgusting I am and all kinds of things.”

Dwumfour’s killer is out and about in the community and the risk to others at this time is still unknown to all.

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