Inset: Junior Edwards (Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office). Background: The home of Catherine and Marisol Nunez (WPVI). Edwards allegedly broke in through a first-floor window.
After breaking into the residence, the father of an 8-year-old boy shot the mother and maternal grandmother while the child was at home, according to prosecutors in Burlington County, New Jersey. Law enforcement soon arrested Pennsylvania man Junior Edwards, 37, and charged him with crimes including murder for allegedly killing Catherine Nunez, 33, and her mother, Marisol Nunez, 54.
Willingboro Township cops began their investigation just after 4 a.m. on Wednesday when called to the first block of Harrington Circle in Willingboro Township, New Jersey, regarding a burglary in progress, prosecutors said in their press statement.
They entered the home to find Catherine and Marisol Nunez dead in an upstairs bedroom. Authorities initially said the suspect left the scene before they arrived. The killings rocked the Hawthorne Park neighborhood of Willingboro Township.
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“Barely sleeping. We can’t sleep cause we just don’t know,” neighbor and friend of the women Charlee Harris said before news of any arrest, according to Philadelphia Fox affiliate WTXF.
Authorities now claim that the killer is Edwards, a resident of the nearby Philadelphia-area borough of Lansdowne. He allegedly made his way into the home by smashing open a first-floor window. Authorities found a handgun outside the residence — they think it is the murder weapon.
“The investigation further revealed that Edwards and Catherine Nunez shared an 8-year-old son,” prosecutors wrote. “The child was in the home during the shootings but was not injured.”
Authorities did not immediately suggest a motive in the killings.
“It hurts. It hurts,” next-door neighbor Glenda Sprauve told Philadelphia ABC affiliate WPVI. “And I feel so bad for her son.”
Junior Edwards was arrested Friday in Philadelphia on unrelated charges, prosecutors said.
He is charged with two counts of murder in the first degree, home invasion burglary armed with a firearm in the first degree, unlawful possession of a weapon in the second degree, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose in the second degree, and endangering the welfare of a child in the second degree.
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