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Anthony Mota kidnapped the victim on Dec. 12, 1997, then bound and tortured him with others for days until they got a ransom amount of $23,000 from the victim's family, United States Marshal for the District of New Jersey Juan Mattos, Jr., and NJSP Superintendent Col. Patrick J. Callahan said.
Soon after, Mota took the victim to an area along Interstate 280 in Harrison, and shot him in the head and neck, killing him. Mota then placed the victim’s body in another car that was lit on fire.
Mota had been wanted on state charges of murder, kidnapping, racketeering, arson, possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, and theft by extortion, has been located by a team of New Jersey State Police Detectives, U.S. Marshals, and Task Force Officers from the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force (NY/NJRFTF), and District of New Jersey.
On Oct. 1, 1998, he was officially indicted on the charges to include a federal violation for Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution. Throughout the course of the investigation, the New Jersey State Police Fugitive Unit, the United States Marshals Service, and the NYPD Major Crimes unit made extensive efforts to locate and arrest Mota following the indictment but were unable to successfully locate him. Investigators believed Mota had fled the United States to his native country of the Dominican Republic but were still unable to locate him.
In 2021, New Jersey State Police Detectives and Deputy U.S. Marshals assigned to the NY/NJ RFTF, along with Deputy U.S. Marshals assigned to the U.S. Marshals Dominican Republic Foreign Field Office, developed information that Mota may have been living in Nizao, Dominican Republic.
Multiple interviews conducted in the Dominican Republic and the United States revealed that Mota was living under the alias “Miguel Angel Gonzalez Perez,” and started a new family in the Dominican Republic. It was further learned in June 2021, “Miguel Angel Gonzalez Perez,” died of an apparent heart attack in the Dominican Republic.
During the 25-year investigation, investigators collected DNA evidence from various sources to assist in identifying Mota. In April 2022, a New Jersey State Police Detective, Deputy U.S. Marshal, and New Jersey State Police Forensic Anthropologist traveled from New Jersey to Nizao, Dominican Republic to participate in the exhumation of “Miguel Angel Gonzalez Perez” and collect DNA samples which were then hand-carried back to the New Jersey State Police Forensic Anthropology Lab in Hamilton.
On June 3, 2022, the New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences received the result comparisons for the DNA. These results confirmed what New Jersey State Police Detectives had believed, “Miguel Angel Gonzalez Perez” was, in fact, New Jersey's Most Wanted Fugitive, Anthony Mota, thus signifying the closure of the quarter-century old case.
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