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Loved ones of slain Lodi woman weep as husband is brought to court

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Lodi man charged with stabbing his wife to death and fleeing to South Carolina with their two sons remained held on $3 million bail today following his first court appearance in connection with the stabbing death of his estranged wife earlier this month.

Photo Credit: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
Photo Credit: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
Photo Credit: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
Jerry DeMarco

John “Rob” Jordan, 47, said nothing during the brief hearing, which brought several loved ones and friends from the late Tracey Jordan’s side of the family to the county courthouse in Hackensack.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Wayne Mello read the formal complaints:

  • purposefully causing the death, or serious bodily injury resulting in the death, of Tracy Jordan, along with possession of a knife to use unlawfully against another;
  • unlawfully removing minor children a substantial distance after the commission of a crime or flight following the crime.

    Saddle Brook Police Chief Robert Kugler (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)

A family member of the victim was overwhelmed hearing the charges and sobbed loudly, while several others wept as the prosecutor read the complaints aloud.

Defense attorney Ilene McFarlane entered “not guilty” pleas for Jordan on both counts. McFarlane also reserved Jordan’s right to a bail hearing at a later date.

Jordan was then returned to the Bergen County Jail. He is charged with murder and weapons possession.

“Not only did he take a beautiful girl from us, Tracey, but there were a number of families impacted by this,” Saddle Brook Police Chief Robert Kugler, who is related to Tracey Jordan by marriage, told reporters afterward.

Asked whether he had any insight into Jordan’s motive, Kugler told CLIFFVIEW PILOT: “I can’t imagine. There are so many more options: Running away. Anything.”

The two Jordan boys — Nicholas, 8, and Anthony, 7 — were living with an aunt in Tracey Jordan’s Saddle Brook hometown, the chief said.

John Jordan was arrested without incident when he arrived in Greenville, S.C., with the boys at 12:45 a.m. May 10. Hours earlier, the body of his 39-year-old estranged wife was at her Cynthia Gardens apartments on Garibaldi Avenue.

She’d been stabbed several times in the chest.

At that point, the 5-foot-10-inch, 215-pound Jordan had already been on the run for several hours, authorities said.

Bergen County undersheriffs at today’s court appearance (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)

 

 

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