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Paul Kramer (MUGSHOT courtesy Bergen County Sheriff)
A tip led authorities to a bus station in Springfield, where they found Kramer, who cut off his monitoring bracelet eight weeks ago and fled New Jersey rather than be sent to prison for trying to kill a Lodi man.
“So many agencies were involved in locating and capturing [him],” Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino told CLIFFVIEW PILOT, which broke the story of Kramer’s arrest.
Saudino credited not only his own officers but detectives from the New Jersey State Police and Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli’s office, as well as police in Mahwah, Ramapo, Suffern and the village of Tuxedo – and the Missouri State Police, who were waiting when Kramer got off the bus.
“It would not have happened if not for them, Saudino said. “They all deserve credit.”
The sheriff added that he seeking full restitution from Kramer and/or his estate for the costs incurred by all of the agencies that participated in the manhunt.
Kramer, 33, had been on the run after cutting off his monitoring bracelet and fleeing his parents’ East Mahwah Road home around 5 a.m. on Sept. 22 (SEE: Authorities hunt fugitive).
He abandoned his mother’s Chrysler PT Cruiser a short distance away, in the parking lot at Ravi Continental Cuisine, where an employee found it later that day.
Bergen Sheriff Michael Saudino (CLIFFVIEW PILOT photo. No re-use without hyperlink)
Police initially brought in helicopters and tracking dogs, searching a 65-acre quarry in Suffern. They later operated on the theory that Kramer either hopped a train or caught a ride. They even searched his former Orange County home near Middletown.
Kramer was living with his parents while awaiting what was to have been his October sentencing on an attempted murder conviction after he broke into a Lodi man’s house in 2009, lay in wait for him and then stabbed the victim repeatedly when he came home.
Kramer is now being held in the Green County Jail in Missouri pending the upcoming transfer.
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