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Two of them – William Dixon, 24, and Nishir Rios-Figueroa, 30 – were already in custody in connection with other crimes, State Police said on Tuesday. They captured the third, Mustafa Manns, 28, in Newark.
The trio had abducted the victim, 27-year-old Quadree “Pee” Burch, in early August and driven him to Allamuchy Township, 20 or so miles from the Pennsylvania state line, the NJSP said in a March 14 release.
They shot and killed Burch, then left his body along the eastbound side of Route 80, the release says. A possible motive wasn't suggested.
Burch’s remains were found by an NJ Department of Transportation employee who was cutting grass on the highway near milepost 16.6 on Aug. 18, State Police said.
Investigators from the NJSP’s Major Crime North Unit determined that Burch was killed on Aug. 7, 2022, two days before he was reported missing by loved ones.
Rios-Figueroa became their first target.
He'd been arrested in Westchester on unrelated auto theft charges in early January, the release says. Unit detectives interviewed him at the Westchester County District Attorney's Office in White Plains a week later, it says.
Rios-Figueroa is still in custody there pending extradition to New Jersey to face charges of felony murder, murder, conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping.
A little less than a week after the Rios-Figueroa interview, members of four State Police units – Major Crime North, Fugitive, Electronic Surveillance and K-9 -- converged on a residence on Lyons Avenue in Newark where they arrested Manns without incident, according to the release.
He, too, was charged with felony murder, murder, weapons offenses, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and robbery and currently remains held in the Warren County Jail, it says.
Dixon already was being held in the Essex County Jail after allegedly threatening two of Burch’s associates last August, State Police said Tuesday.
He faces the same charges as Rios-Figueroa and Manns, they said.
The Warren County Prosecutor’s Office is handling the case, State Police said.
They thanked the Ocean and Essex prosecutors’ offices and Newark police for their contributions to the investigation and arrests.
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