MIDDLESEX COUNTY — An Edison man has been charged with the abandonment Sunday of a toddler in a gas station restroom off Interstate 95 in Delaware, but the mystery surrounding the child only deepened Thursday.
Authorities in Rockland County, N.Y., investigating the murder of a woman whose charred body was found in a park there Monday, said she is the mother of the baby girl.
Dwayne Jackson, 25, has been charged with kidnapping and endangering the welfare of the 20-month-old girl following his arrest in North Brunswick early Thursday. Jackson has been identified as the father of the toddler.
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"It appears likely that the female murder victim located in RocklandCounty is the 24-year-old mother of the abandoned child found in Newark,Del.," Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said Thursday.
The dead woman has been identified as Patricia Belizaire, 24, according to a law-enforcement source, the Journal News of Westchester County, N.Y., reported. Her daughter is Hannah Jackson. Efforts to contact Belizaire's family were unsuccessful Thursday night.
Investigators in Rockland County, New Jersey and Delaware are involved in the probe into her slaying and the kidnapping of the girl.
"We're investigating the incident in New York, but beyond that I can't say anything further,'' said Jim O'Neill, spokesman for the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.
Jackson has also been charged by police in Newark, Del., with a count of first-degree reckless endangering. Authorities said Jackson left the girl at a Shell service station on South College Avenue in Newark, Del. She was found crying in the locked room.
The child had been living with her mother in North Brunswick, O'Neill said. She is currently in the custody of Delaware authorities.
The young woman's charred corpse was found in Manny Welder Town Park in Ramapo, N.Y., just before 5:38 a.m. Monday.
Ramapo is about 66 miles from New Brunswick, while Newark, Del., is
about 100 miles from New Brunswick.
People in Jackson's neighborhood described him as a good neighbor.
""He's very nice, very polite,'' said Tulio Garcia, who lives next to
Jackson and his family on Weldon Road in Edison. ""He calls me Mr. Garcia
and I said, "No, use my first name,' and he said, "No, sir, I don't do
that.' ''
Garcia and other neighbors said Jackson has been quick to help people in
the neighborhood shovel snow from their driveways.
RELATED
- UPDATE: Probe links Edison man to toddler abandoned in Delaware, burning body in NY
- UPDATE: Body found burning in N.Y. may be linked to abandoned toddler, Middlesex County probe
- Police ID toddler abandoned in Delaware; probe shifts to Middlesex County, N.J.
Jackson and his wife, Lizette Jackson, bought the ranch house at 3
Weldon Road in 2007 for $350,000, according to real estate records.
Neighbors said the couple has two young sons and Lizette Jackson has a
daughter whom Garcia said was 12.
Dwayne Jackson has no criminal record.
Neighbors said he worked a night shift as a security guard at Robert
Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. A hospital spokesman did
not confirm that, but said the hospital is cooperating with the
investigation.
Jackson is being held at Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in
North Brunswick in lieu of $750,000 bail.
O'Neill is urging anyone with information on the case to call Detective
Michael McGinn of the North Brunswick Police Department at (732) 545-3200,
or Investigator Paul Miller of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at
(732) 745-4466.
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