Drive Thru Pizza Hut Coming Soon
March 3, 2022Toms River Launches Clothing Recycling Program
March 4, 2022
Two Toms River Murders Have Remained Unsolved For Almost 50 Years
In 1974, two adolescent females were found slain in different parts of town just weeks apart. Whether the murders of Suzanne Garden, 14, and Cynthia "Cindy" Leslie, 18, were linked by more than just time and location has remained a mystery to this day, as has who killed them.
The deaths had significant parallels, from the injuries on the girls' bodies to the fact that they attended the same high school. Leslie had graduated from Toms River High School South, where Garden had been a freshman. However, the incidents differed in many ways, from where the bodies of the victims were discovered to the circumstances surrounding each girl's disappearance.
Even half a century later, police and county detectives have never given up.
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer told the Asbury Park Press, "We are actively working to solve both homicides." "Our Major Crime Unit continues to focus on the deaths of Suzanne Garden and Cynthia Leslie."
Garden, according to police, left home at 4 p.m. on Jan. 27. The day after she left home, she was seen in what was then downtown Dover, but what transpired on the two days that followed is unknown.
Two children playing in a clearing at Maplecrest Road and Delaware Avenue, roughly a mile from where she had resided on Morris Boulevard, discovered her body, beaten and partially naked, on Jan. 30.
Suzanne Garden, 14 of Toms River
She was stabbed, but strangulation was the cause of death, according to police. From Warren Street to Garfield Avenue, a wooded tract of land spreads behind the homes along Delaware, largely undisturbed except for the occasional item of litter.
The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office and the Dover Township Police Department each dispatched two investigators to work full-time on the case, interviewing nearly 500 persons, but the days turned into weeks and no suspects were discovered.
Police did find a knife that they suspect was used by the killer.
Leslie, a Beachwood resident, was found dead in a similar manner just over a month after Garden was discovered. She had vanished on Feb. 26 after leaving work in Toms River to have lunch and head to the bank, but the checks she'd brought to deposit were discovered alongside her body, indicating she never made it there.
Police set up roadblocks to conduct interviews in order to gather information about the murder. Leslie and a guy were spotted arguing at Water Street and Highland Parkway, less than 100 yards from where police suspect she was killed, in a wooded area between Messenger and Water streets, which has since been turned into residential culs de sacs, according to an anonymous witness.
The suspect was described as a stocky Caucasian man in his early 20s, standing 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 4 inches tall, with longer dirty blond or light brown hair, and wearing a green shirt or work jacket with red lettering on the left breast at the time.
At first, authorities said they had established no link between the two murders.
Ocean County detectives traveled to Florida in October of that year to look into a possible relation to Robert A. Leach, a 19-year-old inmate awaiting trial for another murder. Beachwood was Leach's hometown. However, the investigators discovered no correlation. Leach committed suicide prior to his own trial.
Cynthia Leslie, 18 of Toms River
Years later, in 1978, authorities looked into whether the killings of Garden and Leslie were linked to the death of Kevin Hammond, a 12-year-old kid who had been missing for 19 days. Lawrence O. Adair, now 68 and incarcerated in the New Jersey State Prison, was convicted of the murders of Hammond and two New York men, but not of the murders of the two girls.
The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office looked into a number of unsolved murders in 1983 to see whether there was any connection to serial killer Richard Biegenwald, but they didn't declare he was a suspect.
In 1999, then-Ocean County Prosecutor E. David Millard enlisted the help of retired cops to form a volunteer cold case unit, with the goal of resolving the Garden and Leslie crimes. Authorities assumed at the time that one killer was responsible for both fatalities, but they didn't specify why. They also believed the girls were aware of their assailant.
It's unclear whether there have been any more recent updates.
According to the Asbury Park Press, Prosecutor Billhimer stated that he could not comment on specifics or suspects, but that they are actively investigating both cases.
The prosecutor's office's Major Crimes Unit can be reached at 732-929-4760 if anyone has information on these or any other unsolved killings. Toms River police welcome tips online and can be reached at 732-349-0150 during non-emergency hours.