Two Unsolved Murders in Toms River from 1974 Are Still Under Investigation
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March 4, 2022Two Unsolved Murders in Toms River from 1974 Are Still Under Investigation
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
