25 years later, mom & son charged in Long Branch family killings

A confession eventually resulted in three arrests a quarter century after a Long Branch woman and her stepbrother were brutally killed in the mid 1990s.

Dolores Morgan, 66, and her son, Ted Connors, 47, have been charged with murdering Morgan's husband and Connors' father, Nicholas Connors, as well as killing Morgan's daughter, Ana F. Mejia.

Also charged was Jose R. Carrero, 48, of Jackson. The mother and son were arrested in Florida, where they had been living in Del Ray Beach.

Mejia, 25, was found stabbed 20 times with her throat cut on Dec. 8, 1994, in her Prospect Street apartment bedroom that she shared with her boyfriend and two children.

Mejia had cocaine smeared on her face. The children, ages 1 and 3, were home and asleep during the slaying.

Months later on May 14, 1995, Mejia's brother-in-law, the 51-year-old Connors, was found shot to death on the sofa of his Van Dyke Place home.

No arrests were ever made in either case — until last week.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said last week that new evidence in the case led to the arrests and charges of first-degree murder. The Asbury Park Press cited an affidavit in the case in which investigators said the younger Connors and Carrero had told friends about their role in the killings and implicated Morgan.

Investigators have not said what motivated the killings.

Carrero makes his first court appearance on Wednesday and his detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Morgan and Connors are being held in at the Palm Beach County, Florida Detention Center and will return to New Jersey after an extradition hearing.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the relationship between Morgan and Mejia as sisters instead of mother-daughter. It also incorrectly listed the ages of Mejia’s children at the time of her death.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ