
NJ man quickly charged with murdering wife after body is found in PA dumpster
🚨The remains of a body were found in a Pennsylvania dumpster
🚨They were identified as Lucrecia E. Jadan Sumba of Elizabeth
🚨Her husband and father of their children was charged with first-degree murder
ELIZABETH — A mother of four was killed by her husband, who dumped her body in the trash in Pennsylvania, investigators said.
Concerned friends and relatives of Lucrecia E. Jadan Sumba reported her missing to the police on Thursday. On Saturday, police found the 39-year-old Elizabeth resident’s remains 80 miles away in a Route 309 bank parking lot in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania.
Rolando Corte, 42, was arrested in Elizabeth on Sunday and charged with first-degree murder. He is being held at the Union County Jail pending his first court appearance in Union County on Thursday.
Authorities did not say whether they knew what motivated the killing.
Corte is represented by the Public Defender's Office, which does not comment on cases.
Mysterious disappearance
According to a GoFundMe campaign, Sumba did not report to her job at an Elizabeth nail salon on Thursday, prompting a search by her children and co-workers.
When asked about his wife's whereabouts, Corte said he didn't know and seemed "disinterested" in her whereabouts, according to the fundraising page. Her boss at the salon then went to the police, the page said.
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'A hardworking lovely and caring mother' of 4
Sumba is the mother of four children, ages 5 to 21. The couple was married for 23 years, the GoFundMe page says.
She moved to the United States in 2021, had recently learned to drive and was working on earning her GED, the GoFundMe page says.
"Lucrecia Elizabeth has been known to be a hardworking lovely and caring mother, a great coworker, very responsible and always bringing a smile to all around her. She was also known as 'La Tia' in her workplace, where not only her coworkers would call her that but also her clients when referring to her in a lovely way," campaign organizer Danny Corte Jadan said online.
In a statement to WFMZ-TV, the Lehigh County district attorney said Corte was not facing charges in Pennsylvania.
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Second Elizabeth woman to suffer a violent death
Sumba's funeral is scheduled for Sunday from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Las Rosas Bannworth Funeral Home in Elizabeth. Part of the donations to the GoFundMe campaign will be used to return her body to Ecuador.
It is the second violent death of an Elizabeth woman in the past two weeks.
Jose Melo, 52, was charged with first-degree murder after Naket Jadix Trinidad Maldonado, 31, was found stabbed to death at a residence on Florida Street the morning of Dec. 30. Melo, professionally known as DJ Melo, proposed to Maldonado hours before her death inside a club and posted her acceptance to his professional Facebook page.
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