Dating back to 1980, there are 175 unsolved Mercer County homicide cases.
In recent months, several relatives of murder victims have voiced frustration because their loved one’s case has not been solved. Grieving families want justice, and rightfully so. There’s a common misconception, though, in this grief and outrage that Trenton Police are solely responsible for investigating homicides that occur in the city. When, in fact, the Mercer County Homicide Task Force consists of detectives from several different law enforcement agencies.
“The homicide task force is a force multiplier for our police department,” Trenton Police Lt. Steven Varn said. “The amount of resources and manpower that the task force is able to provide to the city is much more than we could actually do on our own.”
Personnel from the Mercer County Homicide Task Force investigates a 2014 murder.
The Mercer County Homicide Task Force was formed in November 2013, and it consists of personnel from Trenton PD, the county prosecutor’s office, West Windsor PD, Lawrence PD, the county sheriff’s office and New Jersey State Police. Occasionally, other Mercer County police departments will assign an officer to work with the task force as well.
Before the task force was formed, there were about seven TPD officers assigned to investigate homicides that occurred in Trenton. But those officers were also responsible for other cases. So, at times, those detectives were diverted from murder cases to investigate armed robberies, sexual assaults or other incidents that required immediate attention.
“The detectives from Trenton never got a chance to breathe,” First Assistant Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said. “We knew we had to do business a different way.”
So, the county formed the task force with the help of neighboring law enforcement agencies to give detectives a chance to investigate murders without distraction. The task force is responsible for investigating homicides that occur anywhere in Mercer County, but the majority of murders happen in Trenton. So, instead of a handful of officers investigating the city’s homicides, the personnel has more than doubled. In the year since the task force began, detectives have filed charges in seven unsolved homicides that happened prior to 2013.
“Unsolved homicides remain a priority regardless of how old the case is,” Onofri said. “The detectives are always looking at the unsolved cases and they don’t stop until they bring the offender to justice.”
The task force is divided into two on-call squads, which are scheduled in a way that allows detectives to have desk time. Whomever is on call when a murder occurs is the lead detective on the case, regardless of which municipality the officer is from and where the homicide took place.
“We feel that it is definitely working, and it’s a tremendous benefit to the city of Trenton,” Lt. Varn said.
As long as the detectives are assigned to the task force, they fall under the command of the prosecutor’s office, not the police department. The municipalities are still responsible for paying the detectives’ salaries, but any overtime spent investigating murders is paid for by the prosecutor’s office with funds seized and forfeited by suspected criminals. Forfeiture funds are also used to equip task force detectives with laptops, vehicles, smartphones and anything else they may need.
Task force detectives continually talk about the city’s murder rate, Onofri said, and they often brainstorm strategies on how to prevent and solve homicides more quickly. Each unsolved case is assigned to a detective, and every couple of months they’ll review the files of older homicides to see if they missed something. Additionally, officers sent by the municipalities to train with the task force are often asked to look at unsolved murders to see if fresh eyes will notice something new about the case.
“These detectives don’t stop until they find out who did it because they want to bring closure to the family of the victim,” Onofri said. “The personnel is deeply committed to this task force. The cases are not forgotten.”