FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) - A former classmate of a 19-year-old New Jersey woman who was strangled in December dumped her body over a bridge in Belmar after first hiding it in bushes outside her home, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Superior Court Judge David Bauman granted the state’s request to detain 19-year-old Preston Taylor after prosecutors told the court that he confessed to dumping Sarah Stern’s body. Bauman said that Taylor led investigators to two buried safes, one with cash and one with Stern’s clothing, after he confessed.
Prosecutors want Taylor to remain in jail because they fear he may retaliate against a witness who first went to police with his suspicions of Taylor and 19-year-old Liam McAtasney, who was charged last week with killing Stern.
The men were both longtime friends of Stern’s and Taylor was her junior prom date. Both were among the nearly 100 people volunteered to help search for Stern in the area surrounding the Shark River inlet after her car was found on the bridge in December.
Taylor’s attorney, John Perrone, said that he tried to talk McAtasney out of killing Stern. But Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Meghan Doyle said that investigators had no evidence of that.
Taylor has been charged with conspiracy, hindering apprehension and disposal of human remains for his alleged role in the crime. McAtasney is facing charges of murder, felony murder, conspiracy, hindering apprehension and disposal of human remains.
Doyle said that McAtasney called Taylor after he killed Stern and asked him to hide her body. Taylor hid the body behind bushes, Doyle said, and they two later returned and put her body in the front seat of her car. They then met at a bridge and the two threw her body into the river, Doyle said. Stern’s body has not yet been found.
McAtasney remains in jail and will have his detention hearing next week.
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