In 1997, the arrest was made in the murder of Tammy Tignor in New Jersey

SOMERSET COUNTY, NJ – A Canadian man has been arrested for the 1997 murder of Tammy Tignor, whose body was found in a New Jersey park after she was strangled.

Nearly three decades later, authorities say DNA technology and an eyewitness account led them to 60-year-old Robert Creter, who was charged with first-degree murder in Tignor’s death.

New DNA technology reveals 27-year-old murder mystery

Tignor’s body was discovered 27 years ago in a wooded area of ​​Washington Valley Park in Bridgewater, sparking an investigation that puzzled authorities for years.

“The last person to see Tammy alive saw her get into an orange van,” said Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Michael McLaughlin.

The orange van was also spotted in Newark, a city Tignor frequently visited, prosecutors said.

District attorneys used the witness’s report and worked with the New Jersey State Police Cold Case Unit to link preserved DNA found in Tignor’s body to Creter.

“In 2023, there were advances in DNA testing that resulted in a profile that police were able to match to Robert Creter. Investigators from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office then examined his previous police reports and were able to link Creter to an orange van,” McLaughlin said.

“If you think about the time she was killed, there really were no cell phones and no license plate readers,” said Col. Pat Callahan, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.

The suspect was arrested in Canada in 2023

Investigators said they made a match with Creter in April 2023 and Canadian authorities took him into custody in Winnipeg several months later.

Because of extradition laws, prosecutors said they couldn’t tell Tignor’s mother about the arrest until Creter was on U.S. soil. She had called the criminal police every year to find out the current status of her daughter’s murder case.

“It was incredibly emotional. She was very grateful to our detectives today and to the detectives then,” McLaughlin said.

Investigators have not revealed a motive for Tignor’s murder, but said she and Creter did not know each other.

Creter is expected to make his first court appearance on Wednesday.