Suspect arrested in 1997 in cold case in which a New Jersey woman was found in the woods

Decades after a woman was killed and her body dumped in the New Jersey woods, a suspect has been extradited from Canada and charged with murder, according to law enforcement.

On the afternoon of November 4, 1997, Tammy Tignor’s body was found near a hiking trail on Gilbride Road in Bridgewater, near Washington Valley Park. The 23-year-old had been strangled and her death was ruled a homicide.

It was an ATV driver who found Tignor’s body on the dirt access road that ended in a dead end, Somerset County Prosecutor John McDonald said. Bridgewater police and Somerset County investigators searched the woods for days looking for evidence or clues that might lead them to the killer. But the case remained unsolved for years.

DNA evidence found on the Newark woman’s body provided no answers. Meanwhile, her family suffered the agony of losing their daughter, despite knowing that the person who killed her was at large.

“Every year on November 4th, the anniversary of Tammy’s death, Tammy’s mother would call our office asking for updates,” said Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Mike McLaughlin.

Tignor has been dead longer than she has been alive.

For years, investigators from the county’s major crimes and cold cases units, along with city police, continued to investigate the mysterious murder.

In January 2023, evidence in the case was allowed to be resubmitted for DNA testing, which prosecutors said may not have been possible in previous years. Several months later, based on resubmitted evidence, state police received a high-strength match for a possible suspect in the case: Robert Creter.

A first-degree murder charge against Creter was approved in May 2023, prosecutors said, but there was a problem: Creter had moved to Winnipeg, Canada, in 2002. Thereafter, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office worked with the U.S. Department of State. Creter was taken into custody by Canadian authorities on June 27, 2024, based on the warrant for his arrest in New Jersey.

Just before Thanksgiving, there was a major development in the search for justice for Tignor: On Tuesday, Creter was extradited to New Jersey and taken into custody in connection with the murder nearly three decades ago.

“It has been 27 years and 9,885 days since her body was found,” McLaughlin said. “I spoke to the victim’s mother. I told her that we had arrested the man who killed her daughter. It was incredibly emotional. She was very grateful to our detectives today and our detectives then.”

Prosecutors said this was not a genealogical DNA finding that came from a family member, but rather a case in which New Jersey State Police used new DNA testing to reanalyze the sample and match it to CODIS, a DNA index system, which resulted in a match for Cretans.

“I spoke to the victim’s mother – I told her that we arrested the man who killed her daughter. It was very emotional and she was grateful to our detectives now and then,” she said

Creter’s first court appearance was scheduled for Wednesday morning in Somerville.

County officials said Monday they are investigating eight additional cold cases and hope DNA technology will give the families of those victims hope that justice is still possible decades later.

“The arrest of a suspect in this decades-old case is a testament to law enforcement’s unwavering commitment to justice, no matter how much time has passed,” said Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.