The Canadian man charged with murder in New Jersey remains in prison

SOMERVILLE – A homeless Canadian man with previous criminal convictions charged with murdering a former Old Bridge woman whose body was dumped in Bridgewater nearly three decades ago will remain behind bars pending the resolution of his case, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

Robert A. Creter, 60, of Winnipeg, Canada, standing next to defense attorney Christopher Yates, answered “yes” when Somerset County Superior Court Judge Angela Borkowski asked him if he agreed to be detained.

Borkowski told Creter, who entered the courtroom for his initial appearance and detention hearing wearing a bright yellow Morris County Jail jumpsuit and using a walker, that he was qualified to be a public defender.

Robert A. Creter enters Judge Angela Borkowski's courtroom for his sentencing hearing in Somerset County Superior Court in Somerville on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.

Creter is charged with the murder of 23-year-old Tamara Tignor, whose body was found by a Bridgewater man on Nov. 4, 1997, on a dirt access road that dead-ended on Gilbride Road near Washington Valley Park.

Earlier this week, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office announced that Creter was arrested and extradited to the United States after advanced DNA testing of evidence from the Tignor case in 2023 linked him to him. Tignor’s murder has long been considered one of five unsolved cases in Somerset County.

Further investigation revealed that Creter, who formerly lived in the Central Jersey area, relocated to Canada in 2002. He was charged with Tignor’s murder in May 2023 and was taken into custody by Canadian authorities on a warrant from New Jersey in June 2024 and extradited to New Jersey last week.

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Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Mike McLaughlin, who represented the state along with Assistant District Attorney Lorina Murphy, said Tignor’s mother, Piper Bailey, who was not in the courtroom and lives out of state, watched a livestream of the five-minute court hearing.

Borkowski said she reviewed the evidence presented by the prosecutor and agreed there was probable cause.

“The facts are significant and serious,” she said. “There is direct circumstantial evidence supporting probable cause in this case.”

Additionally, Borkowski said Creter had been homeless for nine months and had previously lived in Canada before being extradited to the United States. The judge said Creter was housed in emergency accommodation during his stay in Canada.

McLaughlin said Creter has dual citizenship of the United States and Canada.

“He has 16 prior convictions for aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault, terroristic threats, theft, unlawful possession of a weapon and resisting arrest between 1992 and 1999,” the judge said, adding that Creter did not have a mailing address or telephone number.

McLaughlin said most of the more serious felony convictions came from New Jersey. He said all New Jersey convictions came from the Somerset and Middlesex counties area.

The judge said Creter is at risk of failure to appear, has a history of criminal activity and poses a significant danger to the public and a risk of absconding if he is released.

A Colorado native, Tignor grew up in Old Bridge and was a graduate of the former Cedar Ridge High School. However, at the time of her death, she had moved out of her family home and spent time in upstate New York and communities in Essex and Hudson counties.

According to media reports, she had developed a drug addiction and was working as a prostitute to support her drug habit, renting rooms in motels and staying with friends in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Newark.

Investigators believe Tignor spent her last hours of life in a Newark soup kitchen, where she showered, got clothes and ate.

According to a newspaper report, she was seen several hours later talking to someone in an orange van on Astor Street. According to prosecutors, Creter was operating in an orange van at the time of the murder.

Creter’s next court date is scheduled for mid-January. At that point, the Somerset County District Attorney’s Office could request that the case be sent to a grand jury.

Email: [email protected]

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter at MyCentralJersey.com, covering crime, courts and other chaos. For full access, subscribe or activate your digital account today.

The Canadian man charged with murder in New Jersey remains in prison

ByAmelia Journalton

By Amelia Journalton

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