In the winter of 2020, the life of 27-year-old Jose Castro Jr. was tragically cut short in a calculated and violent act that began in Bridgeton, New Jersey. On the evening of December 9th, Castro was lured from the relative safety of his residence at the Ivy Square Apartments. A man named Joseph Lawrence, 26, of Millville, arrived to pick him up, setting in motion a fatal chain of events. Unbeknownst to Castro, he was being led into a deadly trap, the culmination of a conspiracy to end his life.
Lawrence transported Castro to a second, undisclosed location within Bridgeton. There, a group of men, identified as 33-year-old Anthony Moore, 29-year-old Armahd Smith, and 33-year-old Frank Lee, all residents of Bridgeton, were lying in wait. It was at this predetermined spot that Castro was shot multiple times.
His assailants then placed his body into a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan and drove to the more rural setting of Hopewell Township in Cumberland County.
In the early morning hours of December 10, 2020, law enforcement officials discovered Jose Castro Jr.'s body dumped on Barretts Run Road. The investigation that followed, a joint effort by the New Jersey State Police and the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office, pieced together the events of the preceding night. A significant piece of evidence, the Dodge Grand Caravan used to transport Castro's body, was later found abandoned and scorched on a dirt access road off Gouldtown-Woodruff Road in Bridgeton.
Following an intensive investigation, authorities arrested Lawrence, Moore, Smith, and Lee. All four men were charged with conspiracy to commit murder for their roles in the luring and killing of Jose Castro Jr. They were subsequently lodged in the Cumberland County Jail. The investigation into the motive for the killing and the full extent of the conspiracy remained ongoing as the suspects awaited legal proceedings.
