On the night of April 29, 2018, a beloved Neptune, New Jersey barber's life was cut short in a hail of bullets on a dark stretch of highway. Earl 'Everlasting' Sanders, a 54-year-old Black/African American male, was driving his 2009 Mercedes Benz C350 southbound on Route 18 in Colts Neck when the unthinkable happened. He was a well-known figure in his community, not just for his skills with clippers at his Asbury Park barbershop, but for his mentorship of young people, a role he embraced after overcoming his own troubled past. That evening, he was on his way home from a birthday party in Freehold, a passenger beside him, when another vehicle pulled alongside them.
Without warning, between 10 and 17 shots were fired into the driver's side of Sanders' car. Struck multiple times, he lost control of the vehicle, which then veered off the road and crashed into a guardrail. When police responded to a 911 call about a single-car accident, they found a grim scene.
Sanders was pronounced dead at the scene, the victim of a targeted shooting. His passenger, a 52-year-old, was also shot in the leg but survived the ordeal with non-life-threatening injuries. The brutal and sudden nature of the violence left a community in shock and searching for answers.
The investigation into the murder of Earl Sanders was immediately launched by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office and the Colts Neck Police Department. Despite their efforts and the passage of time, the case remains the only unsolved murder in Monmouth County from 2018. Investigators have explored various potential motives, including possible disputes at Sanders' barbershop or an altercation at a club in Freehold earlier that night. While authorities have announced that they have identified persons of interest in the case, no arrests have been made, and no specific suspects have been named publicly. A $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction has been offered, as law enforcement continues to appeal to the public for any information that could help bring those responsible to justice and provide closure for Sanders' grieving family and friends.
