Howell Police Closing Hurley Pond Road, Where Body Was Found

HOWELL, NJ — Hurley Pond Road, from Route 547 in Howell Township to the Wall Township border, is being closed to traffic beginning Monday afternoon, Howell Township police said.

The closure begins at 4 p.m. and will be in place until further notice, police said.

The road is the site where the body of a Lakewood man was found early Friday morning by a motorist, whose death has since been ruled a homicide.

Domingo Merino Rafael, 33, of Lakewood, was found dead in the road by a person who called 911 at 3:46 a.m., Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said Saturday. He was face down in the road.

Initially authorities believed he had been hit and killed in a hit-and-run crash, but investigators with the Monmouth County Serious Collision Accident Response Team determined it was not a hit-and-run. Reports from NBC 4 New York have described the killing as grisly.

An autopsy was conducted Saturday by Middlesex County Medical Examiner Dr. Allison Mautone, who ruled the death a homicide, Gramiccioni said.

Motorists are being asked to find an alternate route.

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