TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Bergen County man has been charged with attempted murder and aggravated arson after causing a woman to be seriously burned and leaving her stranded in the woods in Ocean County, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Friday.
Justin D. Martin, 36, of Saddle Brook, was arrested early Friday in Asbury Park, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.
Plumsted Township police and emergency medical services were called to a wooded area near Hawkin Road and Success Road at 1:36 p.m. Thursday for a report of a woman who was a burn victim, the prosecutor's office said.
The woman was in distress, authorities said, and she was taken to Temple University Burn Center in Philadelphia, where she was listed as stable as of Friday afternoon, the prosecutor's office said.
Investigators learned the woman and Martin were in the woods when "Martin caused the victim to suffer burns and smoke inhalation," the prosecutor's office said.
They did not say how she had been burned.
Martin then took off in a vehicle and left the woman stranded, the prosecutor's office said.
Detectives tracked him down in Asbury Park and arrested him at 12:15 a.m., the prosecutor's office said.
Martin is being held in the Ocean County Jail in Toms River pending a detention hearing.
The prosecutor's office Major Crime Unit, Plumsted Township Police Department, Ocean County Sheriff's Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, Asbury Park Police Department, Eatontown Police Department, Keansburg Police Department, and Monmouth County Sheriff's Office collaborated on the investigation.
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