Missing Linden Woman's Body Found in Long Branch, 2 Charged With Murder

Freehold, NJ - The discovery of Tyrita R. Julius' body buried in a Long Branch backyard was a sad end to the five-month search for the missing woman, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said at a press conference Wednesday.

The 41-year-old Linden woman's body was found wrapped in a tarp and buried three feet underground in the backyard of Andre Harris' home at 288 Joline Avenue Tuesday, he said. She had been missing since March, and police were actively searching for her, posting Missing Person announcements online.

"This is not the way we wanted it to end," Gramiccioni told the victim's family members, who attended the press conference. "I'm sorry. We wanted to find her. May she rest in peace."

Charged with her murder are Andre Harris, 32, and Jennifer Sweeney, 32, Tinton Falls. Both were charged with first degree murder, desecration of human remains and tampering with evidence, he said. Their bails were set at $1.5 million each, with no 10 percent option. They will be taken to the Monmouth County Jail after a first appearance in Superior Court Tuesday afternoon.

Julius and Sweeney were good friends, Gramiccioni said. "They spent a lot of time together," he said.

He declined to speculate on a motive. "I can't go into that right now," Gramiccioni said.

The discovery of her body came after an intensive investigation by law enforcement personnel from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, Union County Prosecutor’s Office, Linden Police Department, Tinton Falls Police Department, Long Branch Police Department, and New Jersey Transit Police, Gramiccioni said.

The search for the missing woman began after her mother, Queen Julius, called Linden police to report her daughter was missing on March 8. She told police her daughter was spending time with a female friend from Tinton Falls that day, but never came home. Calls and texts went unanswered, authorities said.

Her mother initially reported that Tyrita had last been seen at the Long Branch train station by Sweeney. But she never made it to the train station, Gramiccioni said.

"Tyrita was not dropped off at the Long Branch Train Station. Instead Tyrita was murdered," he said.

Julius was previously a victim of a shooting in Linden on Nov. 24, 2015, close to her home. She was shot several times in the driver's seat of her vehicle and spent months recovering, he said. Police think she and her daughter, 15, were the intended targets in that shooting, when a man wearing a dark scarf around his face stopped and talked to both women as they sat inside the car Julius was driving. The gunman then fired into the car at them. The daughter suffered a graze wound and gunshot wound to the wrist, and Julius, struck eight times in the torso and pelvis, remained in critical condition after the shooting.

"She wasn't completely recovered and was still going to physical therapy," her friend Christine Peoples told NJ.com when she first went missing.

The Union County Prosecutor's charged Harris and Sweeney with two counts of first degree attempted murder, first degree conspiracy and two counts weapons offenses related to that incident, Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park said. Additional bail for the November incident was set at $500,000 cash, she said.
Julius' body was taken to the Monmouth County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy today. Results should be available with several days, Gramiccioni said.

by Patricia A. Miller