McCaffrey case headed to grand jury

The state’s case charging Robert McCaffrey with the 1990 murder of Lisa McBride will be presented to a grand jury for potential indictment.

The decision was made Monday during a pre-indictment conference in Sussex County Court as McCaffrey’s attorney, Thomas Militano, and prosecutor Jerome Neidhardt appeared before Judge Janine Allen in Sussex County Court.

A speedy trial date was set for July 17. Under New Jersey law, there are speedy trial obligations the state must meet during a prosecution, explained MaryAnn Spoto, a communications manager with the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts. When a case is given a speedy trial date, the state has until that date to indict the defendant before the law requires the release of that defendant.

A control date was set for 9 a.m. on July 14. The purpose of a control date, Spoto said, is to ensure a case proceeds as planned. Parties can return to court prior to that date if, for example, a defendant is indicted earlier by a grand jury. That would necessitate a court appearance for an arraignment on the grand jury’s charges.

McCaffrey, 54, of Manteo, N.C., pleaded not guilty April 20 to murder, burglary and kidnapping 36 years after the remains of McBride, a 27-year-old resident of Highland Lakes, were found in Sandyston.

Background

A 1981 graduate of West Milford High School, McBride was working as an executive secretary at Lakeland Bank in Newfoundland and living alone at 118 Glen Road in the Highland Lakes section of Vernon prior to her murder.

After work on June 22, 1990, McBride and some friends attended a concert in New York City before stopping at Big John’s Pub on Old Route 23 in Newfoundland on the way home. Police reports said McBride drank three beers, gave three old friends her phone number and left at 1:15 a.m., saying she had to be at work in the morning.

She did not show up at work the next day and went missing. At approximately 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 20, 1990, four months after she disappeared, a hunter found McBride’s remains in Sandyston. Ruled a homicide, investigators ran into dead ends for nearly 36 years.

According to court documents, evidence from the headboard of McBride’s bed was submitted for DNA testing in 2020. In 2022, McBride’s DNA was obtained when her remains were exhumed.

In February of this year, through advancements in DNA testing, court documents show McBride’s DNA and McCaffrey’s DNA were identified on the headboard evidence.

McCaffrey’s DNA was in the national DNA database for criminal defenders after he was convicted of obstruction of justice after the 2012 disappearance of his wife in South Carolina.

The complaint warrant and affidavit of probable cause were submitted by the state police and signed by Vernon Township Judge Peter Laemers on April 6. McCaffrey was arrested in North Carolina on April 10 and extradited to New Jersey.