A Pennsylvania man has been charged with killing the mother of his young son and the woman’s mother after breaking into their New Jersey home, officials announced Saturday.
Junior Edwards, 37, of Lansdowne, is accused of fatally shooting 33-year-old Catherine Nunez and 54-year-old Marisol Nunez at their residence in the Hawthorne Park section of Willingboro, a township in Burlington County, N.J., just outside Philadelphia.
Edwards and Nunez share an 8-year-old son, who was in the home during the shootings, but was not injured, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release.
A neighbor who lives next to the Nunez family told local television station WPVI that Catherine had moved to the area from Brooklyn, N.Y. just a few years ago, describing the victim as a “very nice person.”
The shocking incident unfolded in the early hours of Wednesday, authorities said. Willingboro police responded to a residence in the first block of Harrington Circle for a report of a “burglary in progress.”
When first responders arrived at the residence they located the two women in an upstairs bedroom. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
Autopsies performed by the Burlington County Medical Examiner’s Office determined both women died from multiple gunshot wounds. Authorities have not said what may have caused the shooting.
Investigators believe Edwards smashed a first-floor window to gain entry to the house. A handgun believed to be used in the double homicide was also found outside of the residence, according to prosecutors.
Edwards was charged Friday in Philadelphia, where he had been arrested on charges unrelated to the alleged killings, officials said.
He was then charged with two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion burglary with a firearm, endangering the welfare of a child and related weapon charges.
