Robert Creter, 61, was extradited to New Jersey in November after being charged with first-degree murder in connection to the decades-long case. (Somerset County Police Department – image credit)
A Manitoba man has admitted he strangled a woman in New Jersey in the late ’90s, putting an end to a homicide case that had remained unsolved for decades in the U.S.
Robert Creter pleaded guilty Monday in the death of Tamara “Tammy” Tignor from Newark, N.J., Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office said Tuesday.
The 61-year-old was extradited to New Jersey from Winnipeg in November after being charged with first-degree murder in connection to the decades-old cold case.
A news release issued by the prosecutor’s office Tuesday said Creter admitted to strangling Tignor with his bare hands in the Township of Bridgewater on the afternoon of Nov. 4, 1997.
Tamara Tignor in 1997. The 23-year-old woman’s body was found on a dirt access road near Washington Valley Park on Nov. 4, 1997. DNA collected from the remains linked Robert Creter to her killing in 2023, after more advanced testing was used. (Somerset County Police Department)
The 23-year-old woman’s body was found on a dirt access road near Washington Valley Park later that day. DNA collected from the remains linked Creter to her killing in 2023, after more advanced testing was used.
Prosecutors said the man — a Canadian citizen who was working as a day labourer in Bridgewater when Tignor’s body was found — moved to Manitoba in 2002 and remained there until his extradition. Creter had been homeless in Winnipeg in the months leading to his arrest last June.
The man pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of aggravated manslaughter as part of a plea deal. Prosecutors have agreed to a 10-year prison sentence, with 85 per cent of that sentence to be served without parole, the release said.
Sentencing has been set for July 11.
