3 arrested in 1990s killings of Long Branch mom, brother-in-law

LONG BRANCH — Three people have been arrested and will face charges in a pair of homicides a quarter-century ago in New Jersey, prosecutors said.

The Monmouth County prosecutor's office announced the arrests Friday night in a post on Twitter and said more details would be provided later.

The body of Ana Mejia, 24, was found in December 1994 in the Long Branch apartment she shared with her young children. The following year, her brother-in-law, Nicholas Connors, 51, was murdered in his Long Branch home. Prosecutors said the suspects will face charges in both slayings.

The Asbury Park Press reports that two of the suspects were arrested in Florida and one was taken into custody in New Jersey. Authorities haven't releases details about the arrests or listed the charges against the trio. One suspect has the same name as a relative of both victims cited in previous reports about the case the paper said.

Authorities said at the time that Mejia, who also was referred to as Mejia-Jimenez, had been stabbed about 20 times, and the attacker also slashed her throat, smeared cocaine on her face and stuffed some of the drug inside her nose.

Connors was shot to death months later inside his home. Police said two children, ages 14 and 13, were asleep inside the house at the time and didn't hear anything.

Authorities at the time said they suspected a connection between the slayings, since the victims were related, but declined to say if there were suspects in either case. The prosecutor's office on Friday praised the work of its cold case unit, which was formed in 2018, and said Long Branch and West Palm Beach, Florida police were involved.

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