Mother, Son Indicted For 25-Year-Old New Jersey Murders

A woman and her son face murder charges in a 25-year-old cold case in New Jersey.

Dolores Morgan, 66, and her 47-year-old son, Ted Connors, were indicted Wednesday on seven counts of murder and conspiracy, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

The case went unsolved for more than two decades, but that changed when Jose Carrero, Ted Connor’s one-time best friend, confessed late last year to helping the two commit the crimes and testified he witnessed the slayings, authorities said.

Morgan and her son, who have been living in Florida, are accused in the deaths of Nicholas Connors and Ana Mejia in Long Branch during the 1990s.

Nicholas Connors - Morgan’s then husband, and Ted Connor’s adopted father - was found dead at his home on May 14, 1995. His body was on his sofa with multiple gunshots to the head, prosecutors said.

His death came six months after the murder of Mejia, Morgan’s sister. She was killed on Dec. 8, 1994.

Mejia had been stabbed several times, and white powder appeared to be smeared over her face, authorities said. Originally thought to be cocaine, officials later determined the powder was baby formula.

As part of his guilty plea, Carrero was “required to provide truthful testimony” regarding his role in the murders, officials said.

The 48-year-old testified during a hearing last week he discussed killing Mejia with Morgan and Connors in Morgan’s kitchen in 1994, according to NJ.com. Mejia has previously gone to police to inform them about her own boyfriend, who was apparently dealing drugs. Morgan feared her sister would do the same to her, Carrero claimed, so she wanted her dead.

He then told authorities he and Connors went to Mejia’s home on Dec. 8th. Carrero admitted to holding Mejia down and covering her face with his hand, while Connors stabbed her to death.

Carrero then testified that several months later he helped Morgan and Connors kill Nicholas Connors, authorities said.

Prosecutors said the reason for killing Nicholas was so Morgan and Ted could collect on the man’s life insurance policy.

In that 1995 slaying, Carrero told authorities he and Ted Connors cut through a screen door to make the crime look like a robbery, NJ.com reported. They found Nicholas watching television, and Carrero said he then went into another room, and heard Ted shoot his own adopted father.

Carrero is expected to spend 5 to 10 years behind bars for his role in the killings, officials said.

Ted Connors and Morgan are behind bars awaiting trial. They face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to prosecutors.

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