Councilman's grandson found dead after kidnappers demanded drugs
The grandson of a Camden city councilman has been found dead shortly after a photo showing him blindfolded and bound was sent to his family by someone demanding 10 to 15 pounds of marijuana.
News 12 Staff
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Jul 3, 2019, 2:51 PM
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Updated 1,770 days ago
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The grandson of a Camden city councilman has been found dead shortly after a photo showing him blindfolded and bound was sent to his family by someone demanding 10 to 15 pounds of marijuana.
Curtis Jenkins, 20, was abducted Sunday. Police have called it a targeted abduction but did not say how the kidnappers knew Jenkins.
“I can tell you that they weren’t strangers, but I won’t want to get into specifics of the relationship,” says Detective Bill Townsend of the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.
Police say that Jenkins’s body was found inside an abandoned building. Investigators say that he had been asphyxiated.
Family members say that Jenkins worked at the city’s clerk’s office in Camden City Hall. He would also cook meals and deliver them after orders were received through Facebook.
Jenkins apparently had such a delivery around 11 p.m. Sunday but never returned home. He was then reported missing.
Police have now charged 32-year-old Brandon Beverly, of Woodbury, with kidnapping and murder.
"It carries a mandatory life imprisonment [sentence] because the act was done in the course of a kidnapping,” Townsend says.
Police would not say exactly how they found Jenkins’ body. They would only say that they had help from a witness and surveillance cameras.
Jenkins' grandfather is Camden City Council President Curtis Jenkins Sr.
The Associated Press wire services contributed to this report.
