State's oldest cold case turns 30

New Jersey?s oldest open case celebrated a milestone birthday Wednesday ? it turned 30 years old. Three decades ago, five teenage boys disappeared from Newark?s West Side Park. Since then, no remains

News 12 Staff

Aug 20, 2008, 11:09 PM

Updated 5,737 days ago

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State's oldest cold case turns 30
New Jersey?s oldest open case celebrated a milestone birthday Wednesday ? it turned 30 years old.
Three decades ago, five teenage boys disappeared from Newark?s West Side Park. Since then, no remains have been found. No arrests have been made. No sightings of the boys have been reported.
The families of the boys say they?ve accepted that their sons are not coming back. They just want to know why their boys disappeared ? information they say they deserve.
Detective Rashid Sabur says the families will someday know what happened. ?There are probably many cases that will never be solved,? he says. ?This case is not one of those cases.? Sabur was assigned to the cold case 10 years ago.
Sabur says new leads and DNA testing are bringing the case closer to being solved. "The new information available to us is good information,? he says. ?We feel it is going to be valuable in bringing a successful conclusion to this case."
Investigators are now getting DNA samples from members of the boys? families that can be used for identification if the bodies are ever found.
A man named Lee Evans was a prime suspect in the case, but he was set free after passing a polygraph test.
Newark's Cold Case Squad last got a tip on this case six months ago.


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