Affidavit details DNA, alleged confession in 1990 Sussex County killing; suspect pleads not guilty
NEWTON, N.J. (Sussex County) — Newly released court documents detail DNA evidence and an alleged confession in the decades-old killing of a Sussex County woman, as the man charged in the case pleaded not guilty on Monday.
Robert William McCaffrey Jr., 54, entered a not guilty plea Monday, April 20, during an appearance in Superior Court in Sussex County. Authorities also released the complaint and affidavit of probable cause outlining the case against him.
McCaffrey is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree burglary in the 1990 killing of 27-year-old Lisa Marie McBride of Highland Lakes.
According to the affidavit, McBride was reported missing June 23, 1990, after failing to show up for work. Police responding to her Glen Road home in Vernon Township found signs of foul play, including cut telephone lines, missing bed sheets, a cut window screen and furniture moved inside the residence.
Her skeletal remains were discovered months later, on Oct. 20, 1990, in a wooded area of Sandyston Township. An autopsy determined she suffered injuries consistent with external violence, and her death was ruled a homicide.
The case remained unsolved for more than three decades until advances in DNA testing led investigators to reopen the investigation. Evidence collected from the scene, including material from the headboard of McBride’s bed, was reanalyzed in recent years.
According to prosecutors, testing in 2026 allowed forensic experts to separate DNA profiles and identify an unknown male profile that was entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. In February 2026, authorities said the DNA matched McCaffrey, who had been living in Sussex County at the time of McBride’s disappearance. His DNA had been entered into CODIS following an arrest in South Carolina related to the disappearance of his wife, who remains missing.
The affidavit also references a 2019 witness statement in which an individual told investigators that McCaffrey confessed in 1995 to killing McBride after she refused to go out with him.
Authorities said McCaffrey lived in Sussex County and worked in northern New Jersey at the time of McBride’s disappearance before moving to South Carolina in 1996. He was arrested April 10, 2026, in North Carolina.
McCaffrey’s detention hearing is set for Monday.
