Investigation ongoing in Marine's '92 murder in logan

PRESS RELEASE
November 10, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO

The 1992 murder of a Marine Gunnery Sergeant stationed in Philadelphia is receiving new attention.

The Gloucester County (NJ) Prosecutor’s Office is working with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service Cold Case Homicide Unit to solve the 19-year-old slaying.

It was just after Veterans Day 1992, in the early morning of Nov. 14, that Gunnery Sergeant James Sutton’s family found him shot to death in his Logan Township, Gloucester County NJ home.

The 41-year-old career Marine lived with his wife and seven-year-old daughter on Arrowood Place in Logan Township and was assigned to the Fourth Marine Corps District in Philadelphia PA.

“While many years have passed since Sgt. Sutton’s murder, time and technology can help in the investigation of ‘cold’ cases,” said GCPO Det. Joan Krucinski, who is working the case with NCIS Special Agent Kaylyn Deuker.

“The passage of time can help, in that relationships change over the years, and people with information sometimes become more willing to share knowledge than when first interviewed,” Det. Krucinski said.


“And as we review a years-old homicide, we are always interested in anyone who knew the victim” the detective said. “Some people may not even know they have critical information.”

“In addition, forensic methods have progressed over the years, allowing us to retest old physical evidence and acquire new information,” said Det. Krucinski.

Krucinski also said the NCIS, which investigates unsolved crimes involving Marines and Navy personnel is an effective ally in the Sutton case. Since the NCIS cold case unit was formed in 1995, it has solved 61 murders.

“I never knew James, but to me he is a real person, and he deserves our best effort to find the person responsible for his death,” said Agent Deuker. “The motto of the NCIS cold case unit comes from a quote by Voltaire: ‘To the living we owe respect. To the dead we owe the truth.’ We intend to determine the truth about what happened to James Sutton.”

Krucinski and Dueker are the third team of investigators to work on Sutton’s murder, the first two pairs having retired. And that is another aspect of cold case work that can lead to a perpetrator. “Families and loved ones should know that in this office and at the NCIS, cold cases do not sit on a shelf in a basement. They are next to the desk of one investigator and the next one. Each of us in law enforcement come to an unsolved case with our own perspective, studying what has been done and looking for the unexplored,” Det.Krucinski said. “Persistence and ‘fresh eyes’ is how we eventually find killers.”

Reports about the ongoing investigation of Sutton’s murder will appear in the Navy Times and Marine Times publications, in print and online.

Anyone with information regarding this investigation should call Det. Krucinski at (856) 384-5609 or e-mail her at jkrucinski@co.gloucester.nj.us. Tips can also be sent to the GCPO major crimes unit e-mail address: mcu@co.gloucester.nj.us.