Missing Linden mom's killers also behind previous shooting, prosecutor says

LINDEN, New Jersey (WABC) -- The missing woman from New Jersey whose body was found Tuesday night was killed by the same two people who nearly killed her in a shooting months earlier, prosecutors said.

Tyrita Julius, 41, of Linden, had been missing since March 8, when she was last reported to be at the Long Branch train station getting a train back to Linden, New Jersey. After an extensive five-month search, police found her body at a house in Long Branch and uncovered what really unfolded that night.

Jennifer Sweeney, 33, of Tinton Falls, and Andre Harris, 32, of Long Branch, were charged with murder, desecration of human remains and tampering with physical evidence, according to First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Marc LeMieux.

The charges were filed after a search of Harris' Joline Avenue home that started Tuesday and continued into Wednesday morning.

Eyewitness News spoke with Julius' mother and cousins, who told us Julius was friends with Sweeney. They met through a motorcycle club and Sweeney had been to Julius' home.

The prosecutor said that Julius had met Sweeney the day that that she had gone missing, and that Sweeney was the one who was supposed to have dropped Julius off at the train station the night she went missing.

"Significant efforts were made to bring us to the discovery we all feared - Tyrita Julius died a tragic death. Tyrita was not dropped off at the Long Branch Train Station, instead Tyrita was murdered," Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said.

Investigators also connected to Sweeney and Harris to a double shooting last November that injured both Julius and her 15-year-old daughter. She was shot multiple times while sitting car in her car parked in front of her house on Middlesex Street in Linden. Both recovered.

For that shooting, prosecutors charged the duo with first degree attempted murder, conspiracy and weapons offenses.

Bail for all charges was set at $1.5 million in cash only.

The medical examiner will determine the missing woman's exact cause of death.

Julius previously survived a double shooting inside her car in Linden while with her 15-year-old daughter. She was shot multiple times while sitting car in front of her house on Middlesex Street in November.

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