Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr., left, and Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr., right, listen in Trenton, N.J., as New Jersey State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes answers a question after announcing that Gerald Tyrone Murphy, 38, had been shot by police and later died after a standoff with police.TRENTON, N.J. – The woman whose decomposing body was pulled from a New Jersey home following a tense, 37-hour standoff died from stab wounds and blunt force trauma, authorities said Monday.
Police identified the woman as Carmelita Stevens on Sunday – the same day officers stormed her South Trenton home to rescue three of her children from a registered sex-offender who had held authorities at bay since Friday.
The standoff ended when officers entered the home and shot 38-year-old Gerald Tyrone Murphy – the man police said she’d been dating – in the head after they said he threatened one of the children.
Although the Mercer County prosecutor’s office did not confirm the woman’s identity Monday, it said her death had been ruled a homicide from stab wounds to the chest and blunt force trauma to the head.
Police said Murphy killed Stevens and her 13-year-old son as much as two weeks before the standoff began. Three of Stevens’ children – an 18-year-old woman, a 16-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy – had been held hostage and abused during their ordeal, according to prosecutors.