Ex-wife charged in missing man's murder

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The ex-wife of a New Jersey man who disappeared last week has been arrested for killing him, authorities said Monday.

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Kathleen Dorsett, 36, of Ocean Township, New Jersey, was charged with one count of first degree murder and one count of fourth degree tampering with physical evidence, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The victim, Stephen Moore, 42, of Manchester Township, New Jersey, was reported missing on August 24 after failing to report for work, the prosecutor’s office said. Two days later, police responded to several 911 calls of a car on fire in Long Branch, New Jersey, authorities said. After extinguishing the flames, firefighters discovered the body of a man in the trunk of the 2001 Nissan Altima, the prosecutor’s office said. The body was later positively identified as that of Moore.

Authorities would not disclose the exact cause of death.

Through the course of the investigation, authorities learned that the Dorsett and Moore were married in 2007 and divorced in 2010, the prosecutor’s office said. It added that the couple had a 20-month-old daughter that Moore was to drop off at Dorsett’s home on the morning of August 16. “Mr. Moore was not seen or heard from again after he dropped his child off at his ex-wife’s residence,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Al Valentin said the investigation is continuing and has asked the public for help in pursuing possible additional information surrounding Moore’s death.

Bail for Dorsett was set at $1.5 million. She is being held at the Monmouth county Correctional Institution.

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