NEWARK, NJ — New Jersey investigators have identified Larry Burney as the prime suspect in the 1982 killing of William Jenkins, a man who was found bound and stabbed to death inside his East Orange home. The case had remained unsolved for more than four decades before DNA testing provided a new lead.
State police said Burney died in 2005 while incarcerated at South Woods State Prison in New Jersey. The identification came after the New Jersey State Police Cold Case Unit reopened the investigation with help from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Garden State Cold Case Network.
Officials said the breakthrough grew out of evidence collected in the original case and later examined with modern genetic tools. Jenkins’ death was first investigated by East Orange police, but the case eventually went cold.
What officers found in the 1982 East Orange apartment
East Orange police officers responded to an apartment in the 200 block of Halsted Street on April 20, 1982. Inside, they found Jenkins lying face down next to his bed with his hands and feet bound.
Authorities said he had been stabbed multiple times. The circumstances immediately marked the death as a violent homicide, but investigators at the time were unable to solve the case.
The original detectives with the East Orange Police Department handled the early work, then the file stalled for years. Like many older homicides, the case depended on evidence that had to survive long enough for later technology to catch up.
How the cold case reopened decades later
In 2024, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office contacted the New Jersey State Police Cold Case Unit through the Garden State Cold Case Network. That referral brought the old homicide back into active review.
Investigators then submitted a key piece of evidence tied to an unknown male DNA profile to Othram, Inc., a company that works on genetic genealogy testing. The goal was to build a usable profile from the material and search for family connections.
That work helped investigators narrow the field and revive the case with information that had not been available when Jenkins was killed. The process reflects how forensic genealogy can turn small traces of biological evidence into a much larger investigative lead.
DNA analysis narrowed the case to three brothers
By June, investigators had reduced the possible suspects to three brothers with ties to Essex County, specifically Newark, according to state police. That step came after the DNA profile and follow-up investigative work pointed them toward a family line connected to the crime.
State police said subsequent efforts identified Larry Burney as the primary suspect. Investigators then obtained a DNA reference sample associated with Burney and compared it to the crime-scene evidence.
That comparison confirmed the link, according to the New Jersey State Police news release. Officials did not say what specific item of evidence was used, only that it had originally contained the unknown male DNA profile.
Burney’s prison sentence and death before the arrest
Burney had already been serving a life sentence for another violent crime. NJ.com reported that he was sentenced in 1984 after using a sawed-off rifle to rob two New Jersey men in 1982.
He died in 2005 while in state custody at South Woods State Prison, so the 1982 homicide was never resolved through a criminal prosecution against him. The recent identification names him as a suspect rather than a defendant in a live case.
Even so, the announcement closes a major gap in a decades-old killing that had remained open since the day Jenkins was found dead. Investigators said the discovery shows how old evidence can still matter when paired with modern testing.
State police say the case shows the value of cold case work
Acting Superintendent Jeanne Hengemuhle praised the work in the state police news release, saying the identification is a reminder that justice does not expire. She said investigators continue to work long after a case goes unresolved, and that DNA testing has become an important tool in that effort.
Hengemuhle also said the progress can bring long-awaited closure to families who have lived with uncertainty for years. In the Jenkins case, the identification arrives 44 years after the killing and after the original investigation went cold.
For East Orange and Essex County investigators, the case is another example of how collaboration between local agencies, prosecutors and forensic specialists can revive an old homicide. The identification of Burney now provides a clear suspect in a murder that had lingered without an answer for generations.
