By BRIAN DONOHUE
On July 5, The Asbury Park Press reported an employee found Lee’s body lying in a pool of blood in one of the narrow aisles of the stockroom shortly after 11 am. The store was on Broad Street, just across from White Street, news outlets reported, but did not give a specific address.
Lee had arrived at the store earlier to open up for the day.
“Even in the morning the town was packed,” then Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye told the Press. “No one heard anything. No one saw anything.”
Lee had been stabbed six times with a butcher knife, police said at the time. Her purse was not taken; money was still in her pocket. No money had been taken from the cash register, but the alarm was sounding when her body was found.
Her husband and business partner was interviewed but was ruled out as a suspect, law enforcement officials told the Press.
Two years later, a 26-year-old Deal man was arrested and charged with the slaying of a video store clerk in West Long Branch. Citing sources with the investigation, the Asbury Park Press said that man was also a suspect in the Red Bank slaying two years earlier.
He was never charged with Lee’s murder. redbankgreen reached out to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office earlier this week for an update or information on the case. A public information officer replied saying they would inquire with the office’s cold case squad, but they did not get back to us before deadline.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.
