NJ Serial Killer on Trial for Gay Murders

February 28, 2005

TRENTON, NJ — A man accused of killing gay men and leaving their bodies along rural roads will stand trial in September.

Jury selection will begin September 13 Superior Court Judge James N. Citta has ruled.

Richard W. Rogers Jr., 52, a former surgical nurse is accused of killing two men and is suspected in other murders.

The dismembered bodies were found nearly a decade ago along New Jersey roadways.

Prosecutors say Rogers killed Thomas Mulcahy, 57, of Sudbury, Mass., on July 10, 1992, dismembered his body, placed pieces in garbage bags and dumped them along Route 72 and at a Garden State Parkway rest area.

Rogers is also charged with killing Anthony E. Marrero, 44, of New York, whose dismembered body was found May 10, 1993, on a road in Manchester Township.

Two years ago a 'cold file' law enforcement team resubmitted finger prints that had been taken from crime scene evidence to a nationwide fingerprint database of criminal suspects and Rogers was identified.

He had been arrested in Maine early in the investigation but when the prints were originally submitted to the database a decade ago Maine was not part of the system and he was let go.

It was not his first brush with the law in Maine. He was arrested and stood trial in 1973 for the murder of his roommate, Frederick Spencer, who was struck on the head with a hammer, smothered with a plastic bag and dumped in a wooded area. Rogers claimed self-defense and was acquitted.

After the DNA evidence pointed to him he was arrested in New York City and taken to New Jersey where he has been in jail ever since.

Authorities say the nearly two-year delay between Rogers' arrest and indictment was not unusual because investigators from various agencies had to compare evidence and run numerous tests.

At the time of his arrest, Rogers was living in Staten Island and had been a registered nurse at Mount Sinai Medical Center for more than 20 years.