NJ Officials Up Reward In Search For Missing Shooting Victim
FREEHOLD, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Authorities have increased the reward for information that will help them find a New Jersey woman who disappeared nearly four months after she survived a shooting.
Monmouth County Crime Stoppers and Union County Crime Stoppers are jointly offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information on Tyrita Julius, 41, of Linden.
As CBS2's Cindy Hsu reported, police on Friday canvassed the Fox Chase community in Tinton Falls where Julius was last seen on March 8. She had been spending time with a female friend and reportedly had been dropped off at the Long Branch train station around 7 p.m. that night.
But video at the station has not been able to corroborate that report, and it is not believed she boarded a train that night.
At a news conference Friday, Julius' family members were wearing shirts saying "Team Tyrita." They made a desperate plea to whoever knows something and is holding back.
"This is a personal plea directed to you, and you know who you are," said Julius' aunt, Claudia Scruggs. "In a moment of being upset, we can at times react and do something that we instantly regret."
Julius was inside a car in Middlesex Street at the end of November 2015 when police said a man wearing a mask walked up and fired several shots into the front seat – striking Julius eight times and grazing her 15-year-old daughter.
"As the daughter was walking into the passenger's side of the car, she noticed a man approaching her," Linden Police Capt. James Sarnicki told CBS2's Christine Sloan at the time. "Words were exchanged between them and the mother was concerned for the daughter and told her to get in the car."
Police believe Julius was targeted in the shooting. She and her daughter recovered, but the gunman was never found.
Police said there is no definite connection between the shooting and the woman's disappearance, but they're investigating.
Police say Julius about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds. Julius was wearing a black St. Mary's basketball T-shirt, with an orange image of a basketball, when she disappeared.
She also has scarring on her chest and abdomen from the shooting.
"She has the word love tattooed on her. She has a symbol of rosary beads on her leg and also a tattoo of a butterfly," said acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni.
"Please, please, we're begging you -- if you know where Tyrita is please let us know, how ever it may be, because not knowing is worst of all," Scruggs added.
Anyone with information can make an anonymous call to the Crime Stoppers of Monmouth County at (800) 671-4400, and the Crime Stoppers of Union County at (908) 654-TIPS.
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