For greater than three many years, the house invasion killing of New Jersey resident Mauricio Cuadra remained unsolved.
Then, in 2024, a man walked right into a Georgia police station greater than 700 miles away from the scene of the crime. He was carrying his medicines and private belongings, ready for the likelihood that he wouldn’t return dwelling.
Joseph Quiros-Soto had one thing to confess after his pastor inspired him to come ahead and do the appropriate factor. He advised investigators he was chargeable for the August 9, 1989, murder of 48-year-old Cuadra in Bayonne, New Jersey.
Cuadra was inside his house together with his girlfriend and her two younger daughters when an unknown intruder kicked within the door, in accordance to courtroom paperwork. Records point out that Cuadra tried to defend himself with a crowbar earlier than the suspect positioned him in a headlock and shot him within the head in the course of the wrestle.
Quiros-Soto, a self-described born-again Christian who had been attending an area church and collaborating in a males’s group, advised investigators that his religion performed a central function in his resolution to confess after many years of silence.
Quiros-Soto, now 62, first got here to the Locust Grove Police Department on August 28, 2024, and confessed to the murder on the entrance desk, triggering a cross-state investigation involving Georgia and New Jersey authorities, Locust Grove Police Chief Derrick Austin advised NCS.
Austin mentioned the preliminary confession was troublesome to course of given the age of the case.
“It was so far-fetched, but then on the other hand, he was so detailed, we were like, ‘This could be real,’” he mentioned.
Authorities mentioned Quiros-Soto offered particular particulars in regards to the 1989 dwelling invasion that had by no means been publicly launched, together with the sequence of occasions contained in the house — “details that would only be known by the killer,” courtroom paperwork say.
Several New Jersey detectives later traveled to Locust Grove, the place Quiros-Soto voluntarily participated in interviews. Austin mentioned Quiros-Soto has remained cooperative all through the method, and through his interview, appeared to be calm and remorseful.
“To me, it was just like he had been carrying this weight,” Austin mentioned. “It was almost like a relief for him to just tell somebody.”
The Spalding County Sheriff’s Office arrested Quiros-Soto at his dwelling in Griffin, Georgia, on May 27, nearly two years after his confession. Austin mentioned the delay stemmed from the time wanted to confirm Quiros-Soto’s statements all through the investigation.
He is at present being detained in Georgia pending switch to New Jersey authorities, in accordance to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Quiros-Soto waived his Miranda rights throughout interviews with the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office. He additionally offered a DNA pattern, which matched organic proof from a stain pattern on Cuadra’s sweatpants in 1989.
He was charged in May with murder and murder in the course of the fee of a housebreaking, in accordance to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office. It’s unclear whether or not Quiros-Soto has an lawyer.
Authorities mentioned further particulars about motive haven’t been launched on the request of New Jersey investigators because the case stays energetic. The Bayonne Police Department didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark.