GHOULISH MA 'SLAY' OVER $$
‘Throat slit in Tribeca, body stashed in NJ’
A Tribeca man is sus-spected of slitting hiss mother’s throat in a fight over money and dumping her body inn New Jersey — where shee was found only becausee her other son reportedd her missing, policece sources said Wednesday.
Jared Eng, 22, his girlfriend, Caitlyn O’Rourke, 21, and a pal, Jennifer Lo-opez, 18, were charged Wednesday night in Manhattan Criminal Court with concealment of a corpse, but the death is being probed as a homicide, officials said.
Eng, while being escorted by cops from a station house in lower Manhattan Wednesday evening, denied killing his mother.
“I loved her very much,” he said. “She gave me everything.”
Detectives believe that Eng slashed Paula Chin, 65, across the neck in their Vestry Street apartment, then enlisted the help of his friends to stuff the body in a plastic bag, drive it to Morris Township, NJ, and ditch it near a family-owned home, where it was found Tuesday, the sources said.
“It’s a tragedy,” said Robert Jones, a maintenance worker in a neighboring building and a longtime family friend.
“She [was] always talking about how good a son he was. I don’t know what would make him do this.”
Investigators believe that Eng snapped when his mom demanded he repay money he had taken from her, sources said.
Cops are still piecing together exactly when Chin was killed, but her elder son, Brandon Eng, told investigators that the last time he saw her alive was on Jan. 31 in the Vestry Street apartment, sources said.
Surveillance video from across the street shows the three suspects hauling a large bag out of the building’s front door and toward the family’s black SUV, but it was unclear when the images were captured, according to the sources.
Jared may have called in help for the macabre trip to Jersey because he doesn’t know how to drive, the sources said.
Brandon phoned the NYPD on Monday to report his mom missing, and by late Tuesday his brother and alleged accomplices had been arrested in lower Manhattan.
“I saw [police] take [Chin’s] car yesterday,” said one resident in the family’s building, who declined to reveal her name.
“They’re nice people. I’ve known them forever,” said the neighbor, calling the death “devastating.”
“I’ve known Jared since he was a baby,” the neighbor added.