Cops: Raritan hammer killer left bodies to decompose

This story was first published Dec. 14, 2015, and updated Dec. 15, 2015.

RARITAN BOROUGH - The bodies of a borough mother and her teenage daughter were found days after they were brutally murdered by the older woman's hammer-wielding boyfriend, investigators say.

Ramon Cadiz, 51, was arrested before dawn Saturday morning, hours after police made the gruesome discovery at the First Avenue duplex.

There, authorities found the badly disfigured and decomposing bodies of the two victims. It was not clear Monday how long the victims had laid inside the home. Police were called to the address after the teen girl had been missing from school.

On Monday evening, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office revealed that forensics experts had identified the two victims as Sandra Giuseppe, 51, and her daughter Kimberly Streath, 15.

The cause of Giuseppe's death was blunt force trauma to the head with a mallet type of hammer and strangulation with a rope, according to the prosecutor's office. Streath was killed by blunt force trauma to the head with a hammer.

The crime rocked this small Somerset County borough which hasn't recorded a homicide in more than 25 years. The slaying also stoked outrage Monday afternoon when MyCentralJersey.com reported that Cadiz already is a convicted killer who was released from prison after serving just eight years of a 25-year sentence for a 1991 knife killing in Vineland.

In an affidavit filed in Superior Court in Somerville on Monday, investigators described the almost ritualistic manner in which the victims appear to have been killed.

Giuseppe's body was found on the couch of the first-floor living room while her daughter was on the bed of a second-floor bedroom.

Each was covered with quilts that were spray painted with phrases raging against the victims. Each of the bodies also had a T-shirt from Cadiz's workplace draped over it.

A bloody hammer was found next to each of the victims.

Giuseppe also had a rope around her neck.

Her daughter's body on the second floor showed an advanced stage of decomposition while Giuseppe's body was in a moderate state of decomposition, according to the affidavit.

Witnesses placed Cadiz at the scene as late as 8:30 p.m. Thursday, the affidavit said.



The investigation revealed that Cadiz had dropped off his work van at his employer on Dec. 6 and left a note that he was quitting, the affidavit.



The landlord of the First Avenue home told detectives that he had conversations with Cadiz about being behind in rent.



Cadiz told the landlord, according to the affidavit, that he had the rent money but that his girlfriend and her daughter had stolen it and had gone to New York.



Cadiz told the landlord that he was going to New York and would have the money.

Cadiz was found early Saturday morning in North Brunswick sleeping in his girlfriend's car.

MyCentralJersey.com reported Monday that Cadiz has an extensive criminal record in addition to his aggravated manslaughter conviction in 1992.

Staff Writer Sergio Bichao: 908-243-6615; sbichao@mycentraljersey.com