Twenty-year-old Nyoka Brice hailed from the small town of Salem, New Jersey, and in February of 2000 was six months pregnant, though the identity of the child’s father is unclear. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Nyoka was seen alive on February 9th, spending time with a girlfriend, but evidently her whereabouts were unknown after that time. When her family failed to hear from her for several days, they reported her missing on February 15th.
Ominously, sometime in March, authorities found some of Nyoka’s belongings—including her ID and some clothing she had last been seen wearing—in a remote wooded area in Mannington Township, about four-and-a-half miles from Salem. Her remains, though, would not turn up until more than a month later.
On April 20th, a boater discovered her nude, decomposed body floating in Alloways Creek near Quinton Township, a location about a mile-and-a-half from where some of her discarded clothing had been found in March, and approximately six miles from her home in Salem.
Though the remains were far too degraded to be able to definitively determine cause of death, Nyoka was found with her ankles tied together with telephone cord; and in a particularly ghastly touch, her killer had also sliced her six-month-old fetus from her womb.
Some time afterward, police charged a thirty-six-year-old man named William Pierce with evidence tampering and obstruction of justice, as they believed he was the one responsible for disposing of Nyoka’s clothing and identification in the woods near Mannington Township. However, there was no further physical evidence linking Pierce to the murder, and he was never charged with that crime. Despite extensive investigation, no further arrests were ever made.
Interestingly, though, there has been one particular person of interest mentioned in connection with the slaying of Nyoka Brice, though his possible involvement didn’t come to light until 2003. In that year, a nineteen-year-old woman named Tomiene Jones disappeared from her Harrison Township home after returning from a night out with friends, leaving her purse, keys, and her two-year-old daughter Janiyah in her apartment.
During the course of the inquiry into Tomiene’s disappearance, it came to light that the father of her daughter—a twenty-six-year-old man named Marc Goodson who was in 2003 serving an eight-year sentence in South Woods State Prison on the charge of sexually assaulting a thirteen-year-old girl and videotaping the attack—had also once dated Nyoka Brice, and reportedly had one child with her. Not only that, but Tomiene Jones, Nyoka Brice, and at least one of Goodson’s other former girlfriends had filed restraining orders against him, alleging domestic abuse.
Marc Goodson, despite a rap sheet that comprises not only sexual assault and domestic violence, but also drug charges, burglary, and aggravated assault, has repeatedly denied killing Tomiene Jones and Nyoka Brice, though he readily admits that he dated and had children with both women. Police, however, find it highly suspicious that two victims have been linked to the same man, and have continued to keep Marc Goodson on their radar in both cases.
The body of Tomiene Jones, as of this writing, has not been found, but her death was ruled a homicide in late 2002.
Crime Immemorial 