Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino has announced the Medical Examiner has ruled the deaths of the male and female found at the Hotel Rivera a double homicide.
At approximately 8:30 A.M. yesterday the Newark Police responded to the hotel after guests at the hotel were complaining of a foul odor on the 6th. Floor. A Maintenance employee accessed the room and found the lifeless bodies of Adrian Price, 55 and Towanna Freeman, 42. The victims, who are boyfriend and girlfriend, have been living at the hotel since December 15, 2009. Ms. Freeman was pregnant in her second trimester.
There have been no arrests in the investigation. The Essex County Prosecutor’s and Newark Police Department’s Homicide Squads are actively investigating these murders.
Under New Jersey law the fetus is unborn and not considered a homicide victim according to Thomas S. Fennelly, Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor.
