Carol Reiff: Maintenance worker charged with murder of missing woman who failed to appear for planned trip

2023-05-12 07:23

Carol Reiff's body was found three days later in a wooded area just behind an old maintenance building on June 24, 2013

GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS: A maintenance worker has been charged with the murder of a missing woman who was mysteriously dead nearly 10 years ago as the accused has likely left DNA on a pair of the victim's jeans and also on a beer bottle.

On June 21, 2013, the victim Carol Reiff, 59, who planned to visit her family in Manahawkin, New Jersey could not make it to the trip and she did not pick up her cell phone. On the same day, officers responded to Lakeview Apartments where she lived, according to Gloucester Township police, reported Law and Crime.

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Reiff's body was found in a wooded area behind a maintenance building

After the officers responded to Reiff's residence, they got access to the apartment where she was not found and her car keys were inside her vehicle which was found in the parking lot. With a missing person case launched, her body was found three days later in a wooded area just behind an old maintenance building on June 24, 2013. Her cause of death could not be formally determined.

In a joint statement issued by the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, and Gloucester Township police, the officers stated, "An autopsy was conducted and the cause and manner of death was left undetermined due to decomposition."

According to officers, investigators interviewed a maintenance worker who lived near Reiff's apartment. Joseph Grisoff allegedly told detectives that he often saw the woman outside the apartment and stated that he was never inside her home. At the time, testing the DNA of the evidence which included an empty beer bottle and a pair of the victim's jeans did not get results.

Grisoff's DNA results

Nearly ten years later, investigators checked through the evidence and claimed there is a "strong proposition." On Wednesday, May 10, Grispff, 59, was taken into custody by the US Marshals. He has been charged with first-degree murder

"For the last decade, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and Gloucester Township Police Department have remained focused on getting justice for the Reiff family," said MacAuley.

"I’m thankful to the detectives and assistant prosecutors who remained dedicated to this case and to holding the person responsible who unjustly took Ms Reiff from her loved ones," said the prosecutor.