Thomas R. Mulcahy and the Route 72 bags (1992)

Two recovery sites, a third place of discovery

The 2008 appellate opinion supplies a distinction missing from the early summary. Transportation workers collected bags at Butler Place on July 10, 1992, but discovered human remains after returning to the Red Lion maintenance yard. Parkway workers separately found remains at the Stafford Forge rest area. These were related recoveries, not three separate victims.

Mulcahy was a Massachusetts businessman and father of four, last seen in Manhattan on July 8. The court gives his age as 55; the earlier archive summary gave 57.

What changed in the investigation

Toronto police reexamined preserved bags in July 2000 and recovered fingerprints that linked Mulcahy’s case to Anthony Marrero’s 1993 killing. A Maine database comparison identified Rogers in May 2001. The breakthrough required both recoverable prints and a matching record.

The documented outcome

Rogers was convicted in 2005 of murdering Mulcahy and Marrero. The sentence included consecutive life terms. His direct appeal failed in 2008, and a 2014 decision affirmed denial of post-conviction relief. Evidence about two other deaths was admitted at trial; those deaths were not additional murder convictions in this New Jersey judgment.