Suzanne Garden disappeared in January; Cynthia “Cindy” Leslie disappeared in February. Their deaths remain unsolved in the latest public prosecutor statement we located. This file puts their separate timelines, reported locations and unanswered questions together without assuming the cases share a killer.
Morris Boulevard, Toms River, in the 2022 review. A house number in a secondary compilation has not been independently verified and is not mapped.
School or work
Freshman at Toms River High School South in the January 31 contemporary report. No employment is documented in the sources checked.
Last reported movement
Left home about 4 p.m. January 27. A reported January 28 sighting was somewhere in downtown Dover Township; the exact location and reliability of that sighting remain unverified.
Recovery
Found January 30 in woods near Maplecrest Road and Delaware Avenue. The contemporary report says “about four blocks” from home; the later review says roughly a mile. Neither supplies a surveyed location.
Nautilus in Beachwood is named as Leslie’s home street in the March 5 contemporary report. The newspaper calls it “Avenue”; later property records call the street “Street.” The house number is omitted from this visitor map.
School or work
A Toms River High School South graduate, according to the later review. The March 5 New York Times report calls her a bookkeeper at Ocean County Advertising Service and says she left at 1 p.m. for lunch, the post office and a company bank errand. The Press of Atlantic City calls the business Ocean Advertising on Irons Street. A 1966 ad gives a similar business name at 40 Irons Street, but does not establish the 1974 office number. The intended bank is unnamed.
Last reported movement
Missing Tuesday, February 26; the contemporary report places her last known walk on Water Street near the post office. The later review adds a reported argument near Water Street and Highland Parkway. No original witness statement was inspected.
Recovery
Found Sunday, March 3, in a vacant lot near Messenger Street by a woman walking a dog. A later account describes former woods between Messenger and Water streets, since developed.
The places where either young woman was attacked are unknown in the sources reviewed. A sighting, a home area and a recovery area are different kinds of evidence.
A shared timeline, two investigations
Garden reportedly left her Morris Boulevard home around 4 p.m. Later review.
A later account reports a downtown Dover Township sighting of Garden. It gives no exact corner or original witness record. Later review.
Garden's body was found in woods. The following day's newspaper calls the location about four blocks from home; later reporting places it near Maplecrest and Delaware. Contemporary report; later review.
Leslie, a bookkeeper at Ocean County Advertising Service, left at about 1 p.m. for lunch, the post office and a company bank errand. The intended bank was not named. A contemporary report places her last known walk on Water Street near the post office. March 5 Times report; Press report; March 4 report.
Leslie was found near Messenger Street. Checks she had intended to deposit were reportedly with her body. Contemporary report; later review.
Police declined to link the killings. Prosecutor Anton told the Times that about 50 people had been interviewed about Leslie on March 4; he reported strangulation in both cases and no sexual assault in either. The underlying medical records were not inspected. March 4 report; March 5 Press report.
A later cold-case review reportedly considered a shared perpetrator as a working theory. The public material reviewed here does not disclose proof of one. Later review.
The Ocean County prosecutor described both investigations as active. We found no newer official status statement. Later review.
The case map
These circles represent broad reported areas, not precise homes, scenes or places to visit. Select a case to compare its movements. The two killings have no markers on the general exploration map.
Loading location notes…
The map centers are approximate aids to reading. They are not original 1974 coordinates. Modern street layouts and parcels may differ. No private residence, lot or exact workplace is marked.
Specific records that could move the research forward
Leslie’s home street
The March 5, 1974 Press report names a Nautilus address in Beachwood and says Leslie lived there with her parents. The article calls the road “Avenue,” while later property records use “Street.” This confirms the Nautilus lead at street level. The case map shows only a broad Beachwood area; it does not pinpoint the house. An original 1974 directory or deed would clarify the historical street suffix and household record.
Leslie’s bank and employer record
The March 5 Times report names Ocean County Advertising Service, calls Leslie a bookkeeper and includes lunch and the post office in her company errand. The Press places the employer on Irons Street. Neither names the bank or check payees. A 1974 directory or employer record could establish the office number, exact destination and whether this was a routine route.
The two reported sightings and the garment
Find the original Garden downtown interview and Leslie Water Street witness statement. A secondary compilation also alleges Garden wore different clothing at discovery than when reported missing; the original missing-person description has not been found. The 2022 review describes a green shirt or work jacket with red lettering on the left breast; the earliest published or official wording has not been located. Period business photographs and advertisements might help test whether such a garment was distinctive. The letters could also have been a name or ordinary clothing. A clothing match alone would not identify the wearer or establish involvement.
Recovery and medical records
Original police scene diagrams, 1974 parcel maps, autopsies and the full contemporary follow-up reports could resolve the recovery distances and medical descriptions. Current homes and parcels cannot substitute for those records.
Investigative relationship
Locate the 1999 cold-case unit's public statements or records and a current Ocean County Prosecutor's Office status update. The March 1974 police position and later working theory should remain distinct until evidence supports a conclusion.
Workplace and bank: what the original report establishes
In the March 5, 1974 Press article, Patrick Jenkins reported that Leslie left her job at Ocean Advertising on Irons Street at 1 p.m. to deposit checks at a bank. Police said her purse, with checks still inside, was found near her body. The full March 5 New York Times article, supplied by a reader, calls her a bookkeeper at Ocean County Advertising Service and says the 1 p.m. errand included lunch, the post office and the bank on company business. It places her last reported sighting near the post office, about a block from the recovery area. Neither report names the bank, check payees, office number or exact route.
A 1966 yearbook advertisement names Ocean County Advertising at 40 Irons Street, but it predates the case by eight years. The 1974 office number and formal relationship between these business names remain unresolved. A secondary compilation gives a check amount and a misspelled street and employer; those details are not adopted without an original source. The March 4 Daily Register report supplies a Water Street sighting, but a witness location cannot establish the intended bank.
Most useful next records: 1974 business directories or advertising photographs, the complete Press of Atlantic City page and follow-ups, and a contemporary employer or police account of the bank and post-office destinations. The Ocean County Library lists a digitized Asbury Park Press archive; the relevant original pages were not inspected in this pass.
The reported green garment: what can be tested
The 2022 local review says a man reportedly seen with Leslie wore a green shirt or work jacket with red lettering on the left breast. A separate case compilation says only that he wore work clothes. Neither supplies the witness statement, and their different levels of detail cannot be treated as independent confirmation of the colors.
The March 5, 1974 Press clipping names Leslie’s errand but does not mention a garment or a Water Street encounter. The accessible March 4 Daily Register brief mentions a Water Street walk without describing a man. Searches of those reports, later indexed accounts and period business imagery located no original wording or documented local uniform matching the color description. An Asbury Park Press 2022 photo gallery is identifiable, but its full captions could not be inspected here.
The useful comparison is a dated 1973–74 photograph, uniform invoice or supplier record that actually shows the left chest and identifies the lettering. A black-and-white ad may document a logo’s shape but cannot verify green fabric or red text. The lettering could have been a name, business mark or ordinary decoration. Even an exact garment match would identify a possible garment source, not the wearer or the person responsible for either killing.
What can be documented about nearby repair businesses
A December 1965 Darbininkas advertisement places Krean’s Body Shop on West Water Street in Toms River. A current shop profile gives 301 West Water Street and says the business has operated since 1946. The contemporary ad establishes the street in 1965; the current address does not by itself establish its exact February 1974 site. West Water Street is a different stretch from the reported Water/Messenger recovery area. Neither source shows a uniform or links the business to Leslie. A December 1974 ad names J&D Gulf Service Station at 224 State Highway 37 and advertises auto repairs. That later date does not establish its presence on the day Leslie disappeared or any clothing colors.
The next useful check is the auto repair, service station, body shop and fuel entries in the Ocean County Historical Society’s 1973–75 directories, followed by dated photographs showing any chest lettering. No business has been matched to the reported green garment, so no trade-business point has been added to the case map.
The Daily Register, March 4, 1974, PDF page 13: Leslie's Beachwood residence, February 26 last-known Water Street walk, March 3 discovery, pending autopsy and investigators' initial position.
TomsRiver.org, 2022 case review: later account summarizing police and Asbury Park Press reporting, including movements, recovery areas and the then-current prosecutor statement. Original case files were unavailable.
New York Times, March 5, 1974, p. 70, “Police Decline to Link Murders Of 2 Girls Who Were Strangled”: full archive transcription supplied by a reader; names Ocean County Advertising Service, describes Leslie as a bookkeeper, lists lunch, post office and bank errands, and attributes cause-of-death and sexual-assault statements to Prosecutor Martin B. Anton. Original page image and medical records were not inspected.
New Jersey Girl Murders case compilation: unverified office number and check-amount leads. It gives “Ocean Country Advertising Service” and “40 Iron Street,” and mistakenly calls February 26, 1974 a Wednesday; use only as a pointer to original records.
No autopsy, police interview, employer file, bank record or current prosecutor case statement was available for inspection. The Times account is a contemporary report of the prosecutor’s statements, not an autopsy record. The green garment description remains traced only to the 2022 review; no period uniform match has been established. The available sources do not establish a perpetrator or prove a link between the killings.
Other local cases in the archive
These are separate investigations linked here for Beachwood and Toms River readers. The public sources reviewed do not establish a connection to the 1974 killings. None of their locations appears on this two-case map.
Todd Sonnenfeld, 1990 — a Beachwood resident last seen leaving a Toms River bar; remains found in Berkeley. The prosecutor appealed for information in 2018.
Gabrielle Mueller, 2001 — a Toms River resident found murdered in Lakewood. The prosecutor appealed for information in 2016.