Four Indiana men are under arrest in the death of a man missing for nearly two months whose decomposing body was found in a wooded area of New Jersey, authorities announced Sunday.
An investigation had been underway since hunters found the body of a man “in an advanced state of decomposition” on Dec. 14.
The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday identified the man as Kuldeep Kumar, 35, of India, and announced the arrests of four suspects. The victim’s relatives in Ozone Park, Queens, had reported him missing on Oct. 26, authorities said.
Sourav Kumar, 23, Gaurav Singh, 27, Nirmal Singh, 30, and Gurdeep Singh, 22, all of Greenwood, Ind., were charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Office said an examination of Kuldeep Kumar’s body determined his death was a homicide from “multiple gunshot wounds to the chest.”
Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the NYPD, and the City of Greenwood Police Department in Indiana, worked with New Jersey authorities to determine the alleged killers “acted together and in support of one another in carrying out the murder of Kuldeep Kumar,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The suspects were arrested Friday and brought to Johnson County Jail in Franklin, Ind., pending extradition to New Jersey.
Authorities did not release information as to a motive or how the men knew each other.
