BRIDGEWATER, NJ — A 60-year-old Canadian man has been extradited to New Jersey to face charges in the 1997 murder of Tamara “Tammy” Tignor, a Newark woman whose body was discovered on a dirt road in Bridgewater, authorities announced.
Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald said Robert A. Creter, of Winnipeg, Canada, was taken into custody by Canadian authorities in June 2024 after DNA evidence linked him to the decades-old homicide. Creter was extradited to the United States on November 26, 2024, and is now being held in the Somerset County Jail.
On November 4, 1997, Bridgewater police discovered Tignor’s body on a dirt access road near Washington Valley Park. An autopsy confirmed her death was a homicide, but the case went unsolved for years despite continued efforts by local and county investigators.
In January 2023, the case was reexamined as part of the Garden State Cold Case Network and the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) Grant. Advanced DNA testing conducted in April 2023 matched evidence from the crime scene to Creter through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Investigators later learned that Creter had relocated to Canada in 2002.
Murder charges were authorized in May 2023, and Creter was arrested by Canadian authorities on June 27, 2024. After months of legal proceedings, Creter was returned to New Jersey last week.
Creter now faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of Tignor and is awaiting a detention hearing.