Cops: DNA links Montclair man to chain of burglaries

An already-incarcerated Montclair resident, facing charges of assault, kidnapping and weapons possession, has just been additionally charged with theft in connection with a West Caldwell burglary spree, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Forensic evidence from numerous homes and cars burglarized the night of Dec. 11 turned out to be a positive DNA match for Aaron Buie, 27, of Pine Street, who is presently in the Essex County Jail on the earlier charges, the prosecutor stated.

According to authorities, Buie had a dispute with his girlfriend at her apartment on Summit Street in East Orange on April 4.

Afterward, with the assistance of an unidentified accomplice, he bound and gagged the woman, possibly employing knives during the commission of the crime, said Paul M. Loriquet, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. Eight days later, on April 12, police arrested Buie. His bail has been set at $800,000.

Almost exactly four months before that attack, police said the suspect had spent a busy night burglarizing vehicles and houses in West Caldwell.

Three homes and 17 cars in that municipality were entered last Dec. 11 between midnight and 4:30 a.m., and one car, a Honda Civic, was stolen, according to West Caldwell Police Chief Charles Tubbs.

The suspect nabbed personal belongings that ranged from a purse to Christmas gifts from the residences, and stole cell phones and cash from the cars, authorities stated. In all instances, the residents had left their cars and dwellings unlocked, police said.

Detectives recovered forensic evidence from the crime scenes and sent it to the New Jersey State Police Forensic Science Lab in Hamilton for analysis, investigators said. Once the State Police found a match, they contacted authorities in West Caldwell, police said.

Essex County Prosecutor Paula T. Dow stated that this case illustrates how the Crime Scene Unit will no longer be assigned to just homicide, sex-crime and police-shooting cases, but will now be providing assistance to all law enforcement agencies in the county on other types of cases.

West Caldwell detectives Shaun O’Dowd and Declan Beere, working in tandem with Prosecutor’s Office detectives Robert Parsons and John Manago, worked the Buie case.