Jury deliberating in the 1999 murder of Nancy Nogi

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NEW BRUNSWICK – A jury was scheduled to begin deliberating Tuesday afternoon to determine whether an Ocean County man is responsible for the 1999 murder of a 17-year-old Sayreville War Memorial High School student whose body was found in a wooded area near her home. place of residence. she was working just a few days after her disappearance.

Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone instructed the eight women and four men on the jury that they would be the judge of the facts and that their memories should guide them.

Bruce Cymanski, 52, of Barnegat, formerly of South Amboy and Old Bridge, faces charges of kidnapping, sexual assault, murder and the murder of Nancy Noga, who disappeared on Jan. 7, 1999, after she failed to return home from her job at a nearby rag shop. After an intense search by police, a man walking his dog found her frozen body in the woods near her work a few days later.

Cymański, who was also charged with possessing weapons for unlawful purposes, pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. During the almost week-long trial, he did not testify in his defense.

Noga’s disappearance and death shocked the Sayreville community. Police K-9s, helicopters and media were used in the search. Her murder is one of the oldest unsolved cases in Middlesex County.

In his closing arguments, Cymanski’s attorney, Jason Seidman, asked jurors if they had heard any evidence of sexual assault or kidnapping. He stated that although Noga did not deserve what happened to her, there was no indication that Cymański killed Noga.

Seidman said the state focused on who deposited the DNA because it believes the only person who could have caused Nogi’s death is whoever left the DNA. He said the state believed that whoever had sex with Noga must have been the one who killed her, and that was the state’s focus from the beginning.

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He said many people were not considered suspects because their DNA was not found on Noga.

“At the end of the day, they have Bruce’s DNA and nothing else. There is no evidence that Bruce had anything to do with the murder of Nancy Noga,” said Seidman, who reminded jurors of the questions he asked after the prosecution questioned witnesses and what jurors could learn from those questions. “If you have any doubt, if you are not completely convinced by their evidence, you must find Bruce not guilty.”

In 2021, a DNA sample taken from Cymański was compared with semen found on Noga’s body and underwear, and Cymański was indicated as the source of this semen. In 1999, Cymański was about 26 years old and his wife worked at a Kmart near the rag store where Noga worked.

For 25 years, Seidman said, all that mattered to the state was DNA.

He said there was testimony that Noga, who died of blunt force trauma to the head, was likely struck from the front and left, possibly with only one blow, and that the killer was likely left-handed.

“Bruce is right-handed,” Seidman said. “There is no evidence that Bruce had anything to do with the murder of Nancy Noga.”

But Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Katie Mae Magee, chief of the Major Crimes Unit, disagreed.

She said that on January 7, 1999, Cymanski kidnapped, raped and murdered Noga, took her “bruised, bloody and broken” body and “left her like trash in the woods behind the shopping center on Ernston Road, where he left her to die.”

She remained there until her frozen body was discovered on Jan. 12, 1999, by a man walking his dog, Magee said, adding that she was taken to a cold, dark, wooded area away from her route home. Work. She said that no one would choose to enter this forest unless they were running from something.

“The source of the semen is the identity of the murderer. We know the DNA is still in her (Leg) when she is killed. The semen is also found in her underwear,” Magee said, adding that Leg was found on her left side along with semen also on the left side of her underwear.

The semen in her underwear belongs to the accused. He’s the source, Magee said. And the blood on the murder weapon, a long branch, belongs to Noga, she added.

“The accused is a murderer. No one else has done it,” Magee said. “This is a case they have researched and fought for for two decades. We know Bruce had access to Nancy. Nancy had to take her usual route home, right past the Kmart, right where the defendant hung out and where his wife worked. He leaves work and goes straight to Mr. Cymański. It was a crime of opportunity.

“Physical evidence doesn’t lie,” she told the jury. “If you firmly believe that the accused is guilty of the crime charged, you must find him guilty. “If you firmly believe that the source of the semen, Bruce Cymanski, is the identity of the killer, you must find him guilty of this crime.”

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Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, covering crime, courts and other mayhem. For unlimited access, subscribe or activate your digital account today.