NJ NJ- Smita Amin Patel, 35, worked @ family-owned Little Brown Jug grocery store, robbed & fatally stabbed, Neptune City, 22/3/96, *New initiative*

[dotr]

‘Somebody saw something.’ Neptune City police seek public’s help solving 1996 slaying

Smitha Amin Patel was stabbed to death inside her grocery store on March 22, 1996.

bronx.news12.com

Mar 28, 2024, By: Jim Murdoch
'''At 10 a.m. on Friday, March 22, 1996, Smita Amin Patel worked the counter at the family-owned Little Brown Jug grocery store on Route 33 in Neptune City while her husband Jay and 4-year-old son vacationed in their native India.
“It’s 28 years of unanswered questions - 28 years of asking why this happened. We want to give those answers to that family,” said Monmouth County prosecutor Raymond Santiago.
Smita was found by a customer brutally stabbed to death. Police said a robbery took place. The person who did it got away.''

“They were doing all great things, they came from India, opened their own business, doing very well. They seemed like they were happy,” said Neptune City Police Chief Matthew Quagliato.
Anyone with information about the killing is urged to contact the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Detective Sgt. Christopher Guy at 800-533-7443 or Neptune City Detective James VanEtten at 732-455-0117.'

Murder of Smita Amin Patel

Clipping found in Asbury Park Press published in Asbury Park, New Jersey on 3/27/1996. Murder of Smita Amin Patel

www.newspapers.com

Asbury Park, New Jersey • Wed, Mar 27, 1996Page 10