Suspect Arrested In Connection with 1990 Cold Case Sexual Assault Of Woman Found Dead On Jersey Shore Can't Be Tried: Officials

A suspect in the sexual assault of a 20-year-old woman found dead while vacationing on the Jersey Shore cannot be tried, officials recently said after the case went all the way to the state's Supreme Court.

On May 27, 1990, police located the partially clothed body of Susan Negersmith of Carmel, New York, in a storage area behind a restaurant in Wildwood, New Jersey, the Cape May Prosecutor’s Office said.

An autopsy showed Negersmith was the victim of a sexual assault and forensic evidence was recovered from the scene, which investigators used to identify a DNA profile of her alleged attacker.

According to prosecutors, the profile was compared to multiple persons of interest over the years, but the case went cold — until 2018 when investigators used genetic genealogy analysis to allegedly match the forensic evidence to now 63-year-old Jerry Rosado of Millville, New Jersey.

“Countless law enforcement professionals and prosecutors have worked on resolving this case over the last thirty-two years and their collective dedicated effort, in conjunction with the improvements in DNA Technology and Genetic Genealogy Analysis, has led to this long overdue arrest,” Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland said in April 2022.

At the time, Sutherland said Rosado faced a second-degree sexual assault charge, which carries a possible sentence of 5 to 10 years in prison.

Recently, however, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Rosado could not be brought to trial in the case due to the five-year statute of limitations for sexual assault that was the law at the time Neggersmith was found dead, the Courier Post reported.

Anyone with information concerning this case is urged to contact the Cape May County Sheriff’s Tip Line at cmcsheriff.net and click on anonymous tip, or by calling Cape May County Crime Stoppers at (609) 889-3597 or the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office at (609) 465-1135.