What to Know
- Authorities are investigating a homicide in a suburban New Jersey neighborhood; a young woman was found dead in her home
- Cops are looking for James Ray, the man who shared the Montclair home with Angela Bledsoe; he's considered armed and dangerous
- Homicides in the town are relatively rare, though there was one high-profile case -- that of Sarah Butler -- there in 2016
Authorities are investigating the death of a 44-year-old woman whose body was found in her home in suburban New Jersey early Tuesday.
Cops were called to Angela Bledsoe's home on Mountain Avenue in Montclair shortly before midnight for a welfare check and found her with multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene around 1:15 a.m. Tuesday.
A 55-year-old man, James Ray, who lived with Bledsoe and had a child with her is wanted on murder and weapons charges, police said. He remains at large and is believed to be armed and dangerous, authorities said.
The child is in the care of family members.
Law enforcement sources tell News 4 a man in Pennsylvania called police Monday night and reported that his brother, Ray, had killed his girlfriend, shooting her at least three times.
Cops had to force their way into the Mountain Avenue home, sources say. Ray was not there. A manhunt is underway for him, while investigators remain on the scene of the crime in a normally quiet neighborhood.
Neighbors Dave Kaplan says the family was very private; he last saw him Monday morning taking out the garbage. But he would never have expected anything nefarious.
Ray is believed to be driing a black BMW 328i four-door with New Jersey license plate ZNX68M.
Homicides in Montclair are relatively rare. There was a high-profile case there in 2016 -- that of Sarah Butler, a 20-year-old college student whose body was found in a state reservation eight days after she went missing. The man charged in that case has also been accused in the deaths of two other women.
