the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Carlstadt NJ, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced that an investigation revealed JAMES T. COX (DOB: 06/14/77; divorced; unemployed) of 601 6th Street, Carlstadt, NJ, murdered his ex-wife, 34-year-old Massiel S. Deoleo of Mahwah, NJ, and afterward committed suicide. The investigation was conducted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office under the direction of Chief Robert Anzilotti, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office under the direction of Sheriff Anthony Cureton, the Mahwah Police Department under the direction of Chief Stephen Jaffe, and the Carlstadt Police Department under the direction of Chief Thomas Berta.
On Saturday, April 3, 2021, at approximately 11:48 a.m., the Carlstadt Police Department received a phone call from a family member of Massiel S. Deoleo reporting her missing and stating that they were concerned for her well-being. The family member said the last person she was with was her ex-husband, JAMES T. COX, who lives at 601 6th Street, Carlstadt, NJ.
At 11:55 a.m., another of Deoleo’s family members contacted the Mahwah Police Department and asked them to respond to her residence, where officers located numerous items of Deoleo’s personal property outside her residence.
Around that time, officers from the Carlstadt Police Department responded to 601 6th Street, Carlstadt, to speak with JAMES T. COX. Upon the officers’ arrival, COX presented a semi-automatic weapon, pointed it to his head, and said he was not going to shoot officers but was going to take his own life. Officers exited the residence and contacted the Bergen County Regional SWAT team. Crisis negotiators from the SWAT team spent numerous hours attempting to resolve the situation peacefully. In the evening hours of April 3, 2021, at approximately 8:00 p.m., members of the SWAT team entered the residence and found COX deceased from a single gunshot wound. They also found Deoleo’s body in the residence and determined that she had been fatally shot sometime the previous night.
An investigation conducted by detectives from the Mahwah Police Department, the Carlstadt Police Department, and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit revealed that JAMES T. COX murdered Massiel S. Deoleo and then committed suicide.
Prosecutor Musella would like to thank the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, the Mahwah Police Department, and the Carlstadt Police Department for their assistance in this investigation.
