July 10,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Teaneck NJ, Bergen County Acting Prosecutor Dennis Calo announced the arrest of JOSEPH LABOSCO (DOB: 12/12/1946; single; unemployed) of Staten Island, New York, today, July 9, 2018, on a charge of Murder after the case went cold for 38 years.
The arrest is the result of an investigation conducted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Cold Case Homicide Unit, which is a collaboration with the New Jersey State Police under the direction of Acting Superintendent Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office under the direction of Chief Robert Anzilotti.
On October 1, 1980, the lifeless body of Wayne Eckhart (DOB: 01/24/1930; single; of Manhattan) was found in a remote area off Teaneck Road in Teaneck, New Jersey. An investigation revealed that Wayne Eckhart had been shot to death. After an extensive investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Squad and the Teaneck Police Department, no arrests were made and the case went cold for 38 years.
The newly formed Cold Case Homicide Unit reopened the case in 2018 and identified Joseph LABOSCO as one of the suspects. After multiple interviews with witnesses and the submission of evidence to the New Jersey State Police Forensic Laboratory, Joseph LABOSCO was charged, with one count of Murder, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3a, a 1st degree crime. Joseph LABOSCO is in the custody of Manhattan Detention Center, a federal prison in Brooklyn, New York where he is serving a sentence for an unrelated crime.
Joseph LABOSCO’s first appearance in New Jersey has not been scheduled but will be announced once it is confirmed.
The other suspect was identified as George King (DOB: 7/24/1931) of New York, New York, who died on June 30, 2007.
Bergen County Acting Prosecutor Calo states that this charge is merely an accusation and that the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and would also like to thank the Teaneck Police Department for its assistance in this investigation.
