Teen chops up girl next door

Derek Rose:

Shock and disbelief ripped through a quiet New Jersey town yesterday when cops charged a teen with the murder and dismemberment of the quiet and brainy girl next door.

Jonathan Zarate, 18, of Randolph bludgeoned and stabbed to death his neighbor, Jennifer Parks, 16, after he invited her over to his house early Saturday morning to watch TV, police said.

Zarate then stuffed the body in a steamer trunk and stashed it in his father's Jeep as he and other relatives celebrated his little sister's birthday Saturday afternoon, cops said.

"It's a pure act of murder," Morris County Prosecutor Michael Rubbinaccio said yesterday.

The prosecutor said Zarate was busted early Sunday as he, his 14-year-old brother and another teen tried to toss the body-filled trunk into the Passaic River.

The victim's relatives said they spent Saturday searching the neighborhood for Jennifer.

They later learned her body was in the Jeep, parked next door to the Parks' home the whole time they were looking for her.

"She was there that whole day," said Jennifer's aunt, Cathy Dodd. "We were walking around the yard, looking for her, and she was still in the trunk. It's hard to believe something like this can happen to your own family."

Police believe the slaying happened about 2 a.m. Saturday when Zarate and Jennifer got into an argument.

Rubbinaccio said Zarate punched Parks in the face, beat her with a metal pole and stabbed her repeatedly before dismembering her body.

Police discovered a large puddle of blood yesterday underneath the carpet in Zarate's room.

Neighbors said Zarate's younger brother had bullied Parks in the past, and they suspected the younger brother of once throwing a brick at her mother's car.

But most thought Parks and Zarate were friends.

"She was a very quiet, genuine, wholesome, good person," neighbor Seid Russell, 35, said of the victim, who enjoyed reading Harry Potter books and dancing.

Zarate was charged with murder and was being held on $1 million bail.

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