Man charged with killing mother of his 8-year-old son and her mother in South Jersey break-in

A Delaware County man has been charged with killing the mother of their 8-year-old son and the woman’s mother during a break-in at their Willingboro home, Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw and Capt. Ian Bucs, acting Willingboro Township public safety director, announced Saturday.

Junior Edwards, 37, of Lansdowne, has been charged with two counts of murder as well as home invasion burglary and weapons charges, authorities said. He was taken into custody Friday in Philadelphia on unrelated charges, authorities said.

Edwards is charged with fatally shooting Catherine Nunez, 33, and her mother, Marisol Nunez, 54, authorities said. Both had been shot several times and were found in an upstairs bedroom in their home in the Hawthorne Park section of Willingboro, authorities said. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

A son that Edwards and Catherine Nunez have together was home when the shootings occurred but was not physically injured, authorities said. Edwards was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. The child has been placed with the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency, according to Joel Bewley, a spokesman for the county prosecutor’s office.

A possible motive for the shootings was not disclosed. Edwards and Catherine Nunez had not been romantically involved for some time, Bewley said.

Police were dispatched to the home in the first block of Harrington Circle around 4 a.m. Wednesday by a 911 call from Catherine Nunez for a report of a burglary in progress, Bewley said. The intruder smashed a first-floor window and entered the home, authorities said. A handgun believed to be used in the homicides was found outside, authorities said.

Edwards is being held in Pennsylvania, Bewley said. The Burlington County prosecutor plans to seek his extradition to New Jersey on the murder charges, he said.