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Missing Mahwah Native Accused In Highway Body Dumping Caught

MAHWAH, N.J. -- A Mahwah native who avoided capture for two weeks after being charged with dumping a woman’s body late last month in Central Jersey was caught at a New Brunswick motel, authorities said Thursday.

Nicole Barbour

Nicole Barbour

Photo Credit: MUGSHOT
David DeSantos

David DeSantos

Photo Credit: MUGSHOT: Somerset County Prosecutor's Office
If you see Barbour, authorities said, please contact them (information listed below).

If you see Barbour, authorities said, please contact them (information listed below).

Photo Credit: FACEBOOK photo / INSET: Courtesy SOMERSET COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

Nicole Barbour, 26, was staying at the Red Carpet Inn on Route 1 when, according to Somerset County Prosecutor Michael H. Robertson, FBI agents and detectives from his Major Crimes Unit and Branchburg police took her into custody around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

A judge ordered Barbour held in the Somerset County Jail pending a detention hearing Thursday afternoon on charges of disturbing human remains.

Authorities said Barbour and a Pennsylvania man, 32-year-old David DeSantos, moved the body of a dead Hopatcong woman into brush on a highway median on Route 22 in Branchburg on March 29.

The body of Ashley M. Castro, 29, was found 6 days later.

After identifying the victim, investigators zeroed in on DeSantos and Barbour -- who acquaintances told Daily Voice attended Mahwah High School and records show has a minor North Jersey criminal history.

These include arrests in Mahwah on drug charges in May 2015 and for shoplifting in Elmwood Park two months earlier.

Authorities arrested ​DeSantos, of Henryville, PA on April 7 on a fugitive warrant out of Pennsylvania and charged him with second-degree disturbing human remains.

They couldn't find the 5-foot-4, 105-pound Barbour, who recently was living in Ringwood, however.

The search continued until Wednesday morning's arrest at the Route 1 motel in New Brunswick -- a little over 25 miles southeast of where the body was found.

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