A Hudson County Corrections Officer has been charged in connection with a double homicide that took place in Newark Feb. 16, 2021, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II and Newark Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose announced Feb. 17.
The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office’s Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force, which includes detectives from the Newark Police Department, continues to investigate a double homicide that occurred shortly after 9 p.m., where on Tuesday, Feb. 16, a woman suffering from an apparent gunshot wound was found at Edison Place and Bruen Street in Newark. A second woman, also suffering from an apparent gunshot wound, was found on the 100 block of Haynes Avenue, also in Newark.
The victims have been identified as Anna Shpilberg, 40, of Randolph and Luiza Shinkarevskaya, 40, of Riverdale.
Both were pronounced dead on the scene.
John Menendez, 24, a Hudson County Corrections Officer from West New York, has been charged with two counts of murder and weapons offenses, the ECPO says.
A preliminary investigation indicates these are two related homicides at two different scenes.
Shinkarevskaya was discovered on the sidewalk at the Haynes Avenue location. She was pronounced dead at 9:53 p.m. Shpilberg, who is believed to have had a romantic relationship with the suspect, was in the passenger seat of her vehicle. She was pronounced dead at 9:55 p.m.
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