South Jersey man charged with murder, leaving body in burning car

MILLVILLE — A city man has been charged with murdering a 22-year-old woman and leaving the strangled victim in a burning car.

John Jacobs, 27, was arrested Friday night, a day after the body of 22-year-old Sahlena Blackwell-Jacobs was found in the fire-damaged Chevrolet Trailblazer on South Black Horse Pike in the Williamstown section of Monroe.

The Gloucester County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Blackwell-Jacobs had been killed by "blunt neck trauma," prosecutors said Saturday.

Jacobs was charged with first-degree murder, arson, hindering apprehension and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors said they had been looking for Jacobs as part of their search for Blackwell-Jacobs, who had last been seen on Tuesday.

Sahlena Blackwell-Jacobs and John Jacobs in a photo circulated by friends of the missing woman who was found killed.

On Thursday afternoon, Monroe police got a call about a burning vehicle that had been abandoned on the South Black Horse Pike property. That's where they found the missing woman's body.

Prosecutors did not release other details about the case, including whether they knew what motivated the homicide.

Blackwell-Jacobs was the mother of two children. She was a resident of the Sicklerville section of Winslow and worked as an administrative assistant at the William J. Hughes Technical Center in Pomona.

Jacobs was being held at the Salem County Jail awaiting a court hearing. New Jersey 101.5 did not know Saturday whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.