In the early hours of September 24, 2017, Alan McGinnis brutally stabbed Cody MacPherson at a house party in Pemberton, NJ. He then drove the body to a nearby woodland where he attempted to dispose of the corpse under some debris, Cody’s body lay undiscovered for six months.
Cody in the intervening period had become the subject of an intensive search led by family, friends, and volunteers, he was even featured in NBC’s Dateline missing persons feature.
Cody MacPherson was last seen September 23, 2017 in Browns Mills, NJ.
Have you, or someone you know, seen him?https://t.co/3bEhb2Cctr pic.twitter.com/Zu3mFjXZ4f
— Dateline NBC (@DatelineNBC) October 16, 2017
Cody (20) had only recently moved to the area from Indiana. Prosecutors later learned that he became part of a deadly love triangle involving McGinnis, and a Caitlyn Huertas. McGinnis was the father of Huertas’s two children, but she had recently begun a relationship with MacPherson of which McGinnis was aware.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelAt a late night party at the Pemberton house of Huertas, McGinnis announced to the other guests that he was going to kill MacPherson. He went upstairs where MacPherson was sleeping on a couch and stabbed him in the neck and chest.
Huertas was allegedly unaware of the attack, having been passed out drunk. Her mother Kathleen later moped up MacPherson’s blood in the house.
McGinnis put the body in the trunk of his car and supposedly went to look for a shovel. He approached his cousin at approximately 3 am asking for a lend of a shovel telling him that he had a body in the trunk.
The body was eventually found by a member of the New Jersey Fire Service who was taking part in a controlled burn at the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area, the firefighter observed human remains under some logs.
It was only after an autopsy was performed was the case deemed a homicide, this was followed by a month long probe involving numerous police officers which led to McGinnis being charged with murder April 2018.
McGinnis pleaded guilty to first-degree murder an in February 2019 Alan McGinnis was sentenced by state Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan to 30 years in state prison without the possibility of parole.
The case is examined on Home Sweet Homicide tonight at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.