Manhunt For N.J Man Wanted For Killing His Own 2 Year Old Daughter Ends With His Arrest In California

When Arthur Morgan III is returned to Monmouth County, he will be held on $10 million cash-only bail in connection with the murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Tierra Morgan-Glover. Morgan will appear in a San Diego courtroom for an extradition hearing at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time Thursday – the first step before he is returned to New Jersey to face charges of killing his daughter.

Monmouth County authorities contend Morgan killed his daughter, Tierra Morgan-Glover, by tossing her into a stream in the Shark River Park in Wall Township while she was still strapped in her car seat on Nov. 21.

Morgan was captured Tuesday after answering the door at a San Diego home around 4:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time where he was met by U.S. marshals who had surrounded the house, according to Steve Jurman, supervising deputy of the U.S. Marshals Service in that city.

Morgan is alleged to have killed his daughter on Nov. 21, after picking up the girl from her mother, Imani Benton, 24, of Lakehurst, for a court-approved visitation. He told the girl’s mother he intended to take Tierra to see the movie “Happy Feet Two” and would return around 6 p.m., although the visitation allowed him to keep the girl until 9 that night.

Following a tense four hours from 6 to 10 p.m. – a period that included 59 text messages from Morgan to Benton reassuring her the little girl was “resting,” Benton said Tuesday – the mother called police at 10 p.m. to report her daughter had not been returned home.

Morgan had been last seen alone on the platform of the Asbury Park train station between 7 and 8 p.m. on Nov. 21, just hours after he picked up Tierra from her mother, according to Warshaw.

Morgan must have boarded a northbound train in Asbury Park, because later that night he got on a bus heading for Richmond, Va. that left from Newark Penn Station, said Special Agent Bryan Travers, spokesman for the FBI in Newark.

The bus pulled into Richmond around 5 a.m. on Nov. 22, where 40 minutes later Morgan boarded a second Greyhound bus to continue to his intended destination of San Diego, a source revealed.

With Morgan on the bus just outside Johnson City, Tenn., several teens walking in Shark River Park called police just before 2:30 p.m. to report their grisly discovery of the dead toddler partially submerged in the creek there at an underpass for Schoolhouse Road, Warshaw said that day.

Morgan remained on board the Greyhound bus until about 2 a.m. the next day, Nov. 23, when he transferred to another bus in Memphis following a 40-minute layover there. About 12 hours later, Morgan got off that bus in Elk City, Okla., but failed to re-board the bus to continue on his trip, a source confirmed following revelations from James Solomon, 33, of Woodbridge, one of Morgan’s cousins, who said Morgan may have known investigators were hot on his trail.

“Police missed him by one stop, I was told,” Solomon said.

It is not clear when Morgan got back on a bus, but a source confirmed Morgan did arrive in San Diego on a bus within the next few days before he was found at the Euclid Street home where U.S. marshals captured him Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m glad they caught him,” Ida Frances Shaw, the aunt of Morgan’s mother, Jane Morgan Brooks, said today. “It’s a relief on that girl’s family and a relief on our family.”

http://video-embed.nj.com/services/player/bcpid651974715001?bctid=1301741338001

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Comment by Di on December 3, 2011 at 12:38pm: May she rest in peace, that man should fry.

Comment by LOVELEE on December 2, 2011 at 8:11pm: hope he burn n HELL

Comment by lady lust71 on December 2, 2011 at 8:01pm: WATER BOARDING SOUNDS REALLY GOOD TO ME RIGHT NOW,WITH SOME ICE COLD SEA WATER.......SMH

Comment by caribbeanrose on December 2, 2011 at 3:43pm: Such a sweet lillte Angel. RIP

Comment by judy maya on December 2, 2011 at 9:25am: R.I.P. sweet angel. As to that wicked father, may you rot in hell!!

Comment by BIG F* on December 1, 2011 at 7:50pm: THE SAD THING IN THIS WORLD WHEN IT COME TO KIDS IS THAT THE PARENT WITH THE CHILD COULD KNOW HOW DANGEROUS THE OTHER PARENT IS BUT IF THEY CAN NOT PROVE THAT THEY ARE DANGEROUS THEN THE COURTS WILL GIVE THEM A LITTLE LEAD WAY. BUT IT PROBABLY BEEN SIGNS THAT HE WAS DANGEROUS A LONG TIME BEFORE THEY EVEN HAD A CHILD, BUT IF YOU DON'T REALLY PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR MATE OR YOUR RELATIONSHIP THEN YOU WILL OVER SEE THE LITTLE SIGNS. THIS IS A VERY SAD SITUATION AND LIKE "CEE GEE" SAID "HE MOST LIKELY DID IT TO GET BACK AT THE MOTHER" BECAUSE I CAN'T THINK OF NOTHING THAT LIL GIRL OR ANY CHILD FOR THAT MATTER CAN DO TO DIE THE WAY SHE DID!!! THIS IS JUST ONE OF THE THINGS THAT A PERSON WOULD DO TO GET OUT OF PAYING CHILD SUPPORT OR HAVING TIES TO A PERSON FOR THE REST OF THEY LIFE. FROM READING THIS STORY THERE ARE THREE WAYS YOU CAN TELL THAT THE MOTHER FELT THAT THE FATHER WOULD DO SOMETHING STUPID. ONE, HE HAD A COURT APPROVED VISITATION, WHICH MEAN THAT THE MOTHER PROBABLY DIDN'T TRUST HIM WITH THEY CHILD AND HE HAD TO GO TO COURT FOR VISITATION RIGHTS. BUT LIKE I SAID IF YOU CAN'T PROVE IT THEN THE COURTS IS GOING TO GIVE THEM THEY RIGHTS NO MATTER WHAT. TWO, THE MOTHER KEPT IN TOUCH THROUGH TEXT MESSAGES WHILE HER DAUGHTER WAS ON HER COURT APPROVED VISITATION WITH HER FATHER. THREE, THE MOTHER ONLY GAVE HIM A HOUR TO BE LATE BEFORE SHE CALLED THE POLICE TO REPORT HIM NOT BRINGING HER DAUGHTER HOME ON TIME, WHEN SOME MOTHERS WOULDN'T EVEN CARED, THEY WOULD OF TOOK THAT AS FREE TIME. THE SAD THING IS THAT IT'S NOT JUST SOME FATHERS OUT HERE THAT WOULD DO SOMETHING SO STUPID BUT THERE ARE MOTHERS OUT HERE THAT ARE JUST AS STUPID AS THIS FATHER WAS. I'M GLAD THEY CAUGHT THIS DUDE AND GOT HIM OFF THE STREETS, THIS IS A CASE THAT I FEEL LIKE THERE SHOULD BE A LIFE FOR A LIFE BUT THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY DON'T HAVE THE DEATH PENALTY BY LAW BUT WAIT TO HE GET HIS ASS IN PRISON!!!

Comment by wayne Bacchus on December 1, 2011 at 5:38pm: I dont know what is going through your mind man but you dont deserve to live after this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by Jameson Adams on December 1, 2011 at 3:09pm: I would love to shoot him directly in his face with a 12 gauge shot gun

Comment by evolution on December 1, 2011 at 2:46pm

Comment by Denise on December 1, 2011 at 2:29pm: Cee Cee u are too right!!! I can't even begin to think of what kind of punishment he needs to receive for this act. He is a devil who will rot in hell!!!!