A Manitoba man who admitted to killing a 23-year-old woman in a New Jersey cold case has been sentenced to 10 years in prison thanks to a plea deal that upset the victim’s mother.
Somerset County Judge Angela Borkowski accepted a plea deal to sentence Robert Creter, 61, to 10 years in a New Jersey prison on July 23, for the 1997 strangling of Tamara “Tammy” Tignor, according to court recordings reviewed by CBC News.
Creter was arrested in Winnipeg in June 2024 and extradited to New Jersey later that year. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in connection with Tignor’s death in May.
“He took my daughter’s life. He strangled the life out of her,” Piper Bailey, Tignor’s mother, told the New Jersey court via video conference at last week’s hearing.
“For 27 years, her killer was out running free while we were all in prison.”
The last person who saw Tignor alive on Nov. 4, 1997, said they watched her get into an orange van in Newark, N.J., around 4 a.m., prosecutors previously said.
DNA collected from Tignor’s body — which was found about 12 hours later on a dirt access road near Washington Valley Park, more than 40 kilometres away from Newark — linked Robert Creter to her killing, after more advanced testing was used, prosecutors said.
Bailey said she doesn’t believe Creter’s 10-year sentence was proportionate to his crime. She spent year after year contacting police and government officials, and having nightmares about her daughter’s death.
Creter should be “locked up forever,” she said, adding that Tignor’s friends and family will show up to any of his future parole hearings until they’re all dead.
“My daughter will never be forgotten. There is no closure.”
Prosecutor Michael McLaughlin told the court that Creter “committed several robberies” by killing Tignor, robbing the 23-year-old and her family of her life, and robbing the state of New Jersey of the chance to prosecute him for almost three decades.
“A 10-year sentence is not justice here, it’s a result of that theft of time,” he said.
“Tammy would be 50 years old today. Her killer escaped justice for longer than she was alive.”
Judge Borkowski said she hopes Creter won’t be released once he’s eligible for parole in 8½ years, because of the likelihood that he could commit another crime.
“Hopefully, in the future, the victims’ survivors will recognize that there is closure in this case — not to their emotions, but to the case generally,” she said.
‘Worst decision of my life’: Creter
Creter, a Canadian citizen and member of Canupawakpa Dakota Nation in southwestern Manitoba, was working as a day labourer in Bridgewater, N.J., when Tignor’s body was found, CBC News previously learned.
He moved to Manitoba in 2002, where he remained until his extradition, court records show. Creter had been homeless in Winnipeg in the months leading to his arrest.
When given the chance to speak in court, Creter apologized and said he wished he could take back what he did.
“It wasn’t planned. I never meant to hurt anybody,” said Creter. “It was just a bad situation that got out of hand, and I made the worst decision of my life.”
Brian DeMartino, a friend of Tignor’s, told CBS News outside the courthouse that he didn’t believe Creter’s apology.
In the courtroom, he told Creter that Tignor was like a little sister to him.
“I want to tell you that when you die, the world will be a better place and you should hope that I don’t find your grave, because what I’ll do won’t pass for flowers,” DeMartino said.
Rhonda Reagan said she was relieved to know who killed her friend.
“I prayed every single day that we would find out who [he was], because he was a mystery,” she told CBS News after the hearing.
