SPRINGFIELD: Coworkers of murdered farm workers found in Texas

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — Two farm workers police were seeking to question about the murder of two coworkers at a local horse farm have been taken into custody, according to state police.
    The two men, brothers Carlos and Cesar Reyes, were taken into custody Tuesday evening in Houston, Texas, the report stated. The men left New Jersey by bus, and were intercepted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshall’s Office at the apartment of an acquaintance who picked them up from the bus stop in Houston earlier in the day, police said.
    Neither man has been charged in relation to the murders, but they are being held on detainers from ICE as authorities have determined the men are not in the country legally, police said. Police believe the men are from Alancho, Honduras, but are unsure if they were attempting to return home.
    Troopers from the New Jersey State Police flew to Houston Wednesday and interviewed the men Thursday, according to the report. Police have said they hope to gain more information about the circumstances of the “brutal murders” of Honduras natives Alex Aguilar, in his mid-20s, and Marcial Morales-Maldonado, 48, who worked with the Reyes brothers at Sterling Chase Farm on Highland Road.
    Police said previously the two victims were found lying face down outside their living quarters around dawn by a female farm employee early Saturday morning, and were killed some time between the evening of Feb. 26 and their discovery Saturday.
    An autopsy performed by Burlington County medical examiner’s office Sunday determined the men were both murdered, and the cause of death was massive head trauma, police reported. The exact nature of the injury has not been released.
    Police have previously said they were unsure if the Reyes brothers had any knowledge of the murders, though they went missing after the discovery of the bodies.
    The investigation initially began due to the suspicious nature of the deaths, police have said.