Hometown Says Goodbye to NJ DA’s Detective Killed in Home Invasion

For Detective Sgt. Monica MosleyBridgeton was home.

There he grew up, went to church and graduated from high school. After college, he raised his family in the Cumberland County town, then built his career in law enforcement there.

So it made sense that her family would choose Bridgeton High School as the place to say her final goodbye.

The school’s auditorium was packed with hundreds of people Saturday as Mosley’s flag-draped casket lay on a flower-bedecked stage.

“I have been a prosecutor since 2010 and I can say with certainty that these are the most difficult and solemn tasks I have been called upon to undertake during my tenure,” said Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae at the funeral service.

According to Webb-McRae, Mosley had once made it clear that he did not want a traditional honor guard funeral, with elements such as bagpipes and a 21-gun salute.

Instead, as guests and dozens of law enforcement officers stepped in, music by Mosley’s favorite artist, Prince, played in the background.

Mosley, a detective sergeant with the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, died Oct. 15 when she was shot during what police described as a home invasion at her residence on Buckshutem Road in Bridgeton.

No arrests have been announced in this case.

Officers responded around 10:30 p.m. to a report of multiple people kicking in the front door of the home, according to police. Mosley, 51, was found injured and died at the scene.

Authorities have not said whether she was targeted because of her job or if the home invasion was a random crime.

Loud cheers erupted through the crowd as Webb-McRae called for justice and pledged to use the full force of the law to pursue those involved in Mosley’s death.

“I have … 12 county prosecutors in this audience and I can call on each and every one of them to bring the full force of the law to bear against anyone who preys on the vulnerable. So we leave here fearing no one,” Webb-McRae said.

“You have been warned,” she added.

Law enforcement colleagues and longtime friends remembered Mosley as a caring woman who loved her job and the opportunity to help others while serving her community.

Prosecutor Webb-McRae was one of the few speakers to address the crowd at the funeral as the detective’s family sat tearfully in the front row.

Judge Demetrica Todd-Ruiz, the first African-American to serve as chief judge in Vineland, also addressed the crowd, reading a poem that remembered Mosley as a mother and friend.

“We now fondly remember your life from beginning to end and are glad to have known you as a mother and as a friend,” Todd-Ruiz said.

Webb-McRae described Mosley as “a mother bear” to her law enforcement colleagues and noted that she was both a friend and a respected detective. At the time of his death, Mosley was working on two investigations, the prosecutor said.

The 1991 Bridgeton High School graduate earned his associate’s degree in paralegal studies at Cumberland County College and worked for a law firm and the federal court system in Delaware before joining the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office in 2006.

She worked as a paralegal in the office before becoming a detective in 2009.

Mosley has worked in various roles at the prosecutor’s office, including with trial teams, the special victims unit and the community justice unit. She was later named supervisor of the bureau’s internal affairs unit—the first African-American woman in Cumberland County to hold such a role.

“You need to know that all the detectives in my office, all the strong men and women who have seen the worst of how people treat each other in our societies, have been torn apart by what Monica was to each of them.”

Mosley leaves behind three children, four grandchildren, her mother, brother and many others, according to her obituary.

Following services at the high school, Mosley was scheduled to be laid to rest at Fernwood Memorial Park.

The union that represents the detectives of the county prosecutor’s office created a fundraiser to help Mosley’s family.

Her death remains under investigation by New Jersey State Police and the Cape May District Attorney’s Office.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to contact the Cape May Prosecutor’s Office at 609-465-1135. Anonymous tips can be submitted.

“We will forever remember Monica for how she lived and how she made us feel, not how she died,” Web-McRae said.

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Matt Gray can be reached at [email protected].

Nyah Marshall can be reached at [email protected].