Two teenage brothers from New Jersey are facing a murder charge after a Pennsylvania state trooper stumbled upon them trying to dump the body of a murder victim in an isolated area in the middle of the night, authorities said Thursday.
Joshua Gamble, 17, and Anthony Gamble, 19, are said to have left their hazard lights on when they parked their two vehicles along the side of a road in a rural area of Bucks County, about 55 miles from their home in Somerset, New Jersey. The hazard lights led a passing state trooper to stop and offer assistance for what he assumed was a disabled vehicle.
But when the trooper approached, things took a strange turn, according to District Attorney Matthew Weintraub, who detailed the bizarre events leading up to the teens’ arrest at a Thursday press conference.
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First the trooper noticed a young man lying in the grass who did not respond when called to. Then, once the trooper detained the man, later determined to be Joshua Gamble, it became clear why he had apparently been trying to evade detection in the grass: He had blood on his shoes and was holding a bloodied key fob, according to Weintraub.
Another man soon came running out of the woods and tried to flee in one of the parked vehicles, but he was also quickly apprehended, and like his brother, was also found to have blood on his shoes, authorities say.
That’s when the trooper noticed a “substantial amount of blood” in one of the vehicles, and soon enough police found the apparent source of that blood in the woods—an unidentified man with stab wounds on his neck, head, and arms.
Both brothers now face charges of murder, conspiracy, possession of an instrument of a crime, and tampering with evidence. The younger brother will be charged as an adult, Weintraub said. Police say the two had stopped to buy gloves and disinfectant wipes just a few minutes before parking and leading the trooper right to them with their hazard lights.
Investigators are still working to determine a motive, and the identity of the victim will only be known at some point after an autopsy scheduled for Friday.
“The Gamble brothers have no apparent connection to this area, being Richland,” Weintraub said. “Obviously this case is ongoing, I can’t predict the future, I don’t know what other facts will be revealed to us, but as of right now, we are unable to discern any reason for them to be in Bucks County, in Richland Township.”
