Yesterday, a Union County Grand Jury returned a six-count indictment against a man charged with killing his former girlfriend and kidnapping their minor child, Union County Prosecutor William A. Daniel announced Thursday.
Officials said Mr. Tyler Rios, 27 of East Orange, is charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree kidnapping, and one count each of desecrating human remains, endangering the welfare of a child, contempt by violating a domestic violence restraining order and theft in connection with the kidnapping of his son and murder of the child’s mother, 24-year-old Yasemin Uyar of Rahway.
The indictment alleges that on July 8th of this year, the defendant kidnapped their child, Sebastian Rios and murdered Uyar.
The July incident that resulted in a widely broadcasted Amber Alert launched a multi-state investigation which led to the recovery of the child and the discovery of Uyar’s body in Tennessee.
An investigation led by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office – and assisted by members of the FBI’s Newark Field Office and satellite offices, the New Jersey State Police, and the Rahway Police Department – led to Rios being identified as a suspect in the case after Sebastian Rios did not show up for daycare on July 9th and Uyar did not arrive for scheduled work shifts, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Grady, who is prosecuting the case.
A welfare check was conducted on Uyar’s home by members of the Rahway Police Department, but no one was found inside, Grady said.
Shortly thereafter, the State Police issued an Amber Alert that was sent to privately owned cell phones, broadcast on electronic billboards along highways in New Jersey and beyond, and widely shared via social media.
Through the tireless efforts of the Union County Prosecutor’s Office and the above-named agencies -- as well as a result of the extraordinary assistance from the Putnam County Tennessee Sheriff’s Office – Sebastian Rios was found unharmed in Monterey, Tennessee on July 10th, when Tyler Rios was taken into custody without incident.
Later in the day, investigators located Uyar’s body in a wooded area nearby, off of I-40.
An autopsy performed on Uyar revealed that her death resulted from strangulation and blunt force trauma.
Rios was extradited back to New Jersey on July 16th and remains housed in the Essex County Jail pending an October 12th post-indictment arraignment before the Honorable John M. Deitch of the Union County Superior Court.
“We are grateful for the collaboration with the many local and federal law enforcement agencies who assisted our Office in not only apprehending Mr. Rios, but also in safely recovering Sebastian Rios, locating Ms. Uyar’s remains and bringing them both home to their family,” Prosecutor Daniel said.
“And we hope that this can bring some small measure of comfort to all those grieving Yasemin.”
Convictions of crimes of this nature can be punishable by terms of up to life in state prison.