By: Richard L. Smith
Image Credit: Daily News
A Camden County man has admitted to killing his girlfriend, whose body was discovered last year inside a refrigerator left in a Cape May County state forest.
According to information released by authorities, 46-year-old Christopher Blevins of Runnemede pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree aggravated manslaughter in the death of Laura Hughes, 50.
Investigators said Hughes’s remains were located inside a refrigerator at Belleplain State Forest in December 2024.
The discovery launched an intensive probe that took several weeks before authorities were able to confirm her identity.
Court records revealed that, months earlier, automatic license plate readers captured Blevins’s pickup truck carrying what appeared to be a refrigerator in Sea Isle City and Long Beach Township.
Inside the Runnemede home he shared with Hughes, investigators later recovered blue ratchet straps, a firearm, and a calendar marked with “X”s leading up to July 24, 2024.
The refrigerator was found wrapped in a sleeping bag and secured with blue straps, according to affidavits tied to the case.
Authorities said Blevins fled to Mexico on August 2, 2024. He later turned himself in to Mexican officials, telling them he had been involved in a “violent incident” in Runnemede and panicked, suggesting he may have killed someone during a bar fight.
Blevins was charged in January 2025 with desecrating human remains and hindering apprehension in Cape May County before being arrested in San Diego on January 13. 
He was later indicted on first-degree murder in Camden County on January 29.
Blevins now faces sentencing on the aggravated manslaughter plea.