NJ Dad Left Suicide Note Before Killing Son, Slashing Throat: Police

SAYREVILLE, NJ — New details were released Monday in the case of a Sayreville man accused of killing his own son, as Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone released the affidavit of probable cause.

Manuel Rivera, 43, is charged with first-degree murder for the death of his 9-year-old son. He left a suicide note to his wife, saying he "wished to be cremated" and "This is how it ends for me and (the boy's name). I know we couldn’t live without each other. Today is the day that death does us part.”

Rivera is accused of then killing the boy (police did not specify how), dousing his car in gasoline and setting it on fire and then slashing his own throat Thursday night. All of this took place behind Sayreville War Memorial High School.

It was Rivera's stepdaughter, 26, who first called 911 at 10:52 p.m. Thursday from their home, documents show. She reported to Sayreville Police that her stepfather left the home with her 9-year-old brother and that the two were missing. The boy is Rivera's biological son.

She told police Rivera was threatening to kill himself and his son, according to authorities.

At the same time Sayreville Police were called to a car fire on Washington Road, behind the high school.

When police got there, a Nissan was fully engulfed in flames, with Rivera standing outside it. He was doused in gasoline and had burns on his body, plus a cut through his neck, but was still alive.

Surveillance video from the school showed Rivera pull into a parking spot and park, police said. A short time later the car starts burning. The video showed Rivera get out of the car and stand next to the burning vehicle until police and fire crews pull up on scene.

Rivera's wife told police there were marital issues and that he sent her a video on his phone that night, authorities said. In the video, he told her he wished to be cremated and apologized for his actions. He told her "he will see her in the afterlife," read the criminal complaint.

A handwritten letter was then found in the garage of their home where he apologized to his family for his actions, authorities said. Police called the letter a suicide note. He wrote:

"This is how it ends for me and (the boy's name). I know we couldn’t live without each other. Today is the day that death does us part.”

The assistant prosecutor did he did not know if the boy was Rivera's biological son or his stepson.

The boy was found in a back seat of the car. He was pronounced dead at the scene, but his cause of death is pending an autopsy, said an assistant prosecutor. Police found "a lot" of gasoline throughout the Nissan, and Rivera's clothing was "drenched" in gasoline.

Rivera is charged with first-degree murder, second-degree aggravated arson, second-degree child endangerment and second-degree desecration of human remains.

Rivera was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he remains in critical condition.

The boy was a student at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Sayreville, NJ. com reported. He was also a member of the Sayreville Bombers youth football team, which held a candlelight vigil Saturday night on the Junior Bombers football field.

Rivera had just been hired by the school district in January as a part-time cafeteria worker and school bus driver, NJ.com also reported.

Anyone with information or surveillance footage of the area around Sayreville High School where he allegedly set the car on fire Thursday night is asked to call Detective Michael Pirigyi of the Sayreville Police Department at 732-727-4444 or Detective Jose Rosario of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-745-3289.

Initial Patch report on this incident: NJ Man Arrested After Cops Find Him Next To Burning Car, Dead Son (March 29)