Conventional wisdom dictates that attracting attention while disposing of damning evidence is a bad idea.
Yet two New Jersey brothers apparently failed to consider this week that leaving their car’s hazard lights on while dumping a corpse in the dead of night wasn’t the brainwave of the century.
Anthony Gamble, 19, and Joshua Gamble, 17, were arrested in Pennsylvania early Thursday morning after cops spotted a blinking silver Subaru on the side of a road in Richland Township, Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said.
Pennsylvania State Troopers pulled over shortly after midnight to check on the conspicuous vehicle, which had New Jersey registration plates. They also noticed an Audi A5 with Florida plates parked a short distance away.
Joshua Gamble was promptly detained after a trooper found him lying on the ground in nearby woods wearing a glove and a bloody shoe, prosecutors said.
A little older, but no wiser, his brother Anthony was also swiftly arrested as he ran towards the Subaru dressed in bloodstained clothing and carrying gloves.
Troopers soon discovered the grim reason for the nocturnal antics: a man’s dead body stowed in woods near the Audi.
They then found further incriminating evidence inside the Audi, including blood and a large knife on the floor on the passenger seat, according to prosecutors.
“The initial investigation indicates the unidentified male appeared to have stab wounds about his head, neck, upper chest, and arm,” Weintraub said.
“Both cars, the victim and the knife were all found within 100 feet of each other.”
The teens have been charged with criminal homicide, criminal conspiracy, possession of an instrument of crime and tampering with evidence. The younger Gamble is being charged as an adult.
Detectives are now trying to figure out what led to the fatal stabbing, and why the alleged killers were found with the body across the state line, more than 60 miles away from their home in Somerset County.
“As of right now, we are unable to discern any reason for them to be in Bucks County, in Richland Township,” Weintraub said.
“We will presume that Bucks County has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute this murder,” he added, noting that a homicide is legally assumed to have happened in the place where the victim is found, unless proven otherwise.