There is a big sigh of relief that an arrest has finally been made and it turns out the man arrested had been suspected by the victim's family all along.
It was back in February of last year when 77-year-old John Kingsbury had been found murdered in his home in the 2100 block of Woodland.
He had been shot in the head twice during a burglary.
14 months later, Atlantic County authorities have charged 32- year-old Michael Castro in the case.
Castro is a former business partner of Kingsbury's son and a karate instructor.
Glenn Kingsbury, the victim's son said, "It's heartbreaking. You know this is a guy I trusted him in my house with my children. I mean killing my father is horrible. What if he killed my children?"
Kingsbury says Castro ran the Martial Arts program at his former gym in Hammonton, New Jersey.
He says, Castro and him, had a falling out when he failed to pay his share of the rent.
A Few days after his father was murdered, Castro mysteriously disappeared.
"About a week after the wake, I was guess it was, we came into the gym and his stuff and he just disappeared," said Kingsbury.
He told Action News that he began to wonder.
For months, Kingsbury says he heard nothing from authorities about the case. They would not return his phone calls.
3 months ago, Kingsbury hired a former Camden County Detective to see if Castro was involved in his father's murder:
Kingsbury added, "He found him in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and he flew down there, kind of marked his terrain, walked around, checked it out quietly. His next step was to interview him and then the arrest happened out of the blue. It's so great, we are ecstatic."
There was no comment from the prosecutor's office.
Meanwhile, Kingsbury & his family are hoping to finally put the murder case behind them after all this time:
"We're hoping he will plead guilty and we can get some closure in our lives, but who knows what's going to happen," said Kingsbury.
Castro is being charged with felony murder, murder and weapons offenses. Pending extradition back to Atlantic County, he is being held at the Broward County Jail in lieu of $1.1 million cash bail.
