A man whose wife disappeared under mysterious circumstances years ago is now accused of a decades-old New Jersey murder that investigators say he once confessed to, according to court documents.

Robert William “Bob” McCaffrey Jr., 54, was taken into custody last week in Manteo, North Carolina, and appeared Monday in a New Jersey courtroom after being extradited, where he pleaded guilty in connection with the 1990 killing of Lisa Marie McBride, according to the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office.

McCaffrey, wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists and waist, appeared largely expressionless during the brief proceeding, which lasted less than five minutes, WCIV reported.

Judge Janine Allen outlined the charges against him, including murder, burglary and kidnapping. Prosecutors allege McCaffrey purposely caused McBride’s death or serious bodily injury resulting in her death on or about June 23, 1990, in Vernon Township.

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He is also accused of entering her home to commit an offense and unlawfully removing her in order to inflict bodily injury or terrorize her.

His attorney entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.

Prosecutors moved to detain McCaffrey ahead of trial. A detention hearing is scheduled for April 27 at 9 a.m., and he will remain in custody until then. A pre-indictment conference is tentatively set for May 18, though the judge noted that date could change.

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Prosecutors described the arrest as a major breakthrough in a case that had gone unsolved for decades, crediting advances in DNA technology and years of investigative work.

According to the affidavit, McBride, 27, was last seen returning to her Highland Lakes home in Vernon Township in the early morning hours of June 23, 1990. When she failed to show up for work later that day, relatives found signs of a violent struggle, including a cut telephone line, a damaged window screen and missing bedsheets.

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Her disappearance prompted an extensive search involving family, volunteers and law enforcement.

Four months later, her remains were discovered by a hunter in a wooded area of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Sandyston. An autopsy found she suffered an orbital fracture and had been subjected to external violence. Her death was ruled a homicide, according to court documents.

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In 2022, authorities exhumed McBride’s body for additional DNA testing, a step New Jersey State Police said was critical to isolating an unknown male DNA profile from earlier evidence.

Evidence recovered from the scene, including material from the victim’s headboard, was reanalyzed, and the profile was entered into the national CODIS database.

In 2026, that DNA was matched to McCaffrey, according to court documents and authorities, who said he was living in Sussex County at the time of McBride’s disappearance.

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The affidavit also outlines a key allegation. A witness told investigators McCaffrey admitted to killing McBride in the 1990s and allegedly said he did it because she refused to go out with him.

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Officials said McCaffrey lived and worked in northern New Jersey in 1990 before later moving to South Carolina and more recently North Carolina, where he was arrested.

Fox News Digital reached out to New Jersey Office of the Public Defender.

The case is drawing renewed attention because of a separate investigation involving McCaffrey’s wife, Marjorie “Gayle” McCaffrey, who disappeared in South Carolina in 2012 and has never been found.

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According to the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, Gayle McCaffrey was reported missing on March 18, 2012, from the couple’s home in West Ashley after what her husband described as a heated argument the night before. He told investigators he left the home and later returned to find her gone, claiming she had left on her own.

The couple’s two children, ages 4 and 10 at the time, last saw their mother the night before she disappeared, authorities said. Investigators conducted multiple searches and interviewed friends, neighbors and co-workers, but were unable to determine her whereabouts.

Detectives later determined Robert McCaffrey had lied about key details of the case, including a supposed farewell letter that was found to be fabricated. He was charged with obstruction of justice, convicted and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2023.

Gayle McCaffrey’s disappearance remains under investigation, and authorities have said it is being treated as a homicide.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a reported close call between two Southwest Airlines flights at Nashville International Airport after one aircraft was directed into the path of another during a go-around, officials said.

According to the FAA, the incident happened at about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday as Southwest Flight 507 was approaching the airport and initiated a go-around — a standard maneuver in which a pilot aborts a landing and climbs to make another attempt.

The pilot then “received instructions from air traffic control that put the flight in the path of another airplane” that was departing from a parallel runway. The departing aircraft was identified as Southwest Flight 1152.

Both flight crews responded to onboard traffic alerts, the FAA said, helping the planes avoid a potential midair conflict.

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The agency noted that the information is preliminary and subject to change as the investigation continues.

Southwest Airlines described the maneuver as precautionary and said the pilots were responding to weather conditions at the time.

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“While on approach during gusty winds at Nashville International Airport, the Pilots of Southwest Flight 507 executed a precautionary go-around,” the airline said in a statement. “During the go-around, the pilots complied with instructions from air traffic control and an onboard traffic alert to avoid conflicting with Southwest Flight 1152, which was departing from another runway.”

Flight 507 later landed uneventfully in Nashville, while Flight 1152 continued on to its destination in Knoxville, Tennessee, according to the airline. No injuries were reported.

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Southwest said it is working with federal authorities as part of the investigation and emphasized that safety remains its top priority.

The FAA has not said how close the two aircraft came to one another or whether any separation standards were breached. However, location data appears to show the planes getting as close as 500 feet (152 meters) apart with one of them flying just over the top of the other plane, according to FlightRadar24, so that would fit the official definition of a near midair collision.

The investigation comes amid continued scrutiny of near-miss incidents at U.S. airports, particularly those involving aircraft operating on parallel runways, where coordination between pilots and air traffic control is critical to maintaining safe separation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Democrat Michigan Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow is getting dragged on social media after dancing into the state Democratic Party Convention on Sunday alongside a marching band — a flashy entrance that drew parallels to viral moments from former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2019 presidential campaign.

“Mallory McMorrow walked into the second half of today’s convention flanked by DrumKINGZ and a whole lot of supporters. Many are calling it McMentum,” her campaign wrote in a post to X, accompanied by the video. 

The entrance comes as McMorrow competes in a crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, with critics quickly portraying the moment as political theater and comparing it to Harris’ 2019 campaign optics.

“Following right in the footsteps of the queen [of] losing primaries,” one account wrote alongside an image of Harris.

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Harris had a viral moment in 2019 when she joined a string of students who were energetically dancing to a marching band in Iowa as she looked to lock down the Democratic nomination that year. She was also spotted dancing with a marching band at another campaign event in South Carolina that same year.  

“This is Mallory McMorrow. She’s running for U.S. Senate in Michigan. This is how she entered the Democratic Party Convention The theater kids are at it again…” popular conservative X account Libs of TikTok said in a post highlighting the video.

“That’s what you get when you don’t have a message,” Abdul El-Sayed, one of McMorrow’s primary challengers, reportedly told local media of the scene. 

Neither McMorrow’s office nor Kamala Harris responded immediately to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

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McMorrow is fending off challengers such as El-Sayed, a former physician, and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., a four-term member of the House of Representatives. 

Stevens leads the trio in fundraising, reporting $8.8 million in contributions at the close of March. But she’s followed narrowly by McMorrow’s $8.6 million and El-Sayed’s $7.6 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

As a former small business owner and Michigan state senator, McMorrow has tried to stake out a lane between Stevens, who is often seen as the more establishment-oriented candidate, and El-Sayed, the progressive candidate who has emphasized policies like Medicare for All.

In her time at the state level, McMorrow worked to strengthen unions and raise wages, eliminated the retirement tax for seniors and repealed Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban, according to her biography page.

“Mallory will bring that same determination to deliver for Michigan families in the U.S. Senate,” the website reads.

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McMorrow has attracted endorsements from Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

The Democratic primary is set for August 4.