The Murdered
Jacqueline Harrison
Pemberton, New Jersey
🕯️ Jacqueline Harrison: A Mother Taken Too Soon, A Case Still Unsolved 🌹
In the early morning hours of August 24, 1987, the body of 25-year-old Jacqueline “Jackie” Harrison was discovered in a wooded area near University Avenue in Pemberton Township, New Jersey.
Jackie was a mother of two young daughters.
She was only 25 years old.
And someone took her life.
Jacqueline had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Investigators determined that she had been murdered sometime before her body was discovered.
For her family, the tragedy was only the beginning of a decades-long search for answers.
💔 A conviction—but not the truth.
In 1989, Larry Peterson was convicted of Jacqueline’s murder and sentenced to decades in prison. For years, Jacqueline’s family believed the person responsible had been brought to justice.
Her daughter Andrea was only 3 years old when her mother was killed. As she grew up, she carried the belief that her mother’s case had been solved.
Then, decades later, everything changed.
DNA evidence called Peterson’s conviction into question, and in 2005, his conviction was overturned. Prosecutors ultimately determined that they did not have enough evidence to retry him, and the charges were dismissed.
Peterson was exonerated.
And Jacqueline’s family was left facing a devastating reality:
The man they had believed killed Jacqueline was not responsible, and the person who actually murdered her was still out there.
Andrea later described the experience as feeling like the case had been reopened after she had spent years believing it was over.
“I still don’t have my mom,” she said. “And now I don’t even have satisfaction in knowing that whoever did kill her is away.”
That kind of uncertainty is difficult to put into words.
Andrea was just a toddler when Jacqueline died. She grew up without her mother and without the chance to create the memories that so many of us take for granted.
Today, she can no longer clearly remember the shape of her mother’s face or the sound of her voice.
She has asked family members for photographs of Jacqueline so that her daughter, Lavender, can know the grandmother she never had the opportunity to meet.
📸 The photographs sit on Andrea’s mantel.
Jacqueline’s family has also pushed back against the way her story was portrayed after her death. Relatives have said that news coverage focused heavily on the circumstances surrounding Jacqueline’s final hours rather than the woman she was and the family she left behind.
She was more than the headlines.
She was a mother.
A daughter.
A sister.
A loved one.
And she deserved to come home that night.
Instead, her daughters grew up without her.
The exoneration also created another painful reality for Jacqueline’s family: they had to reconcile with the fact that the person they once believed was responsible was actually innocent of the crime.
Wrongful convictions can create an especially painful situation for victims’ families. They lose their loved one, believe the case has been resolved, and then years later discover that the person responsible may still be unidentified.
In Jacqueline’s case, that meant the search for her killer had to begin again.
🔎 And after all these years, someone may still know what happened.
Someone may have been in the area that night.
Someone may remember seeing Jacqueline.
Someone may have information about the people she was with before her death.
More than three decades later, Jacqueline’s family is still waiting for answers.
Her daughters deserved to grow up with their mother.
Her family deserved the truth.
And Jacqueline deserves to be remembered as a person, not simply as a victim whose case made the news.
🕯️ Jacqueline “Jackie” Harrison was 25 years old when her life was taken.
Her homicide remains unsolved.
If you have information concerning Jacqueline’s murder, please contact:
📞 Burlington Township Police Department: 609-386-2019
📞 Burlington County Sheriff’s Office: 609-265-5127
Anonymous tips may also be submitted through New Jersey Crime Stoppers at 973-267-2255.
After all these years, one piece of information could potentially help bring the truth to Jacqueline’s family.
🌹 Remember Jacqueline. Remember her daughters. And remember that there is still a family waiting for answers.
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