A Monmouth County cold case has been solved. A former Asbury Park woman has been charged in the 1992 fatal shooting of a 12-year-old girl.

The woman, now 40 and living in Henderson, North Carolina, has been charged with aggravated manslaughter for the killing of Quiana Dees, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni announced on Thursday.

The case background … 

In the early morning hours of May 2, 1992, Quiana Dees was discovered unconscious and clinging to life in a vacant wooded lot on Washington Avenue in Neptune Township. The seventh grade girl had left her Asbury Park apartment the previous evening.

She was found suffering from a head wound later determined to be caused by a gunshot, and was ultimately pronounced dead on May 3, 1992. The case has continued to be the subject of investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and local law enforcement agencies since her death occurred more than 26 years ago. 

As a result of a joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Cold Case Unit, and members of the Asbury Park, Neptune Township and Henderson, North Carolina police departments, the homicide complaint was issued against the former Asbury Park resident. She remains detained in North Carolina, pending her extradition back to New Jersey to face this charge.

Because the defendant was 13 at the time of the 1992 killing, and not an adult at the time for purposes of criminal prosecution, the charge has been issued as a juvenile delinquency complaint.

She faces a maximum four-year term of incarceration. All future proceedings in the matter will be held in Monmouth County Family Court, Juvenile Division. The juvenile statutes in effect at the time of the crime preclude the possibility of waiver of this case to adult criminal court.

Due to the requirements of confidentiality in all juvenile proceedings, the defendant’s name and other details regarding the case are prohibited from disclosure and cannot be released.

This is the seventh previously unsolved homicide which has resulted in an arrest or has been otherwise solved in the past three years since Prosecutor Gramiccioni made cold case homicide reviews a priority. 

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call Detective John Leibfried of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office at 1-800-533-7443 or Detective Eric Chunn of the Neptune Township Police Department at 732-988-8000.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office