Ventnor woman charged with killing her mother and grandmother extradited back to New Jersey

The Ventnor woman accused of fatally beating her mother and grandmother, then fleeing to New York City, was extradited Thursday back to New Jersey, said Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner.

Heather Barbera, the mother of two, was being held overnight at the Atlantic County Justice Facility ahead of her scheduled Friday morning appearance before Presiding Superior Court Judge Bernard E. DeLury Jr.

Barbera, 42, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, and third-degree possession of a weapon — a nightstick — for an unlawful purpose in the beating deaths of Elaine Rosen, 87, and her daughter Michelle Gordon, 67.

The bodies of the two women were found the morning of July 8 inside their eighth-floor residence inside the Vassar Square Condominiums.

Police said Barbera killed the women, stole cash and credit cards from her mother, then took a bus to New York.

Barbera, who turned 42 on July 16, was arrested July 11 after police spotted her at the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown. Authorities were able to track her with the purchases she made on the stolen credit cards. Police said she later confessed to the slayings.

Prior to her extradition, Barbera was being held at the Rose M. Singer Center, a women's facility at Rikers Island.

In a recording of the 911 call reporting the discovery of the women's bodies, Richard Rosen told police that he believed Barbera, his niece, had killed his mother and sister.

"I think my niece must have done this," he said. "She's a drug addict."

In the 911 call, Rosen said he warned his mother and sister not to allow Barbera to live with them.

"I knew this would be no good," he said.