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He sneaks back to S. Jersey, is caught for '99 kidnapping

You can go home again, but if you're a fugitive wanted for kidnapping your own nieces, you probably shouldn't. Police in Mount Laurel, Burlington County, say that Stephen Kirk Murray, 51, came back to South Jersey despite being wanted for helping his sister kidnap her daughters in North Carolina in 1999.

You can go home again, but if you're a fugitive wanted for kidnapping your own nieces, you probably shouldn't.

Police in Mount Laurel, Burlington County, say that Stephen Kirk Murray, 51, came back to South Jersey despite being wanted for helping his sister kidnap her daughters in North Carolina in 1999.

Murray, who had been living in his hometown of Medford for an undetermined period of time, was arrested on Thanksgiving night while driving in Mount Laurel. Police there say that they received a tip that Murray would be in the area for the holiday and picked him up without incident.

"I believe he was there for a family event," said Lt. Kevin Randall, of the Mount Laurel Police. "We believe he's been coming and going [from South Jersey] for some time now."

On Dec. 17, 1999, Murray and his sister, Joyce Murray-Steyne, picked up Abishiree "Abby" Tova Steyne and Christianna "Christy" Charis Steyne, then ages 6 and 8, from their father's home in Ahoskie, N.C.

The girls, along with their 16-year-old brother, Peter Steyne, were supposed to be heading back to New Jersey to visit their grandparents in Medford and were expected to be back with their father a week later.

Instead, Peter Steyne was abandoned in a Roanoke Rapids, N.C., hotel room and Murray-Steyne traveled around the country, using various aliases to hide her and the girls' identities, police said.

In 2006, Murray-Steyne was arrested during a traffic stop in Lillington, N.C., and the girls were reunited with their father, Danny Steyne, of Columbia, S.C.

Danny Steyne, a preacher, said that his daughters still deal with tremendous pain from their years on the run, while he had always regretted that Murray, who he claimed was the "mastermind" of the kidnapping, had not been caught.

"The whole plot was pretty sinister," said Steyne, 50.

Steyne said that he wasn't surprised that his former brother-in-law had returned to his hometown to live under an alias.

"He's probably the most arrogant person I've met in my whole life," Steyne said. "He probably thought he wouldn't face anything if he got caught."

Murray is being held in the Burlington County Jail on $150,000 cash bail and is awaiting extradition to North Carolina.