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Ventnor woman charged with killing her mother and grandmother to face hearing in New Jersey next month

Heather Barbera, 41, has been charged with first-degree murder, robbery, and other crimes in connection with the slayings of Elaine Rosen, 87, and Michelle Gordon, 67, whose bodies were found inside their eighth-floor Boardwalk condo on July 8.

Heather Barbera, 41, of Ventnor, is awaiting extradition.
Heather Barbera, 41, of Ventnor, is awaiting extradition.Read moreFacebook

The Ventnor woman accused of killing her mother and grandmother, then fleeing to New York City, will be extradited to New Jersey next week, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office announced Wednesday.

Heather Barbera, 41, has been charged with first-degree murder, robbery, and other crimes in connection with the slayings of Elaine Rosen, 87, and Michelle Gordon, 67, whose bodies were found inside their eighth-floor Boardwalk condo on July 8.

Authorities say Barbera beat the women to death with a nightstick, then took a bus to New York, where she began making purchases with credit cards she had stolen from her mother. The purchases allowed officials to track Barbera and arrest her at the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan three days later.

In an interview with law enforcement officials after her arrest, she confessed to the murders, police said.

She remained in custody Wednesday at the Rose M. Singer Center, a women's facility on Rikers Island, pending extradition to New Jersey.

Barbera's uncle, Richard Rosen, who found the bodies, said he had warned his mother and sister not to allow Barbera to move into their Jersey Shore condo.

He said Barbera, a mother of two children, was emotionally troubled and addicted to pills.

"It's unimaginable," he said in an earlier interview. "It was horrible. They were both on the floor. There was blood all over. I was hoping they were alive, even though they were dead."