NJ Man Convicted In 1999 Rape, Murder Of Sayreville Teen Girl, 17

SAYREVILLE, NJ — In a courtroom trial that brought closure to a 25-year-cold case in Middlesex County, an Ocean County man was found guilty Thursday for the rape and murder of a 17-year-old Sayreville girl in 1999.

The man is Bruce Cymanski, 52, who at the time of his arrest was living in Barnegat. A Middlesex County jury found him guilty for the murder of Nancy Noga, 17, of Sayreville.

On January 7, 1999, Noga, then a senior at Sayreville War Memorial, was reported missing after she did not return home from her after-school job at a local clothing store. Her body was found five days later, on January 12, in a wooded area behind a strip mall on Ernston Road.

The teen girl died from blunt force trauma after being struck with a blunt object. For more than two decades, the case remained open.

Cymanski was arrested in 2024. The state forensic lab preserved semen found on Noga’s body and her underwear, and in 2021 it matched to Cymanski, The Home News Tribune reported. (The newspaper was first to report his conviction Thursday, and had a reporter in the courtroom.)

Cymanski used to live in South Amboy and Old Bridge. He was 26 and married at the time he raped and killed the teen.

His trial began October 1 and a jury found him guilty Thursday of first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder, first-degree aggravated sexual assault, first-degree kidnapping, and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone thanked officers, "both active and retired, from the Sayreville Police Department, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, the New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences, and the Barnegat Police Department for their unrelenting commitment to this investigation and prosecution."

He will be sentenced January 6, 2025.