New Jersey Businesswoman Found SLAIN In Burning Car!!!!!!!

by **J The Kidd** Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:50 am

Tanya Worthy, a self-made businesswoman who lived in an expansive,
million-dollar home in Somerset County, finished up her dinner at a
Newark soul food restaurant Tuesday evening and ordered another meal to
go.

She told employees she'd be back to pick it up. At about 5:15 p.m., she drove off in her BMW convertible. She never returned.

Tanya Worthy Hours later, at 10:45, police in Elizabeth responded
to a report of a burning car on Neck Lane, not far from Newark Liberty
International Airport. Inside the vehicle, a white BMW, they found
Worthy, the widow of a state trooper who died in a motorcycle accident
nine years ago.

Today, as authorities declared Worthy a victim of homicide,
investigators tried to determine where the 35-year-old Green Brook
woman went and whom she saw in the hours before her death.

Authorities declined to say how Worthy was killed. In a statement,
Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said detectives with a newly
formed homicide task force "are making progress" in the investigation.
He declined to elaborate....

At the same time, family members struggled to process the loss.

"If there was a woman whose steps you wanted to follow, it was her,"
said Vonikue Tinny, a cousin. "She was an excellent role model. Who on
earth would do this to her? Why?"

"She was a take-charge woman," cousin Denise Dinielle said. "She was always very well-liked."

Information On Her Career....

In August 1999, tragedy struck. Worthy's husband, Shawn Worthy, a state
trooper for five years, was killed in an off-duty motorcycle accident.
The couple lived in Piscataway at the time.

Later, Tanya Worthy regrouped and started her own business, As U Wish
Event Planning, records show. Early last year, she bought the home in
Green Brook for just over $1 million.

No one answered the door today at the taupe-colored mansion, which sits
atop the first Watchung Ridge. The home sports a three-car garage, a
turreted stone entranceway and a gorgeous view. Campaign literature and
a religious pamphlet were stuck in the door. Worthy's family members
said she lived in the home with her boyfriend.

The relatives were at a loss to explain why someone would want Worthy dead.

Worthy, who ran a party-planning firm out of her Green Brook home, was
born and raised in Newark, said her father, Reginald Moore, who still
lives in the city. Numerous relatives gathered at the father's home
yesterday, consoling one another and waiting for answers from police.

The family members said Worthy attended a local parochial school and
St. Patrick's High School in Elizabeth, graduating in 1991. She then
studied business at Rutgers University's Newark campus, where she
earned a BA.

She worked for 10 years training employees at Fleet Bank, then in 1999
moved to DeVry University, where she was a recruiter and motivational
speaker. Among her duties was traveling to area high schools to
encourage students to seek an education, whether at DeVry or elsewhere,
relatives said.

"Nice, nice lady," one of the employees said, adding that Worthy always
dressed professionally and looked sharp, with Gucci handbags and Jimmy
Choo shoes. Over 45 minutes Tuesday, Worthy ate a meal of chicken liver
and onions with rice. Shortly after 5 p.m., she ordered a second meal
of grilled chicken wings and macaroni and cheese.

Information On That Night....

She didn't say who it was for, the employees said, but they found
nothing unusual in the request, noting that she often ordered takeout
after eating.

She said she'd be back for the meal, then drove off in the BMW about 5:15 p.m., the employees said.

"Where she went after that, I don't know," the second employee said.