Victim Made Tape of Her Pleas With Killer

Before she was smothered by a teenage carjacker, Kathleen Weinstein used a miniature cassette player to secretly record herself pleading for her life, authorities said Tuesday.

“Don’t you understand what kind of trouble you are going to get in? Don’t you think they’re going to find you?” Weinstein asked the boy who abducted her from a shopping plaza last Thursday.

Although it didn’t save Weinstein, the dramatic 24-minute recording helped authorities identify a suspect. A 17-year-old, identified by authorities as M. L. of Berkeley Township, was charged Tuesday with murder and carjacking.

The tape contained the youth’s first name, his age and details about his past, prosecutor Daniel Carluccio said. He would not elaborate.

Carluccio said he would seek to have the suspect tried as an adult. New Jersey law does not allow juveniles to face the death penalty even when convicted as adults.

“On the tape, Mrs. Weinstein valiantly and persistently used every skill and power she had to convince her attacker to simply take her car and not her life,” Carluccio said.

At times, Weinstein seemed as concerned about the teenager as herself, pleading for him not to ruin his future. She also spoke of her own concern for disadvantaged people, saying she hoped to take in a foster child or adopt someone.

Weinstein offered her attacker help and advice during their conversation, and promised not to tell anyone if he just took her car and left her alone.

But in the end, the youth suffocated Weinstein with her coat and other pieces of clothing, officials said. Her body was found Sunday in a wooded area of Berkeley Township. The cassette was in one of her pockets.

Weinstein, 45, of Tinton Falls, disappeared Thursday after staying home from her job to study for a graduate school exam.

She was en route to take the test when she stopped to buy a sandwich.

The killer went to the Toms River shopping center because he was about to turn 17 and wanted a car, Carluccio said. He even had a model in mind: a 1995 Toyota Camry like the one Weinstein drove.

The youth abducted Weinstein at gunpoint, and either drove or forced her to drive to the secluded site where she was killed, Carluccio said. The prosecutor read some of her taped comments, but did not disclose any of the youth’s.

Prosecutors did not let reporters listen to the tape, which had to be enhanced to make up for its poor quality. Carluccio said the tape would not be made public until after it is used as evidence in court.

At one point Weinstein asked to see the gun the youth said he had. But he refused, saying that if he did he could be charged with armed carjacking, Carluccio said.

He said the tone of the recording belied the circumstances. There were no screams or struggles, just an intense, meaningful exchange about a broad variety of topics.

The tape, made while the recorder was in a bag, stopped before the slaying.

Weinstein managed to remove the recording from the machine and put it in her pocket without the killer’s knowledge so authorities would find it later, Carluccio said.

Weinstein was a teacher of disabled children at the Thorne Middle School in Middletown. She left a husband and a 6-year-old son.