For 6 1/2 years, Courtney Allen's murder remained unsolved.
The pregnant Vineland woman was found in the basement of her home on New Year's Eve 2011.
She'd been strangled.
The 24-year-old's obituary described her as a homemaker and a loving mom who enjoyed spending time with her family.
The obituary described Daniel J. Brennan, her live-in boyfriend and father of one of her kids with another on the way, as her fiance.
Daniel J. Brennan (Salem County Correctional Facility)
He was apparently a suspect in her death, but wasn't charged.
The case eventually went cold, but not forgotten.
In May of this year, investigators spoke with a woman who had dated Brennan and she told them that he assaulted her during a domestic dispute and made a chilling threat that apparently helped crack the Allen case.
"He hit her with a belt and told her he was going to kill her like he killed Courtney," according to an affidavit of probable cause filed against Brennan, who is now charged with killing Allen.
Brennan was charged in Allen's death in late July, about two weeks after he was arrested for another killing in Gloucester County.
Brennan, 33, is accused of first-degree murder in the beating death of 31-year-old Leeann Foltrauer, a woman he was dating and living with in Pitman.
Investigators haven't said what specifically led to charges finally being filed in the 2011 Allen case, and if anything gleaned from the Pitman investigation helped in the older case.
Vineland police responded to Allen's East Walnut Road home on the afternoon of Dec. 31, 2011, for a report of an unresponsive female. Brennan told a dispatcher that he thought Allen was dead and he refused to perform CPR, according to the affidavit.
An autopsy ruled her death was caused by "asphyxia due to neck compressions" and was ultimately labeled a homicide. Investigation revealed her body had been moved and "repositioned" prior to police arriving at the home.
Brennan was interviewed three times and gave contradictory information, police said.
Brennan told police he returned to the house at 7 a.m. that day and claimed he slept on a couch upstairs, never checking on Allen or their child, who were sleeping in a basement room.
He said he awoke at 11 a.m. and went out to run errands with a cousin without checking on Allen or their child. He returned once to retrieve an item for his cousin and came back later that afternoon, when he claimed he found Allen face down on the basement floor.
Allen had tried to contact him by phone up until 2:30 a.m. that morning and text messages obtained by investigators revealed she was upset that he had not returned home. She said she was going to lock him out of the house.
Cellphone records indicated Brennan's phone was on for most of the night before Allen was found, though Brennan claimed it was turned off, police said.
From there, police describe their interview with the woman Brennan dated after Allen's death, who spoke with investigators in May.
She told police that as Brennan threatened to kill her, he choked her and pinned her up against a wall. She credited Brennan's brother with saving her life that day, saying "Brennan would have killed her if it was not for his brother ... who had to pull him off her."
The brother confirmed to police that he did intervene in the incident, according to the police report.
Investigators haven't said when Brennan began dating Foltrauer, but they met via the dating app Tinder and he moved into her home. Brennan allegedly tied the woman's hands and beat her, before taking her car and debit card.
Investigators allege he sold the car and made purchases with the card before he was arrested in Mount Ephraim.
Brennan is no stranger to the criminal justice system.
He was sentenced to prison time in 2006 on theft and drug charges, then sentenced to 180 days in jail in 2010 on a charge of resisting arrest in Salem County, according to court records.
Brennan was again sentenced in 2014 for a pair of burglary charges and operating a motor vehicle during a license suspension. The case was handled through drug court and he was sentenced to 6 months in an alcohol and drug rehab facility, followed by 5 years of probation.
He was also required to make more than $44,500 in restitution from the burglaries.
Brennan remains jailed in Cumberland County on both murder charges. He's due back in a Gloucester County courtroom Sept. 6 for a pre-indictment conference in the Foltrauer case and will return to court in Cumberland County on Sept. 20 for a similar hearing in the Allen case.
Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips.