LODI, N.J. >> A man was charged Saturday with stabbing his estranged wife to death, then fleeing with their two young sons to South Carolina, where he was captured and the boys were found safe after a five-state Amber Alert, authorities said.

Police who arrived at 39-year-old Tracy Jordan’s home in Lodi to conduct a welfare check on her Friday night found her dead of multiple stab wounds, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office said. Her worried mother had called police after she hadn’t been able to get a hold of her and no one answered a knock at the door, a family friend said.

Police then learned that Tracy Jordan’s estranged husband, 47-year-old John Robert Jordan, had taken their young sons out of school under false pretenses, prosecutors said. The boys lived with their mother.

An Amber Alert was issued for the 7- and 8-year-old boys in New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and police and the FBI began to conduct surveillance on various homes in South Carolina and California, where some of his relatives lived.

At around 12:45 a.m. Saturday, FBI and local police officers in Greenville, South Carolina, saw Jordan pull up at a residence in his wife’s car, prosecutors said. He was arrested without incident shortly afterward, and the children were found unharmed in the vehicle.

Jordan has been charged with murder and possessing a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He remains in custody in South Carolina awaiting extradition proceedings, and Bergen County prosecutors said his bail would not be set until his first court appearance in New Jersey.

Marie Dejulia, who knows the family, told The Record of Woodland Park that Tracy Jordan had anticipated that her divorce would be finalized in the coming days. Dejulia said Jordan worked in a women’s clothing store in Secaucus and had been dating her brother. 

Dejulia told the newspaper that Jordan’s mother went to her apartment in the Cynthia Gardens complex after she was unable to contact her daughter. The mother called police after there was no answer when she knocked on the door.

The body was found inside the apartment around 5:15 p.m. Friday. Lodi police and county authorities quickly cordoned off the area, neighbors said.