Crime Junkie - MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Joyce and John Sheridan
Episode Date: March 18, 2024Since 2014, the mysterious deaths of Joyce and John Sheridan have been a major topic of conversation in Skillman, New Jersey. And as you might expect from the title, the story I have for you today is ...not as cut and dry as certain city officials would have you believe.In fact, the deeper I dove into this story, the more confused, shocked, and angry I became. This case could be a simple mishandling of an investigation, or it could be a corruption cover-up… time will tell.Listen to WNYC Studios podcast Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery.National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for support and resources.988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources, and best practices for U.S. professionals. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: crimejunkiepodcast.com/mysterious-death-joyce-john-sheridan Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkie.app/library/ to view the current membership options and policies.Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllc Crime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at +1 (317) 733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, random photos of Chuck, and more!
Transcript
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Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
And I'm Britt.
And the story I have for you today is not as cut and dry as certain city officials would
have you believe. In fact, the deeper I dove into this story, the more confused and a little
shocked and angry I became. Because, I mean, this case could be a simple mishandling of
an investigation. Or it could be a corruption cover-up,
and only time will tell.
This is the story of Joyce and John Sheridan. Around 6.13 in the morning on Sunday, September 28, 2014, a resident of Metal Run Drive, this
tight-knit neighborhood in New Jersey hears the distant chirping of a fire alarm.
Now he knows it's not coming from his own house, but he's pretty sure that the sound
and distinguishable smell of smoke is coming from his neighbor's place.
So even though he can't see any flames,
he does what any good neighbor would do and calls 911.
And the neighbor makes his way over to the house
while telling the operator
about the three people who live there,
Joyce and John Sheridan and their adult son, Matt.
By the time he's made it to their front door,
he tells them that he can see a little bit of smoke coming from the second floor,
but the whole thing isn't like engulfed in flames or anything.
So he tries the door knob, but the door's locked.
So he bangs his fists against the door
to see if anyone's inside.
And that's when he hears kind of like a knocking
or a tapping sound coming from within the house.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer,
the man tells operators,
it really sounds like someone's trying to get out.
First responders arrive within four minutes of the call
and they see the smoke coming from the second floor too,
but it's more intense now
than when the neighbor first called.
So wasting no time, they bust their way inside,
clear the first floor, clear the basement, all while yelling for anyone in the house.
But no one is calling back.
So once they know the lower floors are stable and fire free,
they head upstairs to find the source of the fire,
which turns out to be in the primary bedroom.
Or at least, they're pretty sure it is.
The door to the bedroom is actually closed and it won't budge,
almost like there's something pushed up against it.
But with enough force, they're able to push the door open enough for them to squeeze in
and see what it is that was blocking them.
This large armoire pushed against the door.
And it is what is on fire.
But the burning armoire is the least of their concerns
when they see a man laying face up
in his underwear and t-shirt underneath the large piece of furniture.
So they extinguish the fire, get him out, but it's too late.
He is pronounced dead shortly after removing him from the home.
So all they can do at that point is go back in and look for anyone else who might still
be inside.
And right away, they find a second body in that same bedroom, close to where the man was found.
Why didn't they see this body when they found the man?
Well, I think it's because, so the man was underneath the armoire,
where they end up finding who they know is a woman.
She's on the floor on the left side of the bed.
He's on the ground on the foot of the bed.
So I'm not super sure of the layout of this room,
but I think when they came through,
they see the fire, they see the man,
they tend to him immediately.
She might have been blocked by the bed a little bit.
So, yeah, they're seeing her when they go back.
So they get her out and then go back in looking
for a potential third victim.
By now, a crowd is gathering outside and word spreads throughout the neighborhood that something
is going on at the Sheridans.
And the news starts reaching their sons.
And that's when one of their sons, Mark, gets a call from his twin, Matt.
So Matt's alive?
He is.
So that means it's Joyce and John in the house.
Correct.
Now, Matt is currently about four hours away on a fishing trip, and he's getting word from
a neighbor about the fire, and he's basically calling his brother to pass on the info.
According to a New York Times article by Michael Sokola, both Mark and Matt Packa book it to
their parents' house in New Jersey, but Mark doesn't even get out of Manhattan before
Matt calls him back, telling him that their parents' house in New Jersey. But Mark doesn't even get out of Manhattan before Matt calls him back,
telling him that their parents are dead.
And Mark is almost feeling numb to all of this news.
Like, I mean, this is happening so fast,
it doesn't make sense.
All he wants is to talk to the head of major crimes,
because that's the department
that should be investigating his parents' death.
So he calls the chief counsel to Governor Chris Christie and asks him to have the Somerset County prosecutor call him directly to tell him what the heck is happening.
Oh, hold up. How does he just call up the governor's office and demand a call from the prosecutor?
Yeah, not everyone can do this. He's actually a lawyer for New Jersey Governor Christie's election campaign.
So he's like pretty well connected. He's on the inside, got it. Yeah.
And he's determined to use those connections
to call anyone and everyone that might be able
to tell him what the heck is going on.
Now on his way to his parents' home,
he picks up their other brother, Tim.
And when they pull in, they see that their fourth brother,
Dan, is out in front of the house
with just a swarm of people.
But before he even gets out of the car to talk to him,
that's when he gets a call from Somerset County prosecutor,
Jeffrey Soriano.
Soriano's calling with condolences,
but also a little insider info.
He tells Mark that as firefighters were going through the house,
they saw that the fire did look intentionally set,
and it was likely in an attempt to cover up a crime
because that's when he tells him
that his parents had been stabbed.
Now, Mark's mind is racing at this point.
He has no idea why this happened,
and as much as he wants to be side by side
with investigators as they're figuring this out,
I mean, like literally, he wants to walk through the house,
he's obviously not allowed to.
So instead, detectives bring the Sheridan brothers down to the station,
less to give them information, but more to like get it from them.
According to the podcast Dead End, a New Jersey political murder mystery from WNYC Studios,
most of the questioning just blurs past Mark.
But what jolts him out of this stupor is when his brother, Matt, finally arrives.
And out of nowhere, the officers or the detectives,
whoever is talking to him,
they asked to search Matt's car with zero explanation.
So Mark has no idea what's going on,
but when they search his brother's car,
they find apparently cocaine and scales
that make it look like Matt might be dealing.
So police arrest him right then, the damage is done, because rumors start flying
that the Sheridans were murdered because of some kind of drug deal gone wrong.
Though Mark knows that's completely absurd.
He's positive that his parents weren't murdered by someone looking for Matt.
I mean, Matt lived there too, though, so it's not too far-fetched. Not
completely, but like his car wasn't even there that day and he's typically always
gone on the weekends. So you're right, not impossible, but it's just not feeling
like the right answer to Mark. Now in spite of all this drama, Matt is released
and charges were not pursued. According to multiple outlets, the search was
illegal that
they did, so they have to just drop it, for now at least, but they kind of threaten him by telling
him that, you know, we have five years to file charges, so basically, watch out Matt, is I guess
what they're saying. Now at this point, the Sheridan brothers aren't too sure about the
Somerset County detectives, but Mark believes in the system and he's just gonna wait
for more information before he makes any determination about how he feels about them. And finally,
he gets a call from prosecutor Soriano on Tuesday, September 30th after Joyce and John's autopsies
are done. He and his brothers are asked to come down to the prosecutor's office so that he can talk
to them about everything in person.
And when they get there, they hear something that they didn't expect.
Mark hears the prosecutor essentially say that, listen, there was an autopsy performed,
but you might want to get your own done because, like, the office that did the autopsy is just,
like, not very good.
Well, that's certainly not what you want to hear from the people in charge.
Right?
Is he like specifically saying that he thinks they did a bad job on this one or he thinks
like every case that passes through their office is botched?
I'm not super sure.
I mean, either option feels terrible.
Right.
But I don't know what the implication is there to your point.
It could be either.
But anyway, so they tell them,
you might want to get your own done,
but they do go on to tell them
what was found in their autopsy.
And the prosecutor and assistant medical examiner
tell them that there were two kitchen knives
recovered from the scene.
And the assistant ME says that Joyce's cause of death
was a stab wound to her chest.
She was stabbed eight times to her head,
but the one stab wound to her chest hit her aorta and to her chest. She was stabbed eight times to her head,
but the one stab wound to her chest hit her aorta
and killed her quickly.
They also say that most of her stab wounds are deep,
and they're thinking that her death
was specifically a crime of passion, a homicide.
And they're feeling pretty sure of it
because of the defensive wounds
that they say they found on her arms and her hands. So the two knives found by her are what killed her?
They think so, yes.
Were both Joyce and John dead before the fire started?
Well, according to the autopsy, Joyce was, but John, he actually had soot in his airway
and high levels of carbon monoxide in his system.
Meaning he was alive when the fire was started.
Right.
And the assistant ME starts to kind of hesitate when telling them this next part.
They say that John's wounds are superficial, two are shallow, and three are a little deeper.
All of them are around his torso and his neck, but there's one stab wound that doesn't
sound so superficial to the Sheridan brothers, one that actually cut John's right jugular vein
and is what is partially responsible for killing him.
But the other thing that they kind of take note of
is the assistant ME also says there's no sign
of defensive wounds on John's body,
but he does have five broken ribs,
two on the left side, three on the right,
which they say is consistent
with that armoire falling on top of him. So all the right, which they say is consistent with that armoire
falling on top of him.
So all in all, basically, they're telling them
that their father's cause of death
is sharp force injuries and smoke inhalation.
And they're saying that all of it looks self-inflicted.
So they classify his manner of death as a suicide.
Okay, so most of his wounds are superficial.
He has some broken ribs from the armoire.
He inhaled smoke, but also has this cut to his jugular.
I mean, like, they're saying somewhere shallow.
A cut to your jugular that's partially responsible for your death is significant.
Not shallow.
Yeah.
So, okay, investigators are thinking murder-suicide then?
I mean, Mark says they're not coming right out in saying that,
but I mean it's like clearly what they're heavily implying at that point, right?
They're saying Joyce was murdered at a crime of passion.
And also all your dad's injuries are self-inflicted.
Yeah, yeah.
Was there another knife by John though?
Like what caused his wounds?
Well, they don't know yet,
or at least they're not saying yet,
but they're not even making mention
of any other weapons found,
just the two knives that were next to Joyce in the room.
Now, the prosecutor also tells them
that the crime scene is pretty much confined
to the second floor primary bedroom.
Again, Joyce had defensive
wounds, John didn't, Joyce was dead before the fire, John wasn't.
Okay, but couldn't it have been an intruder, someone known to them, one of their sons?
Maybe a robbery gone wrong? Or what if John was just caught off guard and didn't have
time to defend himself? This doesn't seem so straightforward to me.
I mean, not to me, but like they don't seem to give much thought to a random person coming in and committing the crime.
Even though all of the doors in the house were actually unlocked.
The only one that was locked was the front door.
And as for a robbery gone wrong, I guess there's nothing there to support that.
I will give them that.
Like they found about $950 in cash in the primary bedroom.
They also found John's wallet, a watch, a cell phone.
Joyce's iPad was untouched,
along with the jewelry on her body.
So robbery, that piece doesn't really fit.
Right.
But that doesn't mean that Mark and his brothers
are accepting what they're putting forward as complete fact.
So they decide to take Soriano's advice
and bring in their own medical examiner.
On Saturday, October 4th,
Dr. Michael Bodden performs his own autopsy.
And this second look finds
some pretty serious discrepancies.
He finds that John actually has a chipped tooth
and long thin bruises along his chest
with his broken ribs,
which to him indicates that he was beaten
with some kind of long object
rather than getting the broken ribs
from that armoire just falling on him.
Dr. Bodden believes his injuries appear to be caused
by a third person and are not self-inflicted.
There's also, he says, no telling if he actually has
defensive wounds because his right arm is so badly burned
from the fire.
And he notes that Joyce's blood is not at all on John's body.
What?
Yeah, which, how is that possible?
If he stabbed Joyce eight times,
how does he not have any blood transfer on him at all?
Is that something that just wasn't accounted for
in the first autopsy,
or did he specifically say he didn't have blood on him?
No, I'm pretty sure it's something
that the Somerset assistant, Emmy,
just doesn't even acknowledge.
He doesn't even mention that there's not blood transfer
on John, even though it's something that makes zero sense.
I think mentioning it would ruin a theory
that they already seem to have had.
Now, Dr. Bodden also finds that John's stab wounds
were not from either of the two knives
recovered from the scene.
So John dies from a self-inflicted knife wound,
but the knife used wasn't found?
I'm sorry, make it make sense.
Yeah, explain it to me.
And by the way, what is extra great about all of this is that Dr. Bodden is doing this
second autopsy in front of the assistant medical examiner who performed the first one.
Oh.
Yeah, and listen, to the first guy's credit, he seems to be able to admit that he's wrong
because he goes against what he wrote in his initial report,
and this first guy agrees that the fatal stab wound
to John's neck was not caused by either knife found at the scene.
Now, Dr. Bodden believed that John's fatal wound
was caused by a stiletto-type knife,
which is kind of like a switchblade.
It's not anything you would see
in a normal kitchen knife or kitchen set.
So when all is said and done with the second autopsy,
the Sheridan brothers are rightfully pissed.
They make sure that this information
is shared with the prosecutor,
and once the prosecutor sees this,
detectives are sent back to the crime scene
to look for this potential third knife.
Now, unfortunately, detectives don't find another knife anywhere,
but they do find a piece of metal that looks like it's been melted
and then re-solidified near where John's body was found.
So detectives think that, you know, maybe this could be their third murder weapon.
It just got melted during the fire.
So they decide to send that off for testing. You know, it makes you wonder what else they missed if that metal wasn't even considered to
be important the first time around. Exactly, which is why in addition to the second autopsy,
the Sheridan brothers also want Dr. Bodden to review all of the evidence as it becomes available.
So the first thing he gets access to actually is the crime scene photographs. And as he starts reviewing these, he sees photos of what look like blood spatter on a wall near the stairwell,
which is outside of the primary bedroom.
Right.
There's also blood on the hallway floor to the primary dressing room that he notes has access to an unlocked exit,
and he questions if any of this is getting tested.
Wait, did first responders or investigators see any of this?
I mean, I'm assuming yes, right? They've got pictures of it. But the prosecutor told them
that detectives didn't collect any evidence outside of the primary bedroom because it looks like,
to them, the whole crime was contained to that one room, which I don't-
Not when there's blood in the hallway.
I know, there's pictures of it clearly,
but is he seeing that just like,
because they were taking pictures
of something bigger or broader,
and he's like, wait, what is this?
Or did they take pictures and they're like,
nah, let's just ignore that, I don't know.
But now Mark and his brothers are unsure
what has been collected for testing,
what's been ignored,
and so as soon as the brothers are cleared
to enter their parents' home,
they are the ones who go in and look at things more critically.
So they know that the two knives found in the bedroom
apparently look like they came from the knife block
in the kitchen. That's something that was, like,
part of the prosecutor's theory and story, whatever.
But what nobody even, like, mentions
is that when they go
and look at this knife block,
they see that there is a third one missing
and they can't seem to find this third knife
anywhere in the house.
What kind of knife?
Like something that could resemble a switchblade,
like a small paring knife for?
No, like I said, I think it was,
I don't think it was anything that you would see
in a kitchen set.
It was like a stiletto type used to kill John.
So they're not saying that like,
oh, this is the missing murder weapon that killed our dad.
It goes to the point of like,
why are you not even acknowledging that this is here?
Is it because it didn't fit in to your theory?
Is it because you just truly are acting negligently?
I don't know.
And the real question they have is like,
if it's not in the house, where is it?
Did someone else come in and take three knives
to murder the Sheridans?
They leave two behind, take the third with them.
Was there any indication that this knife is important,
or is it just possibly irrelevant?
I mean, I know I've lost knives from my knife block before.
Very true. I don't know.
It just basically seems to Mark and his brothers
that the initial investigation missed so many things,
or if detectives did see all of these things,
they're not being forthcoming with the brothers.
And this is where the relationship,
or what little relationship he had
with prosecutor Soriano starts to sour.
Mark and his brothers start questioning
the integrity of the investigation,
and the prosecutor's office just goes silent on them. But the brothers have other things to focus
on like organizing their parents' funeral.
Joyce and John's deaths really shake up the community, and it quickly captured the attention
of the media. You see, Mark isn't the only politically active member
of the Sheridan household.
John was also a major player
in the New Jersey Republican political landscape.
Now he'd never been an elected official,
but he had been appointed
to some pretty high level positions.
Like he got his start as a lawyer,
and in the 70s and 80s,
he served under two Republican governors.
He was also responsible for helping drastically improve New Jersey's transit system.
And since 2008, he's served as president and CEO
for Cooper Health System in Camden, New Jersey,
and was the board chairman for a nonprofit
in Camden, New Jersey called Cooper's Ferry Partnership
at the time of his death.
So the community comes together the following Tuesday
to honor the Sheridan legacy.
Governor Christie and former governors Thomas Keene and Christine Whitman give eulogies for Joyce and John.
According to the New York Times, around a thousand mourners join them.
Now meanwhile, the prosecutor's office is staying very silent.
All they will say is that the Sheridans died in their home,
a fire was intentionally set, there is no threat to the public,
oh, and their four sons have been cleared of any suspicion.
According to reporting by the Philadelphia Inquirer,
investigators tell the public that they determined
that those tapping sounds of someone,
you know, the neighbor said it sounds like someone
was trying to get out.
And it wasn't just the neighbor. Like, first responders actually heard that too. that those tapping sounds of someone, you know, that neighbor said it sounds like someone was trying to get out.
And it wasn't just the neighbor.
Like first responders actually heard that too,
but they also say the one thing that they won't stay silent
on is they tell everyone that those were just sounds
from the fire.
The fire that was on the second floor contained
to an armoire that had been set on fire.
That seems really bizarre to me.
I know.
And especially because the neighbor who came to the door,
like the tapping sounds weren't just happening.
It was like after he was like banging on the door, knocking, right?
It was like a response.
That's what it felt like to him.
So it just doesn't totally add up.
You're quiet about everything else, but you're like,
oh, that weird thing, like, nothing to see here.
We can explain that away. Don't worry about that.
Mm-hmm.
Now, the next thing that happens is that Mark and his brothers find out that an insurance
investigator caught something that they missed when they were going through the house.
Apparently upstairs in the primary bedroom where all of this happened, I mean the police
say everything took place here, this is the only scene we processed.
Well like basically just thrown in a heap of trash or linens or something was a wrought
iron fire poker like
underneath all of the debris a
Fire poker meaning a long object that easily could have broken some ribs
Mm-hmm, and here's the thing detectives for Somerset County weren't even going to collect the fire poker as
Evidence until the Sheridan brothers literally
what I know which I mean in one breath like I said earlier in one breath they're
like everything is contained here we're only collecting evidence from here this
room is the important room but we're also not gonna collect everything what
now at the beginning of November the media is getting more and more antsy
about the lack of public information.
The Courier Post publishes an article asking why everything is so hush-hush.
People are starting to speculate.
So on November 25, 2014, a little over eight weeks after the fire, investigators finally
reveal Joyce's death certificate to the public. Her manner of death is listed as homicide,
and then John's death certificate remains
undetermined pending investigation,
which kind of gives publications their first insight
into the possibility that police might be considering
a murder-suicide theory.
And the press kind of runs wild with this for a while,
filling in the information void with theories from experts who
have no connection to the case, but like way in anyways.
But finally in March 2015, the Somerset County Prosecutor's
Office fills that information void a little bit when they
released their official report on John and
Joyce Sheridan's deaths.
In it, they recount what first responders saw when they arrived, and they also lay out
the forensic evidence found in the home.
Which is this?
Near where John was found, investigators discovered matches, they say, and a gas can belonging
to the Sheridans.
They identified a pore pattern of gasoline all over the floor of the bedroom,
and they say they found DNA on the handle of that can that belonged to John.
Okay, but if it was their can, I would expect his DNA to be on it.
I agree, but I think the point they're making is that everything used in the crime
seems to have come from the house. Like even the matches they found are similar to other ones found
by the fireplace on the first floor. And then they say that the two knives in the room,
the large carving type of knife,
and then the large serrated bread knife
are from the knife block downstairs in the kitchen.
So I mean, they're pointing out everything is from the house.
Nothing was brought in,
which wouldn't totally line up with an outside person
coming in with the intention
of killing them, you know?
Okay, except for the fact that they don't have the knife that killed John.
Well, they acknowledge that Dr. Bodden's autopsy prompted them to go search for another
murder weapon, and they talk about that melted metal piece, but they say that they got the
results back and essentially they couldn't tell what its original shape was or purpose was.
The New York Times article speculates that this piece of metal could be like a metal
handle from an armoire or something.
The thinking being that the other two knives we know were kitchen knives.
Those are typically made of metal alloys that can only melt at really high temperatures.
But the third kitchen knife and the switchblade aren't the same.
Could the melted piece of metal be the blade that killed John?
I still don't think so.
Again, it just didn't get hot enough for the knives like that to melt.
Even if it wasn't the same kind of kitchen knife, like, I don't think any kind of knife
would have gotten hot enough to melt is what they're trying to say.
Okay.
But they did test the knives that they do have
and the report says that the DNA found
on the large carving knife is predominantly Joyce's.
It was her blood on it.
But there is a small amount of male DNA on the handle.
Unfortunately, it was so small
that they can't confirm if it's John's or not.
And then they don't specifically say what it is,
like what type of DNA, was it touch DNA, was it blood, was it something else entirely? I don't specifically say what it is, like what type of DNA, was it touch
DNA, was it blood, was it something else entirely?
I don't know.
But again, these are knives from their block.
If it did come back as his, they're his knives.
I agree.
I think that's why I was like trying to specify like if it was like his blood on the knife,
is that different?
Is it like, because I agree, we assume he touched his own kitchen knives.
I don't know.
Now, there's more DNA evidence that they point out throughout this report, so let me get to that.
There was a single drop of blood on John's underwear that came back as having a mixed DNA sample.
And both John and Joyce couldn't be excluded as contributors, but it also isn't definitively theirs either. So did
one or more of those profiles belong to a third person? We don't know. So it's not
particularly helpful. Now since Joyce did have defensive wounds, they were able to
get scrapings from under her fingernails, and they said that they found a male
DNA profile. Problem is investigators just can't determine if it's John's or if it's someone
else's.
So, we have all this DNA evidence, but it's not actually giving us any answers. Why can't
they tell if any of it's John's?
Because there's just not enough there, they say, which to me I find so strange because
we're not talking about like 1994, 2001. I mean-
Right. This is like fairly recent history.
Yeah, I'm shocked at how much they have,
but then like actually have nothing at all.
I don't know, but there's something else
that feels like a gut punch to Mark.
The report says that investigators decided
not to dust for fingerprints.
According to the report, quote,
fingerprints would not be revealed by dusting
and nothing of further evidentiary value was observed,
end quote.
And that's apparently on like anything.
They didn't find it important to gather evidence
from the rest of the house.
What about all that splatter outside the room
that Bodden pointed out?
Yeah, I mean, if you're getting frustrated or, like, confused,
imagine how the Sheridan's sons are feeling
as they're reading this.
But that's not even, like, the end of this thing.
So another important part of the report
is what detectives say they found
when they were piecing together John and Joyce's lives,
leading up to their deaths.
Apparently, they used data collected from their phones
and computers, financial records, pretty much everything in between. and Joyce's lives leading up to their deaths. Apparently they used data collected from their phones
and computers, financial records,
pretty much everything in between.
They also conducted a ton of interviews
like talked to their four sons, friends,
neighbors, coworkers.
Basically by the end of it,
they say it is obvious that something was very wrong
in the Sheridan household.
According to the Somerset report,
family and colleagues say that John was acting
completely unlike himself
in the days leading up to his death.
They say he was upset and withdrawn
and he seemed to be really bogged down
by stressors at his job.
Detectives say that this change in attitude
was leading to a scheduled work meeting
that was set for the afternoon of Sunday, September 28th,
which was the same day that he was found dead.
Now this report also says that in interviews,
people said that Joyce was acting worried
and very concerned for her husband too.
It seems that the people that knew them best,
that released the ones that talked to the police,
believed that John's usual calm, deliberate demeanor
was completely gone that weekend.
Who is this coming from though?
I feel like their sons haven't seen or said that.
I mean, they'd probably be more accepting
of some of these findings.
Yeah, I mean, Mark knows that that wasn't his perception,
and it's not at all how his brother Matt
described his parents before he left
for that weekend of fishing.
And I mean, again, Matt's like living with them. So your question is Mark's question, like,
who is saying this? But I don't even want to get into that. I want to keep talking about what's
in this report because there's still more information. The prosecutor's report continues
with what they believe happened. They say that all of the evidence in this case is leading them to the conclusion that John first stabbed Joyce,
then he set the fire, and then he died by suicide.
So the Sheridan brothers are furious and ready to tell the public how wrong the prosecutor's report is.
So, Brett, I want you to read the statement that they put out after this report was released.
Okay, it says, quote, To be clear, we do not have answers to what happened to our parents.
Based on the evidence, neither do the investigators. They cannot explain that the weapon used to stab our father was never recovered.
They cannot explain his broken ribs, chipped tooth, or why he was found under an armoire.
They cannot explain the numerous weapons found at the scene or why they failed to take custody
of all those weapons.
They cannot explain their failure to dust for fingerprints or examine blood evidence
outside the bedroom.
They cannot explain the lack of a motive for suicide, let alone murder.
They cannot explain the absolute absence of forensic evidence tying our father to our
mother's death.
Indeed, even Prosecutor Soriano conceded to the family, their lawyers, and their expert
during a recent meeting that he, quote, has no idea what happened in that room, unquote.
The conclusion announced today is also at odds with the conclusion of the renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who found, quote,
the absence of any mental depression, of any motive, of any note,
and of any weapon that could have caused the cut wound of the neck and jugular vein of John Sheridan,
all speak against suicide, end quote.
Ska-thing. But they don't stop there.
According to reporting from the Observer in conjunction with their statement, the brothers
have a list of questions, or demands depending on who you ask, regarding the information
they want about their parents' deaths.
The first being, where the hell is the weapon that caused John's injuries?
They don't believe it melted on the floor beside him.
They're saying detectives searched the house multiple times.
How did it just vanish if he is the one using it?
Well, and how about the fact that they didn't even know
about a different knife until Dr. Bodden did his autopsy?
Yes.
The second question they have is,
why did they not dust for prints?
Four doors to the house were completely unlocked.
I'm pretty sure,
like I said, the only one that was locked was that front door. So I understand they
think that everything happened in the primary bedroom. But like, unless you go in trying
to prove your own theory, like you don't know what happened. You know what I mean? Like
when you were processing the scene, it just seems like such confirmation bias. Like how
do you know if you didn't collect it?
Right, it really just shows the tunnel vision they had.
They had a theory, they just focused on what proved their theory.
The sheer fact alone that there was blood outside of the room should have prompted them
to process the rest of the house, including looking for prints.
But that didn't happen.
That didn't fit their theory.
Yeah.
Now the third thing they want answers on is how could their mother have so many defensive wounds on her hands and her arms,
but they say their dad didn't have a single scratch on him.
Like if she's fighting against her attacker, they're like, wouldn't her attacker, presumably John...
And he's the attacker.
Right. They're saying wouldn't he have marks on him? Maybe, but also whoever attacked her had a knife, so I don't know how much they're gonna get hurt.
And say it was, John, if there was an injury on him, it might have been covered by those burns.
Right. And so defensive wounds aside then, with all of her stab wounds,
how was there not a single transfer of her blood to his clothes, right?
Right.
The fourth thing they ask is they're like, okay, this insurance investigator came in and found a
three-foot wrought iron fire poker in the bedroom. Again, where there's, by the way, no fireplace in
the bedroom that you say is the primary crime scene, and this is found an entire month after their deaths,
why did they just ignore this potential weapon
and its suspicious placement,
especially when it could have been used
to break their father's ribs?
And then fifth, how did John end up
under an extremely heavy armoire
after he had multiple stab wounds
and supposedly took his own life.
I mean, I keep thinking that he could have pulled it on top of himself, but that jugular
cut is just really, really throwing everything off for me.
Well, and what's, I mean, it's not having a weapon that's throwing everything off for
me. I mean, I guess, okay, fine, say it melted, say it's a mystery, say it disappeared. I guess I guess I'm thinking like okay if he like pulled it down and then stabbed himself
But then okay, we'd find the knife right there and the knife would be there, right?
so if that's not what happened like okay, he stabbed himself and then maybe he's like stumbling around the room and like
Goes to lean on that and then it's pulled down on top of him and what pitches the knife out the window
Like well again like I so I can maybe explain the armoire,
but then I can't explain why there isn't a knife there.
But finally, there's something else.
So the brothers want to know how they came to this idea
that John was so depressed that he killed their mother
and himself because even though their report says
that they looked at all of his electronic evidence,
like, I love the way that it was kind of phrased. It was like, you know,
we collected everything, we talked to people, here's the conclusion we came to.
Well, yeah, they collected everything, but apparently of everything that they collected,
there was actually nothing there. The report says that in all of those records,
there's no definitive link to the proximate cause of deaths.
So nothing in their emails, in their texts, personal files, nothing that they did.
All they have are these supposed interviews.
So again, he asks, who told you this?
Because Mark's like, listen, the day before they died,
John had FaceTimed his grandson.
He was preparing for a meeting at the hospital the next day.
Like everything seemed fine to the sons who knew them best.
So, okay, if you're telling me friends and family,
which ones?
I'd love to talk to them, right?
Right.
Now in an article by Intelligencer,
after these questions are published,
Mark and his brothers file a lawsuit
to have their father's manner of death changed
back to undetermined, like it was in the the very beginning before they decided it was a suicide with
seemingly little to no evidence.
The brothers are told to talk to the state ME's office, which they do in a formal letter including Dr.
Bodden's written report from his autopsy and
the state immediately answers back with a request to dismiss the appeal due to a lack of jurisdiction and quote, no legal basis exists to compel them to change their opinion, end quote.
That's pretty much all the time they give to the brothers' requests.
But in all of this, Soriano isn't completely quiet.
The New York Times reports that in his single interview after releasing his report, when
asked about the melted metal on the floor, he says, quote, I don't know what it is.
It could have been anything, end quote.
And then when pressed on John's motive for murdering his wife and then taking his own
life, the prosecutor says, quote, what we tried to do was gather all the relevant evidence.
I don't know what else was going on in his life."
End quote.
So he doesn't know much, but he knows enough
to call it a murder-suicide and wipe his hands
clean at the investigation.
Pretty much.
But like I said before, Mark's not giving up.
He's a lawyer for the Republican State Committee,
but in April 2015, he decides to step down from that
to fully focus on getting justice for his parents.
In fact, to kick off this pursuit for information,
he offers a $250,000 reward for information
about their deaths.
And in the meantime,
Matt accompanies two independent investigators
hired by the Philadelphia Inquirer
to pour over every little detail inside his parents' home,
which has been pretty much left untouched
after the state's investigation ended.
And when they go, something that sticks out to them
is all of that blood spatter and a reddish-brown smudge
on the inside of the home's front door.
Like when they're looking at this,
they question if it could be a print, maybe?
And they're wondering if the initial investigators
even took note of this, because they sure didn't collect it.
And then another thing that stands out
to the independent investigators is the depth of char
around where John's body was.
Like some parts are severely burned,
but then in other areas, there's only surface damage.
And to them, it looks like the armoire fell first,
then went up in a blaze because the ceiling burns
aren't consistent with how close the armoire would have been
if it was on fire before it fell, which then like throws,
you know, even my theory of like, oh, he went to the armoire
and then pulled it down, like that doesn't work anymore.
Right. But I want to back up a little bit.
I've never heard of a publication hiring two independent investigators for a case.
Is that normal?
I don't know.
I haven't specifically heard of this.
I don't know if it was part of their investigative reporting, because it doesn't seem like these
investigators actually collect anything or test any DNA or anything left in the house.
They just kind of went in, observed,
and then like published their findings.
But even with their findings published,
the Somerset prosecutor's office refuses to do much of anything,
and they definitely don't change their ruling.
But the Sheridan brothers catch a break
when prosecutor Soriano actually gets removed from office in 2016.
Did they remove him solely because of the Sheridan case or was
something else going on?
Well, apparently in a press statement, Governor Christie
says he's quote, lost confidence in Soriano. But then when pressed
about Joyce and John, he says he doesn't quote, have any opinion
on the Sheridan matter, end quote. But that's not the only
shakeup happening. Attorney General John Hoffman resigns, he gets replaced by Robert Logie, and a new state
medical examiner was appointed the year prior.
So in February 2016, reporting from NJ.com shows that 200 New Jersey residents made up
of three former governors and other powerful individuals actually sign a letter calling
for the reinvestigation of Joyce and John's deaths.
So by March, when a new prosecutor comes on board,
Michael Robertson, he says he's determined
to avoid the mistakes his predecessor made.
So right away, he takes a look at the Sheridan case
and realizes there's definitely more here
that needs to be uncovered.
But he's not moving quickly.
He doesn't reopen the investigation just yet.
And as the prosecutor is kind of reviewing everything,
something else happens.
There's this whistleblower lawsuit that comes out
from a Somerset detective.
According to reporting by New Jersey 101.5,
the detective says that inexperienced officials
were put in charge of the forensics unit.
And he says it's common knowledge that the Sheridan evidence wasn't collected correctly,
it wasn't preserved well, and some pieces of evidence were even destroyed.
Does the whistleblower say what specifically was destroyed or compromised?
Bet you he does.
He says that the bedding from the Sheridan's primary bedroom
was just left like laying exposed on the floor.
Blood collection swabs weren't even packaged properly.
Evidence envelopes were poorly taped.
And remember how they didn't dust for fingerprints,
my favorite thing?
Mm-hmm.
Well, apparently the investigators at the time
did look for fingerprints using a
flashlight technique. A flashlight technique? I've never heard of that. You shouldn't have because
it's not a real thing. Okay. There is a technique that uses light but I'm pretty sure they're saying
that what they did here is they took a flashlight, they looked at the surface of like
doorknobs or something or whatever, and then just by looking at it with their flashlight,
they didn't think they'd get any prints, so they didn't dust for any.
That's not a flashlight technique that's using a flashlight.
No.
So that was basically their excuse for not getting fingerprints during the investigation.
And then the shocking part, as if all of this isn't already shocking,
is that the detective filing this lawsuit says that he saw the captain
in early 2015 throw the bedroom evidence in a dumpster
outside of the fingerprint lab.
You've got to be kidding me.
I wish I was.
Now following this lawsuit in May 2016,
Dr. Baden releases his 15 page affidavit in June,
explaining why he believes a third person
was involved in the murders.
The affidavit doesn't immediately change
all of the rulings,
but it starts getting things in motion
because in January of 2017,
the state medical examiner makes a huge decision
to change John's manner
of death back to inconclusive.
And this is great news for Mark and his brothers.
But the new report still doesn't say that the couple's deaths were a double homicide.
It just leaves room for a reinvestigation with what little, if any, evidence that they
have left.
Exactly.
But if you thought that this was getting to the end of the road, think again.
Things remain silent while the new officials get settled into office, but something major
happens in January 2022.
According to the Intelligencer, Mark hears about a New Jersey political consultant,
this guy named Sean Cattle,
who pleads guilty to hiring two men
to kill an associate involved
in the New Jersey political scene.
And the most alarming part to him
is the similarities that this crime shares
with his parents' case.
So here's the scoop.
In 2014, two men stabbed Sean Cattle's friend
and colleague, Michael Galdieri.
He was stabbed to death in his apartment,
and then they set his place on fire and left.
Sean admits to meeting up with one of the men
and paying them thousands of dollars afterwards,
which sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it?
Mm-hmm. Well, here's something else. Remember that mysterious missing kitchen them thousands of dollars afterwards. Which sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it?
Well, here's something else.
Remember that mysterious missing kitchen knife that just like disappeared from the Sheridan's
house?
Yeah, obviously.
Well, during this trial, Sean's trial, Mark learns that one of the hitmen were arrested
the day after the Sheridans were murdered.
And he's arrested like in connection to a bank robbery.
But in one of their cars,
police found a long bladed kitchen knife.
And you know, as I would totally do,
he is calling for immediate DNA testing
to see if that could be the knife
missing from his parents' knife block.
Right, which would totally prove that a third person
came into the Sheridan house and murdered John and Joyce. Exactly. So when this happens it
kind of opens Mark's eyes even more to the possibility not only that his
parents were murdered but like murder for hire. Now I'm gonna be intentionally
vague with a lot of this because nothing has been proven as it relates to John
and Joyce's death. So if you want all the dirty deets,
you got to go listen to Nancy Solomon's podcast, Dead End.
That being said, let me give you some backstory
that makes this potentially more believable.
John dedicated his life to the political scene in New Jersey.
And because of this involvement,
he was connected to some potentially shady characters.
Characters that Mark can't help but look at a little differently once the cattle case
comes to light.
What's more, as that case is playing out, another investigation that's looking into
potential tax fraud in real estate deals in New Jersey is happening simultaneously.
Basically, it turns out that the New Jersey government might
have been offering fraudulent tax breaks to companies who come in and revitalize certain
areas, but like big corporations were taking advantage of it. And we're talking property
deals that could have meant like billions in tax breaks by manipulating the system. Like there was
a lot of corruption on both sides of the aisle and these players had a lot to gain and a lot to lose.
Now, John's connected to all of this property stuff because of his position
in the hospital and the nonprofit. So it's not that much of a stretch to think that John
might have gotten caught up in the mess. Basically, if John wasn't aligning with what political
powerhouses wanted him to do, then maybe that could have caused even more tensions,
which might have led to someone
wanting him out of the picture.
But I'm just speculating on what Nancy Solomon
lays out pretty compellingly in Dead End.
And what's more is knowing that in the Dead End podcast,
Nancy says Mark had actually found a piece of paper
months after his parents' deaths
that was in his dad's handwriting,
and it said, quote,
"'I have a duty of loyalty and good faith,
and I need to act in a way consistent
with that responsibility,' end quote."
So maybe everything was just happens,
maybe it was a bad investigation,
or maybe they purposefully
overlooked crucial evidence to hide something bigger at play. I don't know.
It's all speculation. So Mark decides to write an open letter to the Attorney
General and prosecutor laying out why they should reinvestigate his parents
murder. He publishes that in the New York Times.
And Brett, I'm gonna have you read this one too.
It is just so powerful.
Okay, he writes, quote,
As you may be aware, those facts are eerily similar
to the circumstances surrounding the death of my parents.
Your offices all but laughed at my family's suggestion
that my parents' death
were anything other than a murder-suicide.
Indeed, both offices openly mocked the idea of a
killing-for-hire involving a stabbing with a fire set to destroy evidence. Yet, the Somerset County
Prosecutor's Office inquired of my brothers and me multiple times regarding a knife that was missing
from the knife block in the kitchen. And then he basically ends with a plea for detectives to see
if the Hitman and Sean's case could be connected to his parents' deaths.
Right. So with this knowledge, the Sheridan brothers make sure that they have any bloodstained drywall removed and stored for future evidence.
Yeah, it's been five years, but they're hoping something is maybe still salvageable.
They put it all in a private crime scene investigation lab that's not connected to this state. They don't have it tested,
it's more just like being stored there.
They also do this because they decide after all of these years to finally sell the family home, and they hope that what's preserved
will be good enough for a future investigation.
And just like a quick follow-up side note on Sean Cattle's case,
he was released to home confinement and made to wear an ankle monitor after confessing to hiring the hitman.
But in June of last year,
he was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
So thanks to that case, after eight years,
the new attorney general finally does
what the Sheridan brothers have been hoping
and pleading for all along.
They reopen the investigation
into the deaths of Joyce and John.
And it seems like the new investigators might be aligned with the brothers now in thinking
about this murder-for-hire plot. The New York Times says a former state and federal prosecutor
who specializes in public corruption cases absolutely believes that hitmen often use both
knives and fires to commit their crimes.
He says, quote,
somebody can be murdered precisely the way the Sheridans were
by hired killers, end quote.
I mean, it just doesn't make sense
that there were two murders relatively close to each other,
both involving stab wounds and a fire,
and investigators don't even think to question
if a third person was involved.
I mean, no, one's a clear-cut murder-suicide,
and the other is definitely murder-for-hire.
I'm sorry, they're too similar.
I mean, that's literally what Nancy from the Dead End podcast points out, too,
because these cases happened about four months apart.
They're both politically connected individuals.
I get that Joyce and John happened first, so you might have had a theory,
but when the second one happened, like, you don't go back and ask any questions.
Right, unless it all was a coverup
for a murder-for-hire plot.
It could be, but as of right now,
we don't have any definitive proof of that.
The New County prosecutor has opened the investigation
once again, and that's definitely a good thing,
but so many things were done wrong in the beginning that I'm just not sure they'll ever fully charge any third party with the murders
because of the way stuff was handled.
But that doesn't mean there still can't be answers.
Cuz with John's manner of death still undetermined and
what forensic evidence the Sheridan brothers were able to preserve from their
parents' house, maybe that will lead to those answers, sooner rather than later.
Until then, with the potential corruption also being investigated now,
thanks to the new prosecutor in AG, maybe this is New Jersey's season of justice.
For now, only time will tell.
I do want to end this episode on a positive note, because I think it's encouraging
that the investigation is open once again and Mark and his
brothers are still such huge advocates for their parents as they have been from the very beginning.
They were able to collect their own evidence and create theories separate from the old corrupt
prosecutor's office and that might just help them get the answers that they've been searching for
this whole time. And real quick I just want to end with an important PSA
since we did discuss suicide in this episode.
It's important for you or anyone that you know
who is thinking about suicide to be aware that
emotional support can be reached by calling or texting
the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988
or by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
at 1-800-273-TALK.
You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com.
And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast.
We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production.
So, what do you think, Chuck?
Do you approve?
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