MONTGOMERY — John Sheridan killed his wife and then committed suicide, according to the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office, but his sons are not accepting that conclusion.
Mark, Matt, Dan and Tim Sheridan released a statement March 27 that they are filing a lawsuit challenging the results of the investigation by the prosecutor’s office.
“We do not have answers to what happened to our parents” but “based on the evidence, neither do the investigators,” the family statement said.
John and Joyce Sheridan’s sons are calling the conclusions as to their parents’ deaths nothing more than an expedient way “for the prosecutor’s office to close its file and put an end to its embarrassing bungling of this murder investigation in the hope that our family, the citizens of Somerset County and the press will stop inquiring about what actually happened.”
The sons said the prosecutor’s office has not explained why the weapon used to stab their father was never recovered nor 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 of those weapons,” the statement said. “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.”
The sons also said that the conclusion announced today is also at odds with the conclusion of the renowned pathologist they hired, Dr. Michael Baden, who found “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.”
Joyce Sheridan, 69, and her husband, John, 72, were found unresponsive in their home on Sept. 28, 2014 after a fire broke out in their master bedroom at about 6:13 a.m. The fire in that room was started by gasoline. A half-empty gas can usually stored in the garage was found in the bedroom. State Police testing was said to find Mr. Sheridan’s DNA on the handle of the gas can.
Mr. Sheridan was found lying on the floor face up, at the foot of the bed with the top portion of a two-piece armoire dresser resting on his body. Mrs. Sheridan was found lying face up on the floor to the left of the bed.
Prosecutors said the “nature and number” of wounds sustained by Mrs. Sheridan were extensive and included defensive wounds on her hands. Juxtaposed to her wounds, there were no defensive wounds found on Mr. Sheridan, and the superficial nature of the wounds sustained by him has been found to be consistent with self-infliction.
Autopsies showed Mrs. Sheridan had suffered eight wounds to her head. Five of those wounds were incised wounds. Three were stab wounds. She also suffered from a stab wound to her chest that perforated her aorta. That wound lead to the prosecutor calling it a homicide.
The autopsy of Mr. Sheridan found five wounds to his torso and neck area, the prosecutor said. Two of the wounds were cuts. Three of the wounds were stab wounds. All five wounds have been characterized by the Assistant Medical Examiner as superficial in nature, consistent with self-infliction, the prosecutor said. One wound to the neck caused a small perforation to the right jugular vein and would be fatal without medical treatment, the release said.
There were no defensive wounds noted on Mr. Sheridan’s body, but he had five broken ribs — two on the left side and three on the right side — consistent with an armoire falling on him, the prosecutor said.
Medical evidence showed that Mr. Sheridan was alive after the fire was started and his cause of death was found to be sharp force injuries and smoke inhalation. The prosecutor is calling that a suicide. A toxicological analysis for Mr. Sheridan revealed the presence of prescribed medication and carbon monoxide.
Mr. Sheridan was the president and CEO of the Cooper Health System at the time of his death. Mrs. Sheridan was a history teacher in the Cedar Grove and South Brunswick public school systems for more than 15 years before she retired.
The prosecutor characterized Mr. Sheridan’s demeanor in the days leading up to Sept. 28 as “out of character,” “very upset,” “withdrawn” and with “an attitude of resignation” — apparently from work-related reasons.
Mrs. Sheridan was worried and upset, the prosecutor said, because she recognized her husband “was exhibiting levels of apprehension atypical to his usual calm and deliberative demeanor.”
In its conclusion, the prosecutor’s office stated that no one was seen leaving the scene and no evidence of a break-in or theft was found. In the master bedroom, detectives found six folds of cash totaling $950, Mr. Sheridan’s wallet, wristwatch and cell phone, all undisturbed, on a nightstand. Rings remained on Mrs. Sheridan’s fingers. Other items of value — such as additional amounts of currency, jewelry, computers, electronics, and antiques — were found throughout the home and were undisturbed.
Police interviewed all four sons as to their whereabouts on Sept. 27 and the early morning hours of Sept. 28. An analysis of that cellular activity revealed that none of the sons’ cellular telephones was used in the area of the Sheridan residence during that relevant time period, and were used in other areas during the relevant time period — consistent with the statements of all four sons.
“Our parents taught us to stand up for what we believe in and to defend those who cannot defend themselves,” the sons’ statement said. “This conclusion seeks to convict our father based on little more than rank speculation. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging the conclusion announced by investigators. We will not allow our father to be convicted based on guesswork resulting from an inadequate and incomplete investigation simply because he is not here to defend himself.”
The sons and Dr. Baden maintain that Mr. Sheridan was stabbed with a knife that has not been recovered.
“Moreover, one of those wounds cut his jugular vein,” the statement said. “If this is a murder-suicide, where is that knife and why was it not recovered at the scene after multiple searches?”
Only after Dr. Baden’s autopsy did investigators acknowledge the existence of a third knife. According to the sons’ statement, it was only after Dr. Baden’s autopsy that investigators looked at the crime scene again to search for the weapon used to stab their father.
Although on Oct. 5 no additional knives were located in the master bedroom, a piece of resolidified metal, which had apparently melted during the course of the fire, was recovered. In the original search by crime scene detectives on Sept. 28, the 2-by-6.5-inch metal piece was found and photographed embedded in the hardwood floor in close proximity to where the body of Mr. Sheridan was reported by first responders to be located. State police forensic tests could not identify its original shape and purpose.
The sons are also questioning why investigators didn’t dust for fingerprints anywhere in the house and why they didn’t search for trace blood evidence outside of the bedroom or examine any of the blood outside the bedroom and how it was possible that their mother fought so hard for her life yet failed to leave a single scratch mark on her supposed killer or trace of blood on his clothes.
The sons also question why a three-foot wrought iron fire poker was found in the bedroom — a room without a fireplace — by insurance investigators a month after their parents died.
“Why was this weapon ignored by investigators given our father’s broken ribs and the lack of a fireplace in the bedroom, and what was the fire poker doing in the bedroom?” the sons ask in their statement.
They also said their father was found under an extremely heavy armoire and question how someone who supposedly committed suicide and had suffered multiple stab wounds ended up under an armoire.
“Investigators claim to have interviewed 183 people as part of their investigation,” the sons said. “They had complete access to our parents’ medical records, phone records, emails and text messages. In spite of this, they have identified no motive for our father killing himself let alone his wife of 47 years. They concede there were no marital problems, no infidelity, no health problems, no financial problems and no drugs in our father’s system. There was no note and their lives on the day they died were like any other. They had a face time conversation with their disabled grandson at 5 p.m. and our father was sending work emails at 7:30 p.m. and preparing for a meeting at the hospital the next morning.”
