MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Joyce and John Sheridan 52:53

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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 Meadow 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 doorknob, 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. Gotcha. 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 Sokolov, both Mark and Matt pack up, 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 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 like talking to him, they asked to search Matt's car with like zero explanation.

So Mark has like 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 threatened 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 going to 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 M.E. 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 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 M.E. 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 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, there's...

They're saying somewhere shallow. A cut to your jugular that's like partially responsible for your death is like 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.

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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

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, like, 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. Mm-hmm. 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? Mm-hmm.

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 the second autopsy in front of the assistant medical examiner who performed the first one. 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, like, 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 medal 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 realizes

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 looked 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, no, 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. Right.

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?

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 brother 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.

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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. 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, that neighbor said 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 two, 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 and 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 made them. 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 going to collect everything. What? 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 25th, 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 weigh in anyways. But finally, in March 2015, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office fills that information void a little bit when they release 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 poor 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.

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 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 either.

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. 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. 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 all

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, or at least 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. Right.

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,

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 Bodden, 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." End quote.

scathing. 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 going to get hurt. And say it was John. If there was an injury on him, it might have been covered by those burns. Right. 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, but

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. Then 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? Well, again, like, 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

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. 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 very beginning, before they decided it was a suicide with seemingly little to no evidence. The brothers are told to talk to the state M.E.'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. And 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,

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 process.

Because it doesn't seem like these investigators actually, like, collect anything or test any DNA or anything left in the house. They just kind of, like, 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.

But then when pressed about Joyce and John, he says he doesn't, quote, 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.

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. Okay.

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. Bodden 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.

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Toyota, let's go places. Wouldn't it be nice if we were always in control of the when and where in our lives? Yes, I'll get you those figures today. Mom, check it out. I learned a new song.

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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? 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. Yeah.

Now, I'm going to 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 happened to us. 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, Burt, I'm going to have you read this one, too. It is just so powerful. Okay, he writes, quote,

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 in 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 the 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 hitmen. 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, 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 case 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 cover up 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. Because 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.

And 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 Crime Junkie Podcast. 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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