Family says prominent lawyer was murdered, and did not kill his wife
John Sheridan Jr. was a prominent lawyer in New Jersey, with a son who is also a lawyer and a brother who is a federal judge.
So when authorities concluded that the former state transportation commissioner, prosecutor, lobbyist and hospital administrator had stabbed his 69-year-old wife to death at their home before committing suicide himself, at age 72, the family was not without resources to counter what members viewed as a gross injustice.
“It’s the goodness in people’s lives that you hang on to,’’ U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan told the New York Times (reg. req.), which published a lengthy Sunday magazine story about the case. ‘‘The prosecutor’s conclusion destroyed their legacy and the good that John and Joyce had done in their lives.’’
Although authorities have closed the case as a murder-suicide, the family and experts they hired cite troubling discrepancies as they seek to reopen it. Two knives were found at the scene, but a third one that medical examiners say wounded John Sheridan was not recovered. And if only one perpetrator was involved, why did he or she switch knives?
There was no suicide note, and the couple’s bodies were found in their burning bedroom. But if John Sheridan killed himself, why bother to set the fire? That’s typically a method used to try to conceal a crime by individuals who are seeking to avoid responsibility.
Authorities attributed his blunt-force trauma injuries, including broken ribs, to an armoire that fell on him. But a fireplace poker found in another room could have been responsible, the newspaper says. Meanwhile, John Sheridan’s wife, Joyce, who had health problems, likely could not have inflicted any of the significant injuries he suffered.
And, contrary to what investigators said as the case was first unfolding, there was no apparent motive for Sheridan suddenly to kill his wife after nearly 50 years of marriage—no financial issue, no affair and a seemingly happy relationship.
If Sheridan had committed the 2014 murder-suicide at their home outside Princeton, his executive skills would not have led to such a sloppy, disorganized crime scene, contends his son, Mark, who is also a lawyer.
“I’ve said to the prosecutor, ‘It’s bad enough you’re calling my father a murderer, but you’re also calling him a moron, as though he weren’t smart enough to work this out,’ ’’ Mark Sheridan told the Times. ‘‘ ‘You’re telling me this was planned, but he’s better than that.’ This would be the worst plan he ever came up with.’’
A Rutgers University web page provides an interview transcript with extensive details about Sheridan’s background.
