Investigation Reopened Into Killings Of NJ Politico, Wife: AG

NEW JERSEY — The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General reopened an investigation into the killings of a longtime New Jersey political figure and his wife. The sons of John and Joyce Sheridan never believed the original investigation's conclusion and spent years calling for a more thorough look into their parents' deaths in 2014.

John Sheridan held several roles in state government, including commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation from 1982-85. Emergency personnel responded to the Sheridans' home in Skillman on Sept. 28, 2014, for a reported fire in the upstairs bedroom. They found that John and Joyce Sheridan had both been stabbed multiple times. They were both pronounced dead — John at the scene, Joyce at the hospital.

The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office ruled in March 2015 that John killed Joyce and then himself, setting the fire to conceal evidence. But their four sons never believed it and repeatedly asked the attorney general's office to reopen the case, according to Gothamist.

After then-Gov. Chris Christie appointed a new state medical examiner in 2016, 200 politically prominent New Jerseyans wrote the new medical examiner an open letter asking that John Sheridan's death certificate get amended from suicide to "undetermined." Signees included three former governors, a former state Supreme Court justice, two former state attorneys general and a former chief New Jersey prosecutor.

State Medical Examiner Andrew Falzon changed John Sheridan's death certificate to say "undetermined" in 2017.

But that didn't end the mystery of the killings. A new investigation from the attorney general's office could offer new insight into the circumstances of the couple's death.

WNYC first reported the new investigation. The media outlet created a podcast that focused on the Sheridans' deaths and the holes in the initial inquiry.

• Related article: NJ Political Murder Mystery Is Topic Of New Podcast, 'Dead End'

The attorney general's office didn't reveal why they reopened the case.

"Our office is investigating this matter, and we will follow the evidence wherever it leads," Steve Barnes, a spokesperson for the agency, told Patch via email.

After serving in the Army for two years, John Sheridan worked in then-Gov. William T. Cahill's administration as a deputy attorney general. After Brendan Byrne, a Democrat, become governor in 1974, Sheridan became counsel to Republicans in the State Senate.

John Sheridan later served as counsel to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, leading to his appointment as state transportation commissioner in Gov. Thomas Kean's administration. He later served on NJ Transit's board for several years before returning to his private law practice. But John Sheridan returned to politics in 1993, serving on Christine Todd Whitman's transition team after she was elected governor.

At the time of John Sheridan's death, he was president of Cooper Health System. In 2017, Cooper named a building in his honor — the Sheridan Pavilion at Three Cooper Plaza in Camden.