Murdered Woman's Brother: She Was My Best Friend, We Were A Team

LAKEWOOD, NJ — Christy and CJ Keronen were as close as siblings can be, getting through the challenges that life has presented them, as a team.

When their mother, Corrine, died nine years ago, they pulled together to help their family, including their father, get through the devastating loss of their matriarch, "the backbone of our family," CJ Keronen said.

When Christy started talking about starting her own cleaning business and asked CJ to help her, he agreed. They listened to each others' problems, and helped each other in myriad ways.

"Christy and I have lived together virtually our whole lives," CJ Keronen said in an email Thursday afternoon. "And now for the first time, I'm helpless to save her."

That's because his 29-year-old sister was found dead Wednesday, less than a day after she went missing, in the Jackson Township home of a man whom she'd known for about a year. The lifeless body of that man, Tyree Johnson, 32, was found hanging from the bucket of a Comcast truck parked in the parking lot of a group of offices on South Holmdel Road in Holmdel Township earlier Wednesday, according to Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

Christy Keronen's body was found in Johnson's home on Lexington Court when police from Holmdel and Jackson went to make family notification of Johnson's death, Della Fave said. She had suffered head trauma, Della Fave said.

Authorities are investigating it as a murder-suicide, Della Fave said Thursday.

Read more: Police Release Details Of Murder-Suicide In Holmdel And Jackson

"I lost my sister, my best friend," CJ Keronen said in a post on Facebook on Thursday. "Words can't even explain what I'm feeling right now."

By email, CJ said his sister was the kind of person who helped anyone and everyone.

"She did things out of the kindness of her heart and was never about receiving any kind of recognition to do so," he said, adding that there was no one story that summed up her kindness.

"Countless times I've seen her give money to the homeless hanging outside our local Wawa, lending money to friends whenever they needed, even if she was short on funds herself," said CJ, who is six years older than Christy. "Mostly though she was great at listening to other people's problems and helping them through their situation. Whether it was relationship advice, finding work, anything that was ever asked of her, she felt compelled to do what should could."

She also knew what she wanted and didn't want, CJ said.

"Christy had been talking to me about starting her own cleaning company," he said. His sister, a 2005 graduate of Howell High School, had earned a medical assistant certification from Star Career Academy, but had been working with CJ cleaning offices more recently.

"She's been cleaning up around the offices from where we work as was her job, and really wanted to start something for herself," he said. "She'd started creating lists of supplies she might need, searched for rates, everything that she felt she would need to get started. She even asked me to help her run the scheduling and financial side, which I obviously agreed that I would."

Her plan for the business was simply an extension of the team they had already become; CJ said that after their mother died, "Christy and I were responsible for keeping us all together."

"With my dad getting older, now 70, it has been up to us to keep things running," CJ said. "Working, cooking, cleaning. Making sure our bills and rent get paid. It all fell on us, but as a team, we made it work."

CJ said he did not know much about his sister's relationship with Johnson, beyond that they had known each other for more than a year and had a few mutual friends. But his sister, who did not appear to have a boyfriend from her Facebook profile, had been clear that she only viewed Johnson as a friend, CJ said.

"I often times would overhear her venting to friends about how she's not looking for a relationship right now, and how Tyree needs to understand this or they can no longer be friends," CJ said.

The last conversation he had with his sister was mundane. The siblings had the day off from work due to Rosh Hashanah, and she left the house to run some errands.

"The last conversation I had with her was just to ask her what she had planned for the day," CJ said. "She mentioned that she still needed to look for a dress for a wedding we were supposed to go to this Friday. I thought nothing of it really, when I came downstairs a few hours later, she had already left."

When she had not come home Tuesday night, and missed work Wednesday without calling to let anyone know, CJ began searching for her, and filed a missing persons report with Lakewood police.

It was just hours later that authorities notified him that Christy had been found dead, according to both CJ and Della Fave.

"The hardest thing I ever had to do in my life was to explain to my father that his baby girl is dead," CJ said in the Facebook post where he told friends his sister was found dead.

Friends responding to his post remarked with comments about Christy's kindness and warmth.

"Your sister was an amazing person and I was so lucky to have experienced that," Brittany Alfaro said.

"Christy will always be remembered for her big heart & great laugh!!" Destinie Brannigan wrote. "She was always the warmest & sweetest person. My heart hurts for you & your Dad & I am so sorry. May she rest in peace."

"I'm doing my best to hold it together while still trying to get the word out on how wonderful a person she was," CJ said by email. "She deserved so much more out of life ... And now for the first time, I'm helpless to save her."

"I love you Christy Keronen ... May you forever rest in peace," CJ Keronen said in his Facebook post.

Photo of Christy Keronen, from her Facebook page, used with permission of CJ Keronen. Candle image via Shutterstock