Sheridan kin plan $250,000 reward, reject official findings

Convinced that Cooper Health System CEO John P. Sheridan Jr. and his wife, Joyce, were murdered on a September morning last year, the couple's four sons plan to offer a $250,000 reward for information that identifies who killed their parents.

Mark Sheridan, 41, said during a Tuesday morning conference call with reporters that the family planned to offer the money for information that can lead to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the deaths - which authorities last month ruled a murder-suicide.

Sheridan and his brothers, Matt, Dan, and Tim, have launched an attack on that determination by the Somerset County, N.J., prosecutor, whose office said evidence showed that John Sheridan, 72, stabbed his 69-year-old wife and set their Montgomery Township home on fire before he took his own life.

The seven-page summary that Prosecutor Geoffrey D. Soriano released in March set off a public feud with the family. On Monday, Mark Sheridan made public an 11-page letter to Soriano, as well as forensic reports and e-mails, in an effort to bolster the family's case that the six-month investigation was inadequate.

A spokesman for the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, who declined to comment Monday on the family's claims, did not return requests for comment Tuesday.

The family plans to file a lawsuit as early as next week to try to overturn suicide as the manner of death listed on John Sheridan's death certificate.

Zach Hosseini, spokesman for the state Medical Examiner's Office, declined to comment on the Sheridan case, citing the family's intent to file a lawsuit. But he said in an e-mail that "it is not common to receive such a request" for a change to a death certificate.

"The review of such a request would vary depending on the facts of the case," Hosseini said in his e-mail.

Mark Sheridan said demanding the change in the death certificate has nothing to do with collecting on his parents' life insurance. He said all but one of the claims have been paid. Pending is a $300,000 accidental death policy for John Sheridan that is under review, he said. The amendment the family is seeking is about the truth, not about money, he said.

In his letter Monday, Mark Sheridan's contentions included that the Prosecutor's Office ignored evidence, failed to collect evidence, and misled the family and public about circumstances surrounding the Sept. 28 deaths. He stopped short of saying the family has evidence to prove a double homicide, though the family believes that is what happened.

Russell Kolins, a veteran criminal defense investigator in Philadelphia who has no involvement in the Sheridan case, said Tuesday that questions raised by the family "warrant an independent investigation."

"In order for there to be a conclusion, you've got to exhaust all of the evidence, everything that is available to law enforcement to test, review, and analyze," Kolins said. "They have to be right."

Mark Sheridan, reiterating many of the points he made in an interview with The Inquirer on Monday, said during Tuesday's conference call that he could not think of anyone who would want to kill his parents, or why.

John Sheridan was a political insider who once served as a state transportation commissioner and who had worked on transition teams for Gov. Christie and Gov. Christie Whitman. Joyce Sheridan was a retired history teacher. The couple traveled in elite political and social circles in New Jersey.

The deaths of the Sheridans, married for 47 years and grandparents to three, shocked those who knew them.

Mark Sheridan said his parents had no problems in their relationship. That's another reason that he believes his parents were attacked by intruders that Sunday morning, when both would typically be getting ready to go antiquing.

The Prosecutor's Office noted that many valuables remained untouched, including cash and electronics.

"This wouldn't be the first time that a robbery went wrong and people left without taking what they were supposed to take," Mark Sheridan said, though he said the family doesn't know what truly happened, blaming a poor investigation.

The scene, he said, was "forensic chaos." A neighbor reported the fire, and rescue teams found the couple unresponsive in the bedroom, each with multiple stab wounds. John Sheridan was found under a heavy armoire.

Mark Sheridan said investigators had theorized to the family that the armoire likely toppled on top of John Sheridan, causing his broken ribs, when he bumped into it in trying to leave. They believe he had already set fire to the room and stabbed himself.

Mark Sheridan insisted the armoire was too heavy and bulky to tip, and noted it took two of his brothers to move it when their parents had work done on the house.

He also disputed reports that because the armoire was blocking the bedroom door, it would have prevented an intruder from leaving.

On the opposite side of the room, he said, was another door that led to a dressing room that passed through to a stairwell to the first floor. At the bottom is a mudroom that connects the house to the garage. The mudroom also has two doors leading outside, Sheridan said. The front door was locked; the rear one was not.

Sheridan said investigators failed to do a thorough examination of the house. They did not identify or locate the weapon used on John Sheridan, he said, and had to retake the scene days after releasing it in order to search for it.

Specifically, he noted, he and his brothers questioned whether authorities found all of Joyce Sheridan's jewelry and were told that investigators were searching for the items.

But it was insurance adjusters who found about 50 pieces of the jewelry in a backpack in a closet in the master suite in December - proof, the family alleges, that investigators did not thoroughly search the house. Mark Sheridan said he believes his mother had hidden the items while construction was being done on the house.

Sheridan said he holds Soriano accountable for overseeing an insufficient investigation and would fight any attempt to renominate the prosecutor, who was appointed by Gov. Christie in 2010 to a five-year term that expires in October.

Sheridan recently left his position as general counsel to the New Jersey Republican State Committee.