Sheridan investigation documents detail final days and crime probe

Days before they died, John and Joyce Sheridan were going about their normal routines. They took a weekend trip to check on their vacation home in Upstate New York. He prepared for a work meeting. She made plans to cook soup with a girlfriend.

So why would 72-year-old John Sheridan, Cooper Health System's CEO, suddenly fill with "rage and passion," stab his wife, set their Montgomery Township home on fire, and then take his own life?

It was a question posed to one of the Sheridans' sons by a Somerset County investigator seeking explanations for the gruesome and puzzling Sept. 28, 2014, crime.

Unless John Sheridan "popped some kind of antipsychotic drug that shouldn't have been there, you know, accidentally, and it gave him the psychotic episode, that would make perfect sense," Detective Will Federico suggested to a Sheridan son.

More than 100 pages of law enforcement reports obtained by the Inquirer, and interviews with family members and neighbors, show that county investigators kept their focus on John Sheridan as the prime suspect in the case.

Law enforcement officials theorized it was a murder-suicide even though the couple's four sons - Mark, Matt, Dan, and Tim - described to them a couple with a strong, loving marriage of 47 years. Their parents got along, and their father showed no signs of illness or psychological problems, the sons said.

While offering a picture of the couple's last days, the documents also reveal flaws in the investigation. They provide details such as the "peach" colored shirt Sheridan was wearing the day before he died, but the reports did not note a fire poker found later in the bedroom that the sons allege could have been used as a weapon. According to the reports and family members, detectives did not collect evidence that outside experts said could be indicative of a double murder.

The documents, which were prepared by law enforcement in September-October 2014, are a fraction of the reports that exist. The Sheridan investigation was closed in March 2015 when then-Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano concluded the deaths were a murder-suicide.

In December, the Sheridan sons petitioned the state medical examiner to overturn the suicide ruling. They received a June 14 response from the state advising "we anticipate a decision on this matter within the next 30 days." No decision has been made.

After decades of employment with the state and later health care, John Sheridan had been planning his 2015 retirement from Cooper. He also was meeting with staff about a state report that singled out the high mortality rate of a Cooper cardiac surgeon.

Dan Sheridan said his father was "under a lot of stress" because of the report. He was worried about bad publicity, Matt Sheridan said. As a CEO, Sheridan had dealt with stressful issues for more than 40 years, said Mark Sheridan. None believed work demands would cause their father to kill their mother.

John Sheridan never lost his temper, the siblings said. Their parents rarely argued. As Matt Sheridan recalled, his father would "acquiesce."

Joyce Sheridan, 69, a retired history teacher, was struggling with her health, but recovering well from recent spinal surgeries. The Friday night before her death, she had gone out to dinner with a female friend. Another friend was coming over on Monday to make a "giant" batch of soup.

The previous weekend, the couple drove to Upstate New York and closed their 1780s vacation house, furnished with antiques from that era.

At their Somerset County home, the cleaning ladies kept their twice-a-week schedule, the landscaper (a relative) aerated the lawn, heating oil was delivered, and the house was sprayed for ants.

Preparations had started for Halloween. In the days before they died, Matt Sheridan, who lived with his parents, spent long hours helping decorate for the holiday. Every witch and black cat had a special spot and the intricate village in the living room took hours to wire.

At noon on Saturday, Sept. 27, before Matt left for a fishing trip with a friend, he stuck his head back inside the house and told his mother he would be back Sunday. "Be safe, don't do anything stupid out on the rocks," she told him.

That same day, John Sheridan went grocery shopping, buying soup ingredients, including pumpkin, squash, and broth. He worked at home on Cooper issues and FaceTimed his son, Tim, and grandson early that evening.

After preparing dinner, he left the pans upside down to dry on the kitchen counter. Usually, he left the two knives used most often - a butcher knife and a serrated bread knife - next to the pans.

Those knives were in charred bedding when the couple were found badly burned and with multiple stab wounds Sunday morning.

The butcher knife had been used to kill Joyce Sheridan. The weapon that caused John Sheridan's wounds has not been recovered.

Early in the investigation, Detective Federico told the sons murder-suicide did not make sense, but investigators would search for "every hair." The person who did it was filled with "rage and passion," he said.

In his interviews with the family, Federico asked: Would anyone want to hurt their parents? Was Joyce Sheridan keeping a secret? Was John Sheridan buckling under work pressure? Could he have a brain tumor? Did he have an adverse reaction to medication?

"I'm with you. Everything that I've learned about your father says no way, not him," Federico told one of the sons, adding if the evidence does not reveal an intruder, "there's got to be some sort of mental issue that happened. Ah, you know, wrong medication . . . sudden onset of deliria."

A team of detectives investigated John Sheridan's activity and behavior the week before the fire. Montgomery Township Detective Brian Hofacker assisted Detective Kristen Houck of the prosecutor's office to determine whether Sheridan purchased green wooden matches while at the ShopRite on Saturday. Based on the surveillance video, Sheridan's transaction with the cashier there "appeared normal." He did not buy matches that day, or since July, according to receipts.

After Sheridan left the grocery store, he stopped at the Wine Cellar, which does not sell matches. At the nearby True Value, a cashier recalled a customer bought several boxes of matches that Sunday, the day of the fire, but there was no indication Sheridan had been there that weekend, according to Hofacker's report.

Lt. Joseph Walsh, another investigator from the prosecutor's office, wrote in his report that the crime scene was confined to the bedroom.

"As I walked through the first floor, I could see nothing damaged or out of place. The first floor appeared as if it was in the process of being decorated for Halloween."

Walsh, with 24 years of law enforcement experience, documented the green matches, a gas container, and pour pattern of accelerant on the floor.

In the Oct. 7 supplemental report, Walsh notes blood stains but not blood spatter. The fire poker, which outside experts said may have caused John Sheridan's five broken ribs and lateral bruising, was not included in the report. The poker was found among debris by an insurance adjuster months after the deaths.

The initial reports by investigators also do not note that a tall armoire had fallen. The armoire was included in a seven-page press release issued by the prosecutor in March 2015 with the murder-suicide conclusion. John Sheridan's broken ribs and bruises were consistent with the armoire falling on top of him, the release said.

Hofacker's report includes that there is an "audio visual recording" captured by a camera affixed to the helmet of one of the first firefighters to enter the bedroom. Authorities have not said what can be seen in the video.

The prosecutor's office, medical examiner's office, and the New Jersey Attorney General's Office have declined to discuss the case with the Inquirer.

Soriano - removed from office this year because Gov. Christie said he lost confidence in the prosecutor - has repeatedly declined to be interviewed.

The new acting prosecutor, Michael Robertson, said he will not decide whether the case should be reopened until the medical examiner determines if the suicide ruling should be changed.

The Sheridans say they are frustrated by delays.

"The failure of the medical examiner to address our concerns has taken an incredible toll on my brothers and me," Mark Sheridan said. "The problem seems to be that nobody wants to do their job."

bboyer@phillynews.com 856-779-3838 @BBBoyer