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New Jersey AG Opens Probe Into ‘Very Unusual’ 2014 Murders

John and Joyce Sheridan, who had deep ties to New Jersey politics, were found fatally stabbed in their bedroom, which had been set on fire.

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation into the “very unusual” unsolved murder of a prominent couple in 2014 after family and friends spent years denouncing the initial finding that it was a murder-suicide. The murders of John and Joyce Sheridan are the subject of a new podcast, “Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery,” which argued that the case was never thoroughly investigated. The Sheridans, who had deep ties to New Jersey politics, were found fatally stabbed in their bedroom, which had been set on fire. “The circumstances of their deaths were very, very unusual. And for the Somerset County prosecutor’s office to walk into the crime scene and say, ‘oh, this is obviously a murder-suicide’ before any investigation took place was criminal negligence,” Ed Stier, an investigative attorney who helped create the Division of Criminal Justice at the attorney general’s office, said in the podcast. Several former governors and former attorneys general had joined the family in calling for the case to be investigated by the state. A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office finally confirmed Tuesday that they had heeded those calls, saying in a statement: “Our office is investigating this matter, and we will follow the evidence wherever it leads.”