COPS: PREP SCHOOL GRAD, 31, USES GOLF CLUB TO KILL BROTHER & CAT IN $6,300 APARTMENT
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
11:16 p.m. Saturday. Princeton police respond to a 911 call about a dead body and a fire in an apartment building. The caller remains cryptic, refusing to answer the dispatcher’s questions about who is dead, why they are dead, or who owns the apartment.
Police and first responders surround the building, but nothing prepares them for what they find inside.
Matthew Hertgen, 31, answers the door. Inside, officers see a bloody, unresponsive young man with blunt force and laceration injuries covering his body. He is pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators note that one of his eyes has been removed. Nearby, they find a bloody plate, fork, and knife. Officers also discover a bloody golf club and what appears to be the charred remains of a cat. The victim is identified as 26-year-old Joseph Hertgen.
Matthew Hertgen is immediately arrested for the murder of his younger brother. The discovery of the bloody plate leads police to believe that, in addition to beating Joseph to death, Hertgen ate his eye. Princeton police have not disclosed a possible motive for the attack. Hertgen is also charged with animal cruelty and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
The Princeton community is stunned. Residents describe Joseph’s death as devastating and tragic. A police source says no one could have foreseen such violence. Matthew Hertgen, they say, came from what appeared to be a stable, all-American family, with no signs he was capable of such brutality—especially against his own brother.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Sam Bassett - Criminal Defense Attorney at Minton, Bassett, Flores & Carsey, Former President of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Educational Institute, Long-Time Faculty member of the Texas Criminal Trial College (Huntsville, TX), MBFC.com, Facebook: MintonBassett, Instagram: @MBFC_Law
- Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski - Forensic Psychologist, Author: “Darksides;" YouTube: "Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski, Forensic Psychologist"
- Fil Waters - Former homicide detective for the Houston Police Department, President & CEO of Kindred spirits Investigations & Security, Inc.
- Dr. Jan Gorniak - Former Medical Examiner, Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner (Las Vegas, NV), Board Certified Forensic Pathologist, World Peace Forensic Consulting, LLC
- Karen Wall - Senior Local Editor at Patch Media [covering the Jersey Shore region], Website: patch.com; X: @karenwall1966, Facebook: karen.e.wall,
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. |
| 0:06.6 | According to cops, a prep school grad, now 31, some would say a rich, spoiled brat, |
| 0:14.5 | uses a golf club to kill his own little brother and the family cat in their $6,300 a month apartment. |
| 0:28.6 | That's right. Prep school grad, now 31, according to cops, uses a golf club to murder his own brother and the family cat in their |
| 0:41.5 | Lux apartment. |
| 0:43.3 | I'm Nancy Grace. |
| 0:44.1 | This is crime stories. |
| 0:45.3 | Thank you for being with us. |
| 0:47.1 | Tragedy unfolds in the preppy college town of Princeton, New Jersey when ex-university |
| 0:52.1 | of Michigan soccer star Joseph H Hurtkin, is found |
| 0:55.0 | dead in his apartment. |
| 0:57.2 | How can this be in an idyllic setting? |
| 1:02.5 | Money, rolling in money, right there in the shadows of an Ivy League institution. |
| 1:10.3 | One brother allegedly clubs the other brother dead |
| 1:15.1 | with the golf club, then stabs him multiple times, and then murders the family. Cat, listen. |
| 1:22.6 | Flashing lights and sirens break the usual silence outside the luxury of Michelle Mews |
| 1:26.7 | apartments just off Princeton University campus. |
| 1:29.7 | Around 11.15 p.m., police answer a 911 call to the nearly $7,000 a month complex, reporting a death and a fire. |
| 1:36.9 | Units in the building sell for as much as $2 million. As responders arrive, flames are not visible, and police work to gain access to the building. |
| 1:44.8 | Trueer words were never spoken, money can't buy love or happiness, a $7,000 a month apartment, and they can't be happy. |
| 1:55.9 | With every luxury, they could be provided still. |
| 2:05.6 | Brother kills a brother, a story as old as Genesis. Joining me an all-star panel to make sense of what we are learning tonight, straight out to |
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