EPISODE 3: A Bloody Fingerprint, A Bent Fire Poker, and Mystery DNA

Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery

WNYC

Jersey, Sheridan, Murders, And, New, Crime, John, Joyce, True, Politics, True Crime

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The knife used to kill John Sheridan is just the first of many clues casting doubt on law enforcement’s conclusion of murder suicide. A newspaper crime reporter, a veteran homicide detective out of Philly, and a whistleblower point to significant pieces of evidence that have been disregarded—even thrown into a dumpster. Although Mark has the state attorney general and the county prosecutor on direct dial, he still gets stonewalled. The authorities assure the political insider that his parents had a dark secret, which will eventually come to light. Mark isn’t convinced. Instead, as he goes through his parent’s papers, he stumbles into a different fight.

New voices interviewed in episode:

• Barbara Boyer, reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer

• Eddie Rocks, veteran homicide detective, retired from the Philadelphia police.

• Lawrence Kobilinski, professor emeritus, department of sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York

• Professor Keith Taylor, professor, Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (and a former NYPD detective)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode describes a violent crime.
0:06.0	Mark Sheridan was watching his daughter compete in a horse show when he got the call.
0:11.0	It was from Dr. Michael Bodden, the medical examiner who had performed a second autopsy on the body of John Sheridan a few days after his death, and he had news for Mark.
0:22.0	There was no knife found at the crime scene that matched his father's stab wounds.
0:31.0	And I said, well, how can that be? He says, bark, I'm telling you.
0:35.0	Dr. Lillevoir agrees. We don't have the murder weapon for your father.
0:39.0	Bodden said he spoke with Eddie Lillevoir, the state assistant medical examiner.
0:44.0	You know, he's the guy who did the first autopsy.
0:47.0	And Lillevoir came up with the same result.
0:51.0	And Bodden said, this information shouldn't be a surprise to the detectives.
0:56.0	Because, apparently, Lillevoir told this to the investigators right after he did his autopsy.
1:03.0	He told the prosecutor's office about this, and they told him not to worry about it. This is a murder suicide.
1:10.0	That means the first autopsy did find that there was no knife matching John Sheridan's wounds.
1:16.0	And the detectives appeared to have blown it off.
1:21.0	So, Mark immediately hops on the phone. Remember, he's the lawyer for the governor's election campaign.
1:27.0	So he calls the attorney general, John Hoffman, and tells him he wants the AG's office involved with the investigation.
1:35.0	And then Mark calls the county prosecutor, Jeff Soriano, and tells him to get his detectives back to the house to re-examine the crime scene.
1:45.0	They told us we're going to find out that mom is a boyfriend, dad is a girlfriend.
1:51.0	There's money problems, there's health problems. And we're going to find something out that'll explain all of this.
1:57.0	When we do, we'll tell you, and you'll have an answer as to why this happened.
2:01.0	So when Bodden calls me back, you know, part of the reason I'm calling Soriano and Hoffman right away is,
2:08.0	you know, I've got egg all over my face with my brothers and everybody in the family.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.