A new Somerset County Prosecutor being sworn Monday may decide to reopen the case.
MONTGOMERY -- Experts told the Philadelphia Inquirer a new Somerset County Prosecutor being sworn in Monday should reopen the investigation into the 2014 deaths of former Cooper University Health System CEO John P. Sheridan Jr. and his wife.
The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office ruled in March 2015 that Sheridan, 72, killed his wife Joyce, 69, before setting their Montgomery Township home on fire and taking his own life. The couple had been married for 47 years.
Lawrence Koblinsky, chairman of the department of sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the state or incoming Somerset County Prosecutor Michael Robertson should ask the FBI to investigate. Mark Sheridan, a son of the Sheridans, agreed that an outside agency should handle the case, saying the Somerset Prosecutor's Office "should be kept as far away from the investigation as possible."
New probe sought in Sheridan deaths
The couple's four sons have questioned the prosecutor's office's conclusions. They filed an affidavit in September from pathologist Michael Baden saying the case appears to be a homicide, not a murder-suicide.
John Farmer, a former New Jersey attorney general who said John Sheridan was a mentor, said there was not enough evidence to label Sheridan a murderer. Among the biggest missing pieces is that investigators never recovered a weapon that inflicted Sheridan's wounds.
A group of 200 prominent New Jersey residents released a letter in February asking for the investigation to be reopened. The letter said the family would offer a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whomever killed the Sheridans.
Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.