Cooper CEO's bedroom was set ablaze - but who did it, and why?
The Somerset County Prosecutors Office said the fire Sunday morning that killed him and wife was intentionally set.
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SOMEONE SET a fire in the bedroom that Cooper University Hospital CEO/president John P. Sheridan Jr. shared with his wife, Joyce, authorities said - but how the couple died remained a mystery last night.
The Somerset County (N.J.) Prosecutor's Office, said in a statement released yesterday that the Sunday-morning fire at the home on Meadow Run Drive in Montgomery Township had been "intentionally set," but no other information was released.
The prosecutor's office did not say how Sheridan and his wife had died, or answer any other questions about the fire or the condition of the bedroom, saying that the investigation was active and that laboratory results were pending.
The tragedy's twist heaped additional pain on the couple's four sons, Mark, Matt, Dan and Tim.
"We cannot fathom, much less explain, the circumstances of their passing," the men said in a statement. "Losing a parent is painful. Losing them both has been excruciating and we ask everyone to respect our need to privately grieve, process our loss, and support each other as the family our parents raised us to be."
Authorities responded to a 9-1-1 call reporting a fire at the home at 6:13 a.m. Sunday, and found John Sheridan, 72, and Joyce Sheridan, 69, both unresponsive in the master bedroom. John Sheridan was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife died later at University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro.
John Sheridan joined Cooper in July 2005 after working as a lawyer and in state government for decades. He was commissioner of transportation under New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean. He was appointed president and CEO of the Cooper Health System in February 2008.
George E. Norcross III, chairman of the Cooper Health board of trustees, said in a statement Sunday that Sheridan "was a friend, a mentor and a role model. There is no one else who has had as big an impact on me as John did except my father. I will miss him very much."
Joyce Sheridan was a retired teacher with the South Brunswick School District.
Tipsters should call the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office Major Crimes Unit at 908-231-7100 or the Montgomery Township Police Department at 908-359-3222.