A woman found guilty of killing her father and his girlfriend at her father’s Long Beach Island home was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison Friday, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced.
Sherry Lee Heffernan, 57, of Landenberg, Pennsylvania was found guilty on Mar. 1 of murder and weapons offenses in the deaths of her father John Enders, 87, of Surf City and his girlfriend, Francois Pitoy, 75, of Manchester, after a four-week trial.
“This defendant will spend the rest of her life in prison,” Billhimer said in a press release Friday. “This is an appropriate sentence and we are hopeful that this brings some measure of closure to the family and friends of John and Francois.”
Surf City police found a grisly scene at the North 7th Street residence after they responded to a call for a wellness check from Pitoy’s family on Oct. 3, 2021, according to authorities. The officers found the bodies of Enders and Pitoy inside the home and a crime scene that included bloody footprints and a bloody glove, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Autopsies over the next two days concluded both Enders and Pitoy had been the victims of homicide, officials said. Enders’ cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma, multiple stab wounds, a gunshot wound to the face and a severed carotid artery, according to authorities. Pitoy’s cause of death was determined to be multiple stab wounds and a gunshot wound to the face, authorities said.
Surveillance footage at the home captured someone entering and exiting the house the night of the murders and then leaving in a large RV, authorities said. Neighbors told investigators that Heffernan and her father argued a lot and that she had recently been removed from Enders’ will, authorities said.
Detectives also learned that Heffernan was a realtor and had recently argued with her father after he refused to use her as the listing agent for the sale of his North 7th Street house. It was under contract to be sold for $1.99 million at the time of the killings.
During the investigation, authorities learned that Heffernan owned a 28-foot Winnebago RV with matching license plates that had been tracked along the Garden State Parkway the night of the murders. Dried blood was also found in the RV and Heffernan’s son told authorities that he believed his mother had taken an overnight trip to Long Beach Island around the time of the killings, court documents show.
Heffernan was arrested by Pennsylvania State Troopers at her home in Landenberg on Oct. 4, 2021, and was extradited to New Jersey on Oct. 20, 2021. She has been lodged in the Ocean County Jail since.
Enders’ house was de-listed, and eventually sold for $1.7 million in 2022, records show.
Heffernan’s defense attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Friday afternoon.
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Matthew Enuco may be reached at Menuco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Matt on X.
