Son charged in parents’ murder in Barnegat double homicide, prosecutor says
BARNEGAT− The son of two people found dead in their Lincoln Avenue home has been charged in their murders, announced Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer on Thursday night.
Michael Mulgrew, 34, also of Barnegat, is charged with two counts of murder, and one count each of unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose — specifically a knife. He has been processed and taken to the Ocean County Jail in Toms River.
Eugene Mulgrew, 71, and Cheryl, 69, were each stabbed to death in their bedroom, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to multiple public records, Michael Mulgrew lived with his parents.
Police were dispatched to the home about 11 a.m. to assist medical personnel with what the Prosecutor’s Office described as “a mobile outreach at the residence.”
As the officers approached the home, they noticed a man walking away from the house. Once at the house, the officers noticed “red staining — which appeared to be blood — on the front door of the residence.”
The officers went inside and “found blood in various areas of the home,” all according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
“As the officers entered the bedroom, they located the deceased bodies of two victims with apparent stab wounds to their upper torsos. The victims were later identified as Eugene and Cheryl Mulgrew. The officers also observed a knife in the vicinity of the bedroom.”
The man who was observed walking away from the home was identified by prosecutors as the victims’ son — he was later located by Barnegat Police in the area of West Bay Avenue and Gunning River Road. He was taken into custody without incident.
An investigation conducted by the Major Crime Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office, Barnegat Police Department Detective Bureau, and Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigations Unit, has determined that Mulgrew is responsible for the murders of his mother and father, the statement said.
He remains in the county jail pending a detention hearing.
As county and local investigators processed the scene, police blocked off the entrance to Lincoln Avenue. Additionally, as a precaution, school district officials in Barnegat, Waretown and Stafford ordered “shelter-in-place” restrictions for their campuses about noon.
Joseph Saxton, Jr., principal of the nearby Robert L. Horbelt Intermediate School on Burr Street, told parents and guardians in an email Thursday that the order came when an intruder was observed breaching the perimeter of the campus.
“During the day, we received a report that a teacher glimpsed someone in the wooded area at the back of our school,” Saxton said in the email. “The police were immediately contacted and they came to search the area. I have no further information to report except that the police did pull away in time for the buses to dismiss.”
The school is nearly a 30-minute walk from Lincoln Avenue, but less than a 10-minute walk from where the suspect was captured by police.
All shelter-in-place orders were lifted just before 1 p.m. Thursday.
Contact Erik Larsen: elarsen@gannettnj.com; Ken Serrano: kserrano@gannettnj.com; Jenna Calderón: jcalderon@gannettnj.com; and Sarah Griesemer: sgriesemer@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Arrest made in double homicide on Lincoln Ave. in Barnegat:
