PRINCETON, NJ — The preppy soccer star brothers on the middle of a surprising fratricide case in an upscale New Jersey residence had been each described by their former coach as “nice youngsters” from a “top-notch household” — as questions swirl about how such an unthinkable homicide may have occurred in an all-American family.
Matt and Joe Hertgen had been by all accounts born right into a charmed life — blessed with beauty, a rich tech exec father and enviable athletic skills. However an unexplained darkness crept into Matt’s life that culminated in him brutally stabbing and bashing his youthful brother to demise — then setting the household cat on fireplace, based on legislation enforcement.
“It’s extremely tragic. Matthew Hertgen got here from what seemed to be an ideal, all-American household. Nobody may have predicted that one thing like this may occur. To have it finish in such violence is surprising, and the lack of his brother Joseph is devastating,” a high-ranking police supply mentioned.
“The Hertgens are good folks,” Joseph Mahon, 50, who coached each brothers at Toms River North Excessive Faculty, advised The Submit.
“His mother and pop are nice. They handled me very properly. They had been nice to me and the boys, something I might ask for them to do, they might do — on and off the sphere.”
He mentioned the accused killer was, “Very clever, nice grades … Very gifted.”
Mahon mentioned he heard of the horrific homicide when a buddy known as him.
“It’s devastating,” he mentioned, noting that each he and former teammates of Joe — or “Joey” to those that knew him — are “gutted” by his sudden demise. “I simply can’t wrap my head round it proper now.”
Mahon spoke glowingly of Joe’s skills as a pupil athlete. The 26-year-old went from Toms River to the College of Michigan soccer staff.
“He was our greatest participant. He was our man. He was a frontrunner. He did it within the classroom and on the sphere. He made Toms River North a greater place to be,” Mahon recalled.
“For me to return to work and see him strolling down the hallways, he all the time had a smile on his face, and I believe anybody who you speak to will say that.”
Matt and Joe — in addition to their eldest brother, David Jr., — had been standout athletes who grew up in a $1.1 million residence within the shore city earlier than the household uprooted and moved to tony Princeton.
The homicide occurred on the household residence in Michelle Mews residences — a main location within the faculty city, the place items can run $2 million.
David Jr., 34, the eldest brother, was a minor league golfer who graduated from Coastal Carolina College with a BA in finance. Center brother Matt, who’s going through life in jail if convicted of homicide prices, performed soccer at elite Wesleyan College — the place tuition runs practically $70,000 per 12 months.
However Joey, 26, who cops say was brutally murdered contained in the household’s high-end residence Saturday, outshined all of them, racking up distinguished soccer awards beginning in highschool and persevering with his excellence each within the classroom and on the sphere at Michigan, the place he was a three-time Educational all-Massive Ten earlier than graduating in 2020.
“The information and circumstances surrounding the demise of Joey Hertgen is unspeakably unhappy and tragic. We mourn the passing of one in all our personal — a beloved former pupil athlete and buddy to many — and categorical our deepest condolences and sympathies to everybody who knew and cherished Joey,” a Toms River Regional Faculties spokesman advised The Submit in a press release.
The brothers had been raised by their mother and father Debra Hertgen and their father, David, who has spent a long time working at WiLine Networks — a high-tech agency based mostly in Princeton with an estimated annual income of $25 million to $100 million — and at the moment serves as its President and Chief Monetary Officer, based on his LinkedIn.
However the boys’ once-bright future is now in tatters, with Matt sitting in a Mercer County jail cell and cops saying he used a knife and golf membership to slash and beat his little brother to demise — even setting the household cat ablaze within the alleged assault — and his motive for the grisly alleged crime nonetheless unsure.
“It was grotesque. It was approach overboard, he even killed the cat, setting him on fireplace,” a legislation enforcement supply on the scene.
Matt, whose faculty athlete portraits present a clean-cut, smiling younger man, seems in police mugshots sporting a scraggly beard and a vacant expression after the alleged homicide, which befell on the expensive Michelle Mews residence constructing in Princeton, the place items can fetch upwards of $2 million.
Requested if something ever appeared “off” about Matt, Mahon mentioned no, and that he had “a number of mates” in highschool, calling the accused brother killer “a tough employee” and “a really, superb participant himself.”
Joe graduated with a bachelor’s in finance and accounting from Michigan College’s Stephen M. Ross enterprise faculty, then labored as an analyst with Purple Financial institution, NJ-based asset administration agency Locust Level Capital, the corporate web site mentioned.
Apart from a couple of site visitors tickets and a February 2017 drunk driving arrest, his brother Matt principally saved his nostril clear.
Authorities have charged Matt with first-degree homicide, weapons offenses and animal cruelty.
If convicted, he faces as much as 30 years to life in jail.
Prosecutors mentioned Joey’s official reason behind demise might be decided pending the outcomes of an post-mortem.
Extra reporting by Craig McCarthy.
