The Princeton, New Jersey, male known as a celeb trainee in senior highschool that’s at the moment charged of eliminating his sibling and a members of the family pet cat probably had a psychological wellness break down that inevitably broken his members of the family, in response to a lawful skilled.
Matthew Hertgen, 31, is charged of killing his 26-year-old sibling, Joseph Hertgen, within the members of the family’s Princeton home, purportedly with a blade and golf membership. He is likewise billed with pet viciousness pertaining to the fatality of a pet cat.
One of Matthew Hertgen’s buddies from Toms River High School knowledgeable Fox News Digital that he has “nothing bad to say” concerning the earlier soccer gamer, that occurred to look at at Wesleyan University inConnecticut Joseph Hertgen likewise performed soccer at Toms River previous to he was employed to the University of Michigan.
“He was just a cool kid who played soccer, got good grades, funny,” the pal said, together with that “Matt was a cool guy” and the present data “just doesn’t sound like him.”
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Matthew Hertgen’s aged picture within the 2011 Toms River North High School yearbook. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
Matthew Hertgen exhibits up in courtroom for a terror listening to onFeb 27. (Mercer County)
But that needed to do with 14 years earlier, when each Matthew and Joseph had their total lives prematurely of them. One senior highschool yearbook internet web page reveals that Matthew Hertgen, along with yet another girls schoolmate, had been elected “Best All Around.”
An picture from the 2011 Toms River North High School yearbook applications Matthew Hertgen with a classmate the place they had been each known as “Best All Around.” (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
More these days, Joseph was functioning as an knowledgeable at Locust Point Capital in Red Bank on the time of his fatality. Matthew’s specialist job stays imprecise.
In May and September of in 2014, Matthew shared some troubling visuals verse together with uncommon summary artwork work on his Facebook account.
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Joseph Hertgen’s aged picture within the 2016 Toms River North High School yearbook. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
“These are brilliant individuals. The intellectual ability is there,” lawyer Daniel Gotlin of Gotlin & & Jaffe in New York knowledgeable Fox News Digital of the Hertgen siblings, but he included that Matthew “obviously” had some “mental health issues.”
Gotlin, that isn’t related to the Hertgen scenario, effectively tried a psychological wellness safety in 2014 whereas standing for a male charged of fatally stabbing his mother. He thinks Matthew’s public protectors will definitely consider a insanity enchantment for the 31-year-old suspect, which will surely assure that he’s maintained within the guardianship of a psychological wellness heart versus jail up till and if he’s found out to not be a hazard to tradition.
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General sight of the Michelle Mews actual property facility in Princeton, N.J., onFeb 26, 2025. Matthew Hertgen is affirmed to have truly killed his sibling, Joseph, inside their home. (Kevin Downs for Fox News Digital)
“There’s absolutely no doubt he’s got a phychiatric disorder,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of physical evidence they have on him, but if [prosecutors] have got a good case, you’ve got to look at a psychiatric defense.”
Gotlin thinks it’s “very unlikely this guy would see the light of day” if he had been to be devoted to a psychological wellness heart.
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Joseph “Joey” Hertgen indications with the University of Michigan as a soccer gamer. (Toms River Regional School District)
The protection lawyer saved in thoughts the chance of schizophrenia, which normally exhibits up in males after they stay of their late youngsters and really early 20s with their late 20s.
Hertgen confirmed up principally for a distant pretrial apprehension listening to in Mercer County on Thursday early morning. His members of the family was not current.
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An picture from the 2011 Toms River North High School yearbook applications Matthew Hertgen enjoying soccer for the establishment group. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
Assistant deputy public protector Jason Matey, aide district legal professional Tim McCann and Judge Amber Gibbs inevitably decided to reschedule for March 6 to allow each district attorneys and the safety much more time to gather exploration, or particulars concerning Hertgen’s scenario.
Princeton cops at first replied to a 911 contactFeb 22 round 11:16 p.m. protection a fireplace and a stays on the Michelle Mews Apartments facility.
Upon arrival, cops situated Matthew Hertgen, that was found out to be the 911 buyer, within the house collectively along with his sibling’s physique, which “exhibited signs of blunt force trauma and lacerations,” the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said in a information launch.
An picture from the 2011 Toms River North High School yearbook applications Matthew Hertgen with schoolmates the place they said issues they will surely miss out on most round establishment was enjoying fiddlestick lacrosse in bodily training. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
Police assume Matthew might need eliminated his sibling’s eye and tried to devour it, a police useful resource knowledgeable the New York Post.
Authorities have but to outline any type of kind of intention pertaining to Hertgen’s homicide charges.
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Princeton cops at first replied to a 911 contactFeb 22 at round 11:16 p.m. reporting a fireplace and a stays on the Michelle Mews Apartments facility. (University of Michigan|Wesleyan University|Google Maps)
Gotlin said that whereas it’s uncommon for people from upscale members of the family to come back down proper right into a psychological wellness dilemma that finishes in fatality, it isn’t unusual. He said the scenario of Luigi Mangione, the suspicious charged of eliminating UnitedHe althcare chief govt officer Brian Thompson in December on a walkway in Manhattan.
Mangione completed valedictorian from the Gilman School, a private all-boys senior highschool in Baltimore, in 2016. He occurred to acquire his bachelor’s and grasp’s ranges in pc know-how from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020.
An vacant courtroom home is considered as authorized representatives assemble and Judge Gibbs instructions the Matthew Hertgen homicide listening to by video clip assembly on the Mercer County Criminal Court onFeb 27, 2025, in Trenton, N.J. (Stephanie Keith for Fox News Digital)
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“It’s not common, but the best example of it is Luigi Mangione. He grew up, went to the best schools, private schools … and he’s obviously mentally ill,” Gotlin said. “There’s no question about it. People get sick. Mental illness is something, unfortunately, the medical industry hasn’t really conquered.”
Joseph Hertgen was noticable useless on the scene, and his postmortem examination outcomes are pending. Local and state authorities are testing the 26-year-old’s fatality as a homicide.
An examination proper into Joseph’s fatality is recurring.
