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On Thursday, April 25, David C. Shroitman was indicted for the Jan. 30 murder of 27-year-old Mary Rose Fealey in Somerville, Somerset County Prosecutor John McDonald announced.
Fealey, a Somerville resident, was found by Somerville police responding to a 911 call, outside a residential complex on North Bridge Street She had been returning home from a local business, the passenger door of her car wide open with her belongings spread throughout the front yard, according to an affidavit.
Fealey, who knew her alleged killer, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
Dashcam surveillance footage captured a man in a gray sweatshirt and black face gator, and thick-cushioned sneakers just before 11 p.m. standing at the intersection of North Bridge and Cliff streets in Somerville, right near the crime scene, police said.
Days later, Shroitman was found wearing clear latex gloves cleaning his car, and officers could smell the odor of bleach coming from a puddle, found near the driver’s side door of his Toyota Camry, police paperwork says. On East Cliff Street, police found a discarded latex glove with blood on it.
A search warrant executed at Shroitman’s home found numerous bleach containers found throughout, and a manifesto laying out a step-by-step plan for the homicide, according to the affidavit for probable cause. The driver’s door of the Camry was doused in bleach and luminol spray found blood in the entryway and bathroom of his home, police said.
Clothing and sneakers matching the description of the suspect on dashcam footage was found in Shroitman’s home, some had been treated with bleach, police said.
This month, Shroitman was indicted for first-degree murder with aggravating factors, third-degree hindering apprehension, fourth-degree stalking, and various weapons offenses.
Fealey graduated from Rutgers Business School in 2018 and had been taking a break from her job to "focus on her life’s mission work as she called it," her obituary says.
An "anti-drug activist and champion of the underdog," Fealey was being remembered as a supportive bright light "committed to her vision and efforts to empower youth and those battling addiction."
Fealey had founded a local nonprofit, 4TheYoungerMe (4TYM), and was involved in various organizations dedicating to battling substance abuse.
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