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He set her home on fire in an attempt to cover his tracks, according to Acting Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Michael J. Wojciechowski.
Ronald J. Teschner, 52, was convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder, first-degree robbery and three first-degree weapons offenses, Wojciechowski said.
He also was convicted of aggravated arson, desecration of human remains, aggravated assault, theft, resisting arrest and a drug offense.
All of the charges were in connection with the death of 65-year-old Jacqueline C. Terrulli.
Teschner, an ex-con, faces life in prison without parole when he is sentenced on Feb. 7, 2023, prosecutors say.
Shortly after 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2019, firefighters and other first responders rushed to a home on Wickapecko Drive in Ocean Township that was fully engulfed in flames.
Once the fire was put out, a joint investigation by members of the Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Bureau, the Monmouth County Fire Marshal’s Office, and the Ocean Township Police Department determined that two residents of the home were unaccounted for: Teschner and Terrulli, the homeowner.
Terrulli’s vehicle, a white Jeep Cherokee, was also missing from the property.
The next morning, on Sept. 13, 2019, members of the Ocean Township Police Department located the Cherokee parked on a residential street in Paterson, a little more than an hour’s drive north.
Teschner was located in the driver’s seat, and recovered from the vehicle were two shotguns, a quantity of fentanyl, and jewelry and other items belonging to Terrulli, the prosecutor said.
In June 2020, as demolition and site remediation work was being performed on the Wickapecko Drive property, human remains that would later be identified as belonging to Terrulli were found wrapped in plastic and buried several feet underground.
As a result of the fire, charred rubble had collapsed upon and covered the remains, initially concealing them from detection.
“This was a genuinely monstrous crime, hallmarked by callous brutality – Jacqueline Terrulli welcomed the defendant into her home to live, and as a result of that charity, lost her life,” Wojciechowski said.
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