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Building employees found the body of Michael Thomas Scheuerman, 41, in his car around 7 a.m. Tuesday, May 14, according to a police report.
"He burned himself from the inside," a law enforcement source said Wednesday. "He was found hugging another bottle, apparently in case the first didn't do the job."
Ringwood officers who responded to Bach Tools on Executive Parkway early Tuesday found Scheuerman's body in the back seat of the vehicle and a five-gallon jug on the front passenger seat, police reported.
Scheurman was "hugging another 5-gallon jug of kerosene with a black tube inserted in the jug," a sergeant said.
A roommate told officers investigating the incident that Schuerman was awaiting trial on child porn charges.
Schuerman was arrested during a warranted search of his apartment behind an office building on Paterson Avenue in East Rutherford on April 6, 2023.
The 5-foot-6, 410-pound defendant had “used the Internet to view, download, or possess items depicting nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent and pubescent children,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said at the time.
Detectives with the prosecutor's Cyber Crimes Unit charged Scheuerman with possession of child pornography.
They sent to the Bergen County Jail only to have a judge release him almost immediately under New Jersey’s bail reform law.
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ALSO SEE: A 34-year-old tenant died of suicide in his East Rutherford apartment before dawn Wednesday, police reported. READ MORE HERE....
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The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) offers 24/7 call, text and chat access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing suicidal, substance use, and/or mental health crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at: 988lifeline.org.
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