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It's a decision that has devastated her mother, Janet Pizzelli, 60, who is now battling Stage 3 breast cancer as she waits for justice.
David Shroitman, 28, was indicted in April 2024 on charges including first-degree murder, hindering apprehension, and weapons offenses, after he allegedly followed Fealey home from the gym and stabbed her 37 times in her car on Jan. 30, 2024, prosecutors previously said.
On April 10, 2025, Shroitman was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, according to family friend Meghan Kelly, who says the ruling came despite evidence of planning, cleanup, and composure after the crime.
“We believe the whole thing is made up,” Kelly said. “He paid rent, went to work, and knew how to fly under the radar. Now suddenly, at 30, he’s schizophrenic? That doesn’t make sense.”
Superior Court Judge Peter J. Tober sided with the defense's two witnesses over the Fealey family's one witness, Kelly said.
Now, Shroitman is expected to be transferred to the Anne Klein Psychiatric Facility in Trenton for a 3-month evaluation, Kelly explained. If still unfit, a judge could order him to be medicated for 6 to 9 months, with another hearing to follow. If he remains incompetent long-term, he could stay in a psychiatric facility indefinitely — or potentially be released down the line.
“There’s a possibility five or six years down the road, [the facility] will be overcrowded, Janet will be gone, and they’ll let him out,” Kelly said. “How will we know? What about all the young girls in town who started 100 Voices for Maryrose — how do we know he won’t come after them?”
'She's Not Here To Be Her Own Voice'
Maryrose Fealey was murdered the night before her mother, Janet Pizzelli, was set to begin chemotherapy. That evening, Maryrose and her brother, Ian, had been sitting with their mother, discussing who would take her to her first treatment.
“Maryrose was sitting on my lap,” Pizzelli said. “They said they were both going to take me.”
Instead, hours later, Maryrose was found in her car — stabbed to death and covered in blood, prosecutors said.
Pizzelli, who carries the BRCA gene mutation, delayed her treatment for three weeks. When she finally started chemotherapy, it was without her daughter by her side.
Since then, she’s undergone a mastectomy, radiation, and multiple rounds of chemotherapy — some so intense they left her unconscious for weeks and recovering in rehab. She now walks with a cane and has been forced to stop working as a hairdresser.
“My daughter got a death sentence, and I got a life sentence,” Pizzelli said. “It’s always a nightmare in my head.”
Still, she refuses to give up.
“She’s not here to be her own voice, so I have to be her voice,” Pizzelli said. “I need Mary’s case to go. I have my son. I can’t fold.”
Family friend Meghan Kelly called the legal delay “heartbreaking — just devastating.”
“She’s got Stage 3 cancer, so I hope she gets five or six more years,” Kelly said. “Her mom and cousins all died in their 40s. Janet made it to 60. But for her, cancer isn’t the big thing. For her, it’s living every day without her daughter.”
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