A New Jersey man pleaded not guilty to murder Tuesday in the brutal stabbing of a 27-year-old woman celebrated for her work in addiction recovery.
Maryrose Fealey was found unresponsive outside her family’s Somerville home at about 10:20 p.m. Jan. 30 when police responded to a 911 call. She was later pronounced dead at the scene, Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald said Tuesday in a news release.
David C. Shroitman, also 27 and living in Somerville, is accused of stabbing Fealey 37 times, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by local news outlets Patch and NJ.com, after she arrived home around 9 p.m. She was discovered by a relative, authorities said, with her car door open and some of her belongings strewn on the yard.
Shroitman’s relationship with Fealey was unclear, but authorities said they knew each other. Both attended Somerville High School and graduated in the class of 2014.
Though they have not reported a possible motive, authorities alleged that Shroitman had carefully planned the attack. Investigators said they found a “manifesto laying out a plan step-by-step for the homicide” at his apartment, according to the affidavit.
Shroitman was charged with first-degree murder, possession of a weapon, tampering with physical evidence and hindering apprehension, the prosecutor said. He pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday afternoon through his public defender, Patch reported, and is being held in Somerset County Jail. The New Jersey Office of the Public Defender did not respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.
Investigators obtained dashcam footage that they said shows a man matching Shroitman’s description standing at the corner by Fealey’s home at 8:59 p.m. Jan. 30, around the time Fealey was arriving home. A neighbor’s security camera also captured video of someone believed to be the same man running up and down a nearby street about 9 p.m., investigators said in the affidavit. Shortly afterward, they said, surveillance cameras captured a car resembling Shroitman’s driving down the street.
Investigators said that when they first approached Shroitman on Feb. 2, he declined to speak with them, but in his car they saw a white garbage bag over the driver’s seat. Police officers said they found him washing his car Sunday and said they smelled bleach in a puddle by the driver’s side. The car had been “doused in bleach,” according to the affidavit.
Investigators said that in addition to the “manifesto,” they found bleach-covered clothing in his apartment that they said matched what the man in the surveillance footage was wearing.
“Maryrose was many things — a visual artist, anti-drug activist, entrepreneur, champion of the underdog, philanthropist, encourager, writer, and logistician,” Fealey’s obituary says.
After she graduated from Rutgers Business School in 2018, according to her obituary, Fealey worked as a logistics management specialist for the Naval Surface Warfare Center but was more recently pursuing other opportunities and focusing on “her life’s mission work.” She founded the nonprofit 4TheYoungerMe to provide “supportive and healing experiences for children impacted by grief or addiction,” according to its website. She also volunteered for Empower Somerset, which promotes a drug-free community, and was a committee member of Not an Easy Fix, dedicated to spreading awareness about the opioid epidemic and fentanyl crisis.
Not an Easy Fix posted tributes to Fealey on its website and Facebook, saying that she was one of its most active team and committee members and brought “positive energy, willingness, and kindness to any task at hand.”
“She wanted to spread awareness about the opioid epidemic and fentanyl crisis and wanted to save lives through any means possible,” Not an Easy Fix said.
Fealey’s brother enlisted her help to get clean after using heroin for more than a decade, which was documented in the film “21 Days.” Fealey also spoke about his substance use disorder and her efforts to end the stigma surrounding opioid addiction in a July 2022 episode of the podcast “Grieving Out Loud.”
“I had the honor of meeting Maryrose while filming documentaries about her mission to support those in recovery,” Leo Hamelin wrote on Fealey’s obituary tribute page. “She is a creative, intelligent and kind soul, may she continue to shine her light on us.”
Schroitman is scheduled to have a detention hearing Friday morning, where a judge will determine whether he is eligible for bail or must remain in jail until the case goes to trial.