A neighbor reporting a fire in the home where the president of a major South Jersey hospital and his wife were found dead told 911 dispatchers that he heard banging coming from inside the house shortly before first responders arrived.
When firefighters arrived to the Somerset County home on Sept. 28 they found the CEO of Camden's Cooper University Health System John Sheridan and his wife Joyce dead.
The neighbor can be heard that morning saying that he saw smoke coming from the house and "somebody's trying to get out, they're banging on the door," according to the 911 recording obtained by NBC10.
The emergency operator asks, "do you see smoke or anything in the windows or anything like that?"
"No, I just heard something, though," said the unidentified caller as he checked on his neighbor's home along Meadow Run Drive in Montgomery Township.
"What did you hear?" asked the operator.
"Somebody tapping the window...," said the caller.
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The caller later said somebody was banging on the door.
"Alright, are you able to get the door open?" asked the operator.
"No. I’m at the door," the caller said "They’re upstairs."
Though the caller may have thought he heard someone banging, subsequent interviews with the caller and the first responding police officer have led investigators to conclude the sounds were from the fire itself, Capt. Jack Bennett, a spokesman for the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, said in an email.
Investigators ruled that fire had been intentionally set in the home where 72-year-old Sheridan lived with his 69-year-old wife.
Police and firefighters responded to the couple's home at 6:15 a.m. Authorities said the fire was contained to the master bedroom, where firefighters found the unresponsive couple. John Sheridan, president and CEO of Cooper, was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later.
The cause of their deaths has not been released as the investigation continues.
