Who Shot and Fatally Stabbed an Elderly Couple in Their $1.7 Million Waterfront Home in N.J.?

Mar. 15, 2025

Waterfront Home of John Enders, 87 and Francoise Pitoy, 75.Photo:6abcActionNews/YouTube

6abcActionNews/YouTube

Gentle waves lapped against the pylons in front of John “Jack” Enders' $1.7 million waterfront home on New Jersey’s Long Beach Island in early October 2021 when police went to check on him and his girlfriend.

When Francoise “Frenchy” Pitoy’s family members couldn’t reach her, they called the police to make sure she and her longtime partner were OK.

But when officers stepped inside the 6-bedroom Surf City home on Oct. 3, 2021, they where shocked to find the bodies of Enders, 87, and Pitoy, 75.

Enders, who was found sitting in a recliner on the main level, was shot in the face and stabbed 51 times. Pitoy, who was found on the landing of the stairs, was also shot in the face and stabbed 39 times.

Surveillance footage showed a mysterious figure driving an RV to the area and entering the home in the dark of night on Sept. 29, 2021, as the couple was sleeping.

Who would want to kill the retired couple in their own home, let alone so viciously? Police wanted to find out.

The next episode ofPeople Magazine Investigates,titledKnives Out, goes in-depth into the investigation of the shocking murders.

Premiering Monday, Dec. 16 at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery/ID and streaming on Max, the episode examines what was happening in the household before the shocking killing.

The couple wanted to sell the shore house and looked to Jack’s daughter, realtor Sherry Heffernan, for help, as seen in this exclusive clip below.

“It was a house she believed was going to be hers one day,” says Det. Denis Mitchell of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Major Crimes Unit. “The fact that the house was for sale meant that the house wasn’t going to be Sherry’s anymore. But from what we’re told, Jack was unable to sell it.”

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Heffernan was no longer in charge of the sale or gaining from the sale, Mitchell said.

At that point, says Mitchell, “we had to ask ourselves, is this something that would make Sherry Heffernan angry enough to commit this brutal double homicide?”

People Magazine Investigates: Knives Out,airs on Monday, Dec. 16 at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery/ID and streams on Max.

source: people.com