'I Can’t Take It Anymore:' New Details In Killing Of NJ Student By Baseball Bat

VOORHEES TOWNSHIP, NJ — It was early Monday morning when Sheri Kelemen was violently awakened by her husband, who was striking her repeatedly with a baseball bat and screaming, “I can’t take it anymore.”

Hours later, her daughter was dead, and her husband had taken his own life. She had been hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

The affidavit of probable cause, provided by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, describes what happened in the Kelemen’s Voorhees Township home early Monday morning.

From her bed at Cooper University Hospital, Kelemen told detectives she had gone to bed at 2 a.m. Monday morning. Her husband, 57-year-old Gregory Kelemen, was already asleep, she said. Their daughter, 22-year-old Katherine Kelemen, was the only other person in the house.

It was a few hours later that Sheri said she was awakened by her husband’s assault with a baseball bat. Once the assault ended, she crawled to her daughter’s bedroom.

It was at this point that she said she found her daughter, an Eastern Regional High School graduate and Temple University student, unresponsive and covered in blood.

Sheri Kelemen, herself an employee at Temple’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine, told detectives that the bat Gregory Kelemen used in the assault was the same one they kept under their bed.

Police were called to the home just before 6:30 a.m., according to Acting Camden County Prosecutor Jill S. Mayer and Voorhees Township Police Chief Louis Bordi.

Katherine Kelemen was taken to Jefferson University Hospital in Stratford to be treated for blunt force trauma, authorities said. She succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced deceased at 8:17 a.m., authorities said. Sheri Kelemen remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition, authorities said.

During the investigation, detectives learned that Gregory Kelemen had called his employer at about 10:11 a.m. and said he had a family emergency, and that he would be late for work, according to the affidavit.

He was charged in the assaults, and police began searching for him. His body was found in a wooded area near the 300 block of Preston Avenue Tuesday morning, according to authorities. He died by an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. Read more here: NJ Man Accused Of Killing Adult Daughter Found Dead: Police

"This is a senseless tragedy that affects our entire Temple community, and the devastating incident remains under police investigation," university officials said in a letter to the community. "Temple University is committed to supporting our community during this challenging time."

Temple is making services available to students and faculty who are coping with the loss.

If you or someone you know is facing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence hotline for help at 800-799-SAFE (7233), or go to www.thehotline.org for more. States often have domestic violence hotlines as well.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.

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