Ocean Township Man Gets Life In Prison For 2019 Murder, Arson

FREEHOLD – An Ocean Township local who was found guilty of killing a family friend in 2019 and setting her home on fire to cover his tracks has been sentenced to life in prison, county officials said.

Ronald J. Teschner, 53, was sentenced Tuesday in connection with the death of 65-year-old Jacqueline C. Terrulli, Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Julia Alonso said in a statement. A Monmouth County grand jury found Teschner guilty on nearly all charges, including first-degree felony murder, first-degree robbery, three first-degree weapons offenses, second-degree aggravated arson and desecration of human remains, in October 2022, Patch previously reported.

“Yesterday’s sentencing was commensurate with the abhorrent nature of these crimes,” First Assistant Prosecutor Alonso said. “We again extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Jacqueline Terrulli, with the hope that the conclusion of the criminal case brings them some degree of satisfaction in knowing that justice has been served on her behalf.”

The sentencing stems from an investigation into a fire reported on Sept. 12, 2019, in which firefighters and other first responders rushed to a home engulfed in flames on Wickapecko Drive in Ocean Township, the prosecutor’s office said. Once the fire was extinguished, a joint investigation by county officials and the Ocean Township Police Department determined that two residents of the home were unaccounted for: Teschner and Terrulli, the homeowner, who had allowed Teschner to live in her home.

Terrulli’s vehicle, a white Jeep Cherokee, was also missing from the property, the prosecutor’s office said.

The next morning, members of the Ocean Township Police Department found the Cherokee parked on a residential street in Paterson, about an hour north of Terrulli’s home. Teschner was found in the driver’s seat, and two shotguns, a quantity of fentanyl, and jewelry and other items belonging to Terrulli were recovered from the vehicle, authorities said.

Murder charges were filed against him in December of that year. He was indicted on 16 counts, including first-degree murder, in February 2020.

Later that year, on Thursday, June 18, 2020, as demolition and site remediation work was being performed on the Wickapecko Drive property, human remains that would later be identified as belonging to Terrulli were found wrapped in plastic and buried several feet underground. As a result of the fire, charred rubble had collapsed upon the remains and totally covered them, initially concealing them.

Prosecutors say Teschner killed Terrulli while Terrulli's mother and two siblings were away in Atlantic City.

The Prosecutor’s Office thanked the following agencies that participated in this investigation, as well as the extensive search for Terrulli’s remains:

• Ocean Township Police Department
• Paterson Police Department
• Wayne Police Department
• Monmouth County Fire Marshal’s Office
• Monmouth County Public Works
• Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office K9 Bomb Squad Bloodhound, Regional Dive and Search Team, and Drone teams
• Bergen County Sheriff’s Office K9
• Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit
• New Jersey Turnpike Authority
• New Jersey State Fire Marshal’s Office and K9 Accelerant Dog
• New Jersey State Police K9 Cadaver Dog Missing Persons Unit
• New Jersey Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory
• New Jersey Transit Police Dive Team and Police Boats
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Quantico Laboratory and Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST)
• The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) K9, Critical Research Group
• The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
• The University of North Texas