Woman Slain In Manchester Remembered As Independent, Good-Hearted

MANCHESTER, NJ — The 25-year-old woman who was slain in Manchester a week ago is being remembered for her strength, independence, and sense of humor who loved her son as her family mourns her death.

Gabriella M. Caroleo was identified as the shooting victim in a GoFundMe campaign created to help her family with her funeral expenses.

Caroleo was found with a gunshot wound to the stomach when Manchester police responded to a report of the shooting in the area of Ridgeway Road and Hope Chapel Road near Ridgeway Liquors, according to the campaign created by Matthew Souders, the fiance of Caroleo's sister.

The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office has not released the name or hometown of the shooting victim, who died of her injuries at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.

She was "a young vibrant, strong independent woman who loved the color purple and enjoyed laughing with her great sense of humor," according to her obituary, which added she was kind, giving, and good-hearted.

Caroleo, who was living in Barnegat and had lived in Ocean County for 18 years, is survived by her son, along with her parents and siblings and siblings' partners and extended family.

The obituary requests donations to Ocean’s Harbor House, 808 Conifer St., Toms River, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline, PO Box 90249 Austin, Texas, 78709.

"Gabriella has left us all way too soon," Matthew Souder wrote on the GoFundMe campaign. "She was taken from us on June 27th in the horrific shooting in Manchester. The family is so heartbroken over this tragic loss."

The GoFundMe campaign had raised about $4,600 of a $10,000 goal as of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.