Man Found Dead At Troubled NJ Psychiatric Hospital, Investigation Launched

MORRIS PLAINS, NJ — Authorities and the mother of 28-year-old Nicholas Mauriello are seeking answers after he was found dead at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.

New Jersey State Police were called to the state-run hospital in Morris Plains on April 12 at around 12:45 p.m. for a report of an unresponsive man.

"Upon the troopers' arrival, the individual, identified as 28-year-old Nicholas Mauriello, was found deceased," said Sgt. Jeffrey Lebron with the state police.

Meghan Knab, Public Information Officer for the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, also confirmed to Patch that the Major Crimes Unit is investigating the death at the hospital.

"This incident is an active, ongoing investigation," said Knab. "This investigation is being conducted in conjunction with the New Jersey State Police and New Jersey State Human Services Police."

However, the circumstances surrounding Mauriello's death have raised questions. His mother Linda told NJ.com that he had been a patient at the hospital since January 2024 following a suicide attempt.

She also told NJ.com that when she got to the hospital, a doctor told her that her "son had been dead for at least six hours before he was discovered because rigor mortis had already set in."

She also said the doctor told her that Nicholas looked like he had been strangled since their was a mark on his neck and arm. However, she later was told his death was due to an enlarged heart and not a homicide, according to NJ.com.

Linda Mauriello, who has threatened to file a lawsuit, did not respond to Patch's request for comment.

The state department of health, which has authority over the hospital, told Patch that "due to patient confidentiality as required by federal law (HIPAA), the Department is not permitted to confirm or deny whether any person is or was a patient or provide any protected health information about any current or former patients."

This wouldn't be the first time the hospital faced legal issues. Most recently, in March 2024, a whistleblower claimed that a state official delayed a probe into dangerous conditions at the Morris County psychiatric facility, and told patient advocates to stop investigating even as residents died.

Nora Locke, who works in the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, also claimed she was demoted from her position because she confronted her former boss about conditions at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.

Greystone has been under court-ordered supervision following a settlement with the Public Defender’s Office in 2020. While the settlement agreement was being hammered out, two patients died and multiple violent assaults occurred at Greystone, according to Locke's lawsuit.

This included a stabbing death on New Year's Eve 2019, where resident Rashid Davis was found wandering the halls of Greystone with blood on his hand. And several months after the settlement, the Public Defender's Office also claimed a patient choked to death on food that was not in his special diet.

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