Life imprisonment for the man who killed a family friend in 2019 and set fire to her New Jersey mansion

A New Jersey man was sentenced to life in prison for killing a family friend who provided him with housing, then burying her body and setting fire to her sprawling home, prosecutors said.

Ronald Teschner was convicted in October 2022 of the murder of 65-year-old Jacqueline Terrulli in September 2019. In addition to the murder charge, the 53-year-old man was also found guilty of robbery, aggravated arson, desecration of human remains, and aggravated assault. and gun offenses.

Monmouth County prosecutors said Teschner stole from Terrulli, his ex-girlfriend and roommate, and then killed her at her Ocean Township home on Wickapecco Drive before wrapping her remains in plastic and burying her under the house. Then, according to prosecutors, he set fire to the mansion before driving away in her Wrangler Jeep.

Firefighters responded to the house, which was engulfed in flames around 7:30 am on September 12, 2019, and an investigation found that the only people missing were Terrulli and Teschner. Terrulli’s mother and two siblings also lived in the home, but prosecutors said they were not in Atlantic City at the time of the fire.

The missing Jeep was found a day later in Paterson, about an hour north of the fire, with Teschner in the driver’s seat. Two shotguns, fentanyl, some jewelry and other items belonging to Terrulli were also found in the car, prosecutors said.

He was charged in December 2019, but it wasn’t until demolition began on the 6,000-square-foot Ocean Township home that Terrulli’s body was discovered six months later. The fire caused charred rubble to fall on the remains, initially preventing detectives from finding them. Terrulli was identified from dental records.

Prosecutors said the fire was started by nail polish thrown into Terrulli’s bedroom.

“Yesterday’s verdict was commensurate with the heinous nature of these crimes,” said First Assistant Prosecutor Giulia Alonso. “Once again, we express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Jacqueline Terrulli in the hope that the conclusion of the criminal case will bring them some degree of satisfaction, knowing that justice has been served in her interests.”