Woman found guilty in death of her father, his girlfriend

Authorities say daughter was upset after father cut her from his will

A southern Chester County woman charged with killing her father and his girlfriend at a home in New Jersey has been found guilty of their murders.

Sherry Lee Heffernan, 57, of Landenberg, London Britain, was convicted in a New Jersey court of the deaths of her father, John Enders, 87, and his girlfriend Francoise “Frenchy” Pitoy, 75, of Manchester, N.J. The verdict was announced Friday by Ocean County, N.J., prosecutor Bradley Billhimer after about four weeks of trial before Superior Court Judge Kimarie Rahill.

The former real estate agent was found guilty of two counts of murder and related weapons offenses. Her sentencing was set for May, at which time she faces a life term in prison.

New Jersey authorities contended that Heffernan, who previously lived in Collegeville, Montgomery County, was upset with her father because she had been cut out of his will, and traveled to his Surf City home on Long Beach Island in her Winnebago recreational vehicle the night of Sept. 29, 2021, and left behind a blood-stained murder scene.

Surf City police found the couple dead of stab and slash wounds in the house Enders owned there. They had been called to investigate by Pitoy’s daughter, who said she had not heard from her in days and was worried.

Heffernan was apprehended in October 2021 outside her home near the London Britain Friends Burial Ground just north of the Maryland state line and charged with the crimes. She was extradited to New Jersey that month after a brief court appearance in Chester County Common Pleas Court, after which she told a reporter she was not guilty of the crimes.

“I’m being framed,” she said.

Several allegations in the complaint by Surf City Sgt. Victor Rice against Heffernan came from a neighbor of Enders and Pitoy’s at the shore community, who related comments Enders told him that Heffernan made.

They include that Heffernan, a real estate agent, told her father she wanted to be the broker on her father’s home and became disgruntled when Enders did not let her sell the house, according to Rice’s affidavit. Enders’ bayfront home on North 7th Street was reportedly listed for sale for $1.9 million.

The friend also told police that Enders had amended his living will within the last month and Heffernan and his other daughter, with whom he was estranged, are no longer included.

The friend said Heffernan owned what he believed was a 28-foot Winnebago, Rice wrote. According to the complaint, investigators found surveillance camera footage trained on the Long Beach Island Bridge which showed a white RV similar to the one described by the neighbor heading east toward the island on Sept. 29 at 4:48 a.m.

A few minutes later, a doorbell camera showed the RV pull up near Enders’ home at North 7th Street, then leave the street about an hour later with its headlights off. Cameras then capture a person on foot on the street, walking toward Enders’ house.

A license plate reader on Route 72 at the entrance to the Garden State Parkway registered a plate for an RV that is registered to Heffernan, the affidavit states.

In the affidavit, police said that when investigating Enders’ home after the request for a wellness check they saw the body of a man in a reclining chair. Upon entering the house, they found Pitoy’s body on a staircase, and blood in several locations throughout the home, as well as bloody foot and shoe prints, a discarded rubber glove on the stairs and blood on a fence post near where the person was captured on surveillance footage.

Both Enders and Pitoy were determined to have died of multiple stab wounds and blunt-force trauma.

On Oct. 4, 2021, police went to Heffernan’s home and stopped a car they saw leaving the property. Inside was Heffernan’s son, Joseph Heffernan, who without prompting began talking about his grandfather’s death.

In an interview that was recorded, the son said Sherry Heffernan left the house to visit her father on Long Beach Island the previous week. He described the trip as a “midnight dash,” the affidavit says, and told police he was worried about what had happened. He had not seen his grandfather since May, and that relations between Pitoy and his mother were strained because she considered Pitoy a “gold digger” who was pressuring Enders to sell the beach house.

“I can’t believe she did this,” Joseph Heffernan allegedly told police and said Heffernan was the only one who drove the RV in the last two weeks.

Pennsylvania State Police detectives executed a search warrant on the Winnebago and found “numerous spots of red staining on the carpet, appearing to be consistent with dried blood,” Rice wrote.