Can You Help Solve Priest’s Cold Case Murder in Atlantic County?

The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office Major Crimes Unit is asking for help in solving a 39-year-old cold case murder of a priest in Mullica Township.

George Hoeh, a priest from New York City, was found dead in his Sweetwater vacation home on June 15, 1986. He was strangled.

What little information is available about the priest's murder points to a man he was seen with shortly before he died.

What We Know About George Hoeh's Murder

There is little public information remaining about this murder case from 1986.

The one article available online is from the New York Times, published on June 18, 1986.

It tells the story of an Episcopal priest who was found strangled in his vacation home in Sweetwater, Mullica Township on Sunday, June 15, 1986.

A 57-year-old Episcopal priest from New York City was found strangled in his vacation home here Sunday and authorities were looking today for a young man seen with the priest hours before the murder.

The body of the priest, the Rev. George C. Hoeh of St. John's Episcopal Church in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, was found at noon on Sunday in his home in Sweetwater, an affluent neighborhood on the banks of the Mullica River.

An autopsy by Dr. Donald Jason, the Atlantic County Medical Examiner, determined that the priest was strangled late Saturday, June 15th, or early Sunday, June 16th, 1986, according to an officer with the Atlantic County Prosecutor's major crimes unit at the time.

Man Wanted in Prest's Death Investigation Drove a Distinctive Car

The New York Times article about Rev. George Hoeh's murder says a friend of the priest's told police that he had seen Hoeh in his Sweetwater home the day before he was found dead.

Hoeh was with a man named Paul, who was driving a silver Cadillac, possibly a 1980 model. There is no public information about whether the police located this person of interest.