Little Egg Harbor, NJ: Little Egg Harbor Township man, struck by wife's car, died of head trauma

By ERIC SCOTT CAMPBELL Staff Writer | Posted: Sunday, October 10, 2010


Neighbor Barbara Keller, 74, speaks about the victim and accused. Sunday October 10 2010 John McNulty died friday after his wife Karen hit him with her car as he walked Central Street in route to a bus stop in Little Egg Harbor Township. She is charged with aggravated manslaughter. (The Press of Atlantic City / Ben Fogletto)


LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP - "It's getting to be a little crazy in Little Egg Harbor," township resident Barbara Keller said Sunday afternoon. "I might have to go back to North Jersey."
Keller lives a few doors down from the Lexington Drive house John McNulty walked out of early Friday morning, minutes before a car driven by his wife struck him.
John McNulty, 73, died later that day. Karen J. McNulty, 54, is charged with aggravated manslaughter and is being held at the Ocean County Jail on $500,000 bail. Whether she has retained a lawyer is unclear.
Karen McNulty's bail was increased from $150,000 when her charge was upgraded from aggravated assault.
An autopsy performed Sunday determined that John McNulty died of head trauma, Ocean County Chief of Detectives Michael Mohel said.
Mohel said Dr. Ian Hood of the Ocean County Medical Examiner's Office found the manner of death to be homicide.
Keller was one of several neighbors in the Mystic Shores age-restricted development who said Sunday that they knew little or nothing about the McNultys, despite living near them for years. Several others declined to speak with The Press of Atlantic City.
"Evidently, they had a lot of problems," Keller said. "It's really awful. I guess we didn't really know."
Keller said she had limited contact with John McNulty: "I would wave and he would wave, but then he even stopped doing that."
The McNultys' crash happened four days after an apparent murder-suicide a mile and a half away on Westchester Drive, in which 45-year-old Craig Mueller killed his brother Bryan, 52, neighbor Cara Ellis, 21, then himself.
Witnesses told police that Karen McNulty drove her Hyundai Sonata by her husband on Center Street at 5:19 a.m. Friday, made a U-turn and struck him as he was walking to the bus stop.
Mohel said Sunday that John McNulty, who worked as a security guard at Caesars Atlantic City, died later that day. A Caesars spokeswoman said the company did not have a public statement to make on the incident.
Back on Lexington Drive, neighbor Barbara Palmer said, "It seemed to me like quiet people there. Everything seemed very normal."
Another neighbor, Kay Waller, sometimes saw John McNulty walking his dog while she walked hers. She never met Karen McNulty.
"He used to have a big black dog, Daisy. He seemed like a nice man," Waller said. "I just feel so bad for him."
Mystic Shores property manager Bill Brown said he did not know the McNultys from any of the activities at the clubhouse, but with 525 homes in the development, Brown said they would not be the only people he hasn't met after a year and a half on the job.
Staff writer Trudi Gilfillian and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Eric Scott Campbell:
609-272-7217