I'll Be Right Back: The Unsolved Murder of Sharon Thor

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Sharon was a talented high school dancer with a bright
future in ballet. One afternoon, a phone call pulled her
from the safety of her home. She told her mom
she'd be right back, then stepped outside and into a
waiting vehicle. She was never seen alive again. Days later,
her body was found, leaving her family and the small

(00:33):
New Jersey community reeling. More than forty years have past,
but those who know the truth have yet to come forward,
and her loved ones are still searching for answers. I'm
your host, Megan and each week on a Simpler Time
True Crime, I cover older unsolved cases and challenged the
idea that a simpler time means a safer time. This week,

(00:56):
I'm bringing to you the unsolved murder of Sharon Thor.

(01:20):
It was October twenty sixth, nineteen eighty two, in Franklin Township,
New Jersey. It was a beautiful fall day, just before
Halloween and two days before Sharon Thor's sixteenth birthday. Sharon
had been born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in nineteen sixty six,
the only girl in the family with four other brothers.

(01:42):
Her parents, Sonia and Frank were soulmates. Sonia had been
born in Cuba, but her parents and grandparents were from Spain.
When she was seventeen years old, Sonya moved to the
United States and landed in New York City with her
grandparents before settling in the town of Elizabeth, New Jersey,
where she began working at a toy factory that was

(02:02):
owned by Frank The two fell for one another, and
the rest is history. The family moved to Franklin Township
when Sharon was six years old. It was a developing
suburb and the family liked sur vibe of the neighborhood.
It seemed like a great place to raise a family,
without the hustle and bustle of the city, but still
close proximity if you wanted to visit. Sharon had attended

(02:25):
parochial school before switching to the public schools in Franklin
with her brothers. Sonya would later recall in an article
in the Central New Jersey Home News that when Sharon
was little, her feet had turned in. She had to
wear a bar on her legs at night for about
six months to help correct the condition. When she was
around five or six, she became interested in dance, and

(02:47):
her doctors thought it would help strengthen her and further
fix the issue. So Sharon committed herself to it and
fell in love with dance, much to the pleasure of
her mother, Sonya, who had also dreamed of dancing when
she was grown up. Sonya told the paper quote she
really liked it. She was a beautiful dancer. Sharon was

(03:08):
involved in tap, jazz and ballet. Each winter, she loved
to see the ballerinas in the Nutcracker, and in December
of nineteen eighty one she was able to take part
in the performance at Plainfield High School. Sharon was becoming
a bit of a dance prodigy and spent many afternoons
and evenings taking lessons and she never missed one. I

(03:31):
don't know about you guys, but I went to high
school with a couple of people that were really into dance,
and they were both friends of mine, and I just
remember it took up a ton of their time. They
loved it, but they were almost never available to do
anything because they were always just focused on their dance
and it just was constant, the rehearsals, the lessons, all
of it. So on this day in nineteen eighty two,

(03:54):
that's what she was planning on doing. Sonya worked days
at the factory, but was home in time to get
the kids off the bus and be there for them
in the afternoon, so she was there when Sharon received
a phone call around five thirty pm. Sharon was supposed
to leave in just fifteen minutes to go to this
dance class. She'd been killing some time watching some TV

(04:15):
when the phone rang. She said that when Sharon answered it,
her tone was pleasant. She acted happy and surprise to
receive this phone call, and like a typical teenager in
nineteen eighty two, she wanted to have some privacy, but
was bound to the phone. Literally, she had to stretch
the cord as far as it would go and dip

(04:36):
into the stairwell of the basement. She was on the
phone briefly, and when she got off, she told her
mom she would be right back and walked out of
the front door. Sonya recalls thinking that maybe she just
had a friend outside that was stopping over. That was
the last time Sonya Thor saw her daughter alive. Sharon

(04:57):
walked out of the door in a pair of jeans, sneakers,
a gold chain necklace with a charm, and a red
striped sweater. She got into a waiting vehicle outside her
home on john Bush Avenue, and off she went. She
didn't bring her purse or hairbrush with her, two things.
Her family says she never went anywhere without so knowing

(05:18):
that and knowing she had dance class, they expected to
see her back in just a few moments. When Sharon
didn't come back, Sonia became worried. This was extremely out
of character for her. Sonia described this time to the paper.
She said, quote, then Sharon's not coming back and not

(05:38):
coming back. My husband is coming and Sharon hasn't come back.
We went to the police station right away, but at
that time you had to wait twenty four hours. So
we went to the dancing school. We went everywhere that
she knows people, through the whole neighborhood, through all the
stores on Easton Avenue, like McDonald's. Nothing nothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing end quote. In a full blown panic, Sonia and

(06:03):
Frank reported here and missing as soon as they were
allowed to and a search got underway. Sonia said she
just couldn't sit still, and she was drawn into searching
the woods. So she walked out there looking and she
walked with the dog. But she turned around after the
search turned up nothing. Sent dogs traced Sharon sent out

(06:24):
of the house and lost it at the road, which
makes sense because we know she got into a vehicle there.
Search crews continued and on Friday they decided to search
a place that was known to be a bit of
a teen hangout. It was about a quarter of a
mile from the Thor home near john Bush Avenue in
Cedar Grove Lane. The wooded area is posted as private

(06:46):
property with a no trespassing sign, and it was owned
by a local utility company, but this didn't stop the
local teens, having said that it wasn't intuitive to navigate,
you had to know your way around, which unmaintained row
to take to that location. As the searchers made their
way down one dirt road, they made a horrible discovery.

(07:08):
About twenty five yards off the dirt road, a badly
beaten body was found, partially obscured. It was clear that
their search was over. They had found Sharon Thor. With
the worst possible conclusion, the beautiful teenager, with her blue

(07:34):
eyes and wavy brown hair, was unrecognizable. She had been
beaten and was partially nude, with her shirt pulled up
and pants pulled down. Nearby, a bloody cinder block and
a two by four piece of wood was found. These
were collected as evidence and thought to be the murder weapons.
Sharon's family had to learn the devastating news as Sharon's

(07:57):
body was taken in for an autopsy. Her family and
friends couldn't think of any reason why someone would do this.
Sharon was well liked and they didn't know of any
enemies that she had, but clearly someone wanted to harm her.
The autopsy showed just how violent her death was. Retired
Chief of Police Dan Leavick told the paper that even

(08:20):
though he'd been retired for years, Sharon's case is still
one he always thinks about. He said quote she died
a brutal death. The autopsy revealed that Sharon had suffered
massive blunt force injuries to her head and chest, with
several broken ribs in fractures to her skull. This caused
significant internal bleeding. The brutality of the crime is just unimaginable.

(08:46):
The damage to her face was so severe that with
an open casket, the funeral home had to turn her
body away in the casket to hide it. Police believe
she may have been sexually assaulted based on how she
was found, though it's never been publicly revealed if any
physical evidence was found or preserved, that supports that conversations

(09:08):
were being held all around the small town with people
being afraid that the same thing would happen to their
own teens. The autopsy had also revealed a time of
death about six thirty PM, So something happened and she
was dead within an hour of receiving that phone call.
Knowing she was planning on leaving at five point forty

(09:29):
five pm to go to dance rehearsal, you have to
conclude that within minutes she was being held against her
will to some degree because she wasn't planning on skipping dance.
So let's talk a little bit more about the spot
she was found in. I mentioned it was kind of
a hangout area for teens. Kids were known to go
there to hunt, to party, to ride dirt bikes, and

(09:51):
just hang out. There were logs in the area that
kids would sit on and smoke cigarettes and drink you
name it. And so a couple of things that are
interesting to me. One that this place wasn't searched sooner,
and two that nobody had been back there in those
three days, But it is possible that I'm reading too
deeply into how popular it was. What it does imply

(10:16):
to me is that this was someone local who knew
this area and knew this hangout spot. The hope for
a quick arrest faded fast. Days turned into weeks, and
months into years. Rewards for information went unclaimed. Police interviewed
over eighty five people and traveled as far as California

(10:36):
and Florida to pursue tips and leads they came across,
but no matter what, none of them led to who
called Sharon that day and who she got in the
car with. In two thousand and nine, more than twenty

(10:59):
five years after her murder, a cold case team in
Franklin Township dropped some information. They had reopened the case
and classified it as an active investigation, and they released
some information that had never come out to the public before.
You see, on that day Sharon left her house, a

(11:19):
young boy was playing outside and saw Sharon get into
that vehicle. He said that when the car first pulled up,
it pulled up and then sort of backed up into
the front of Sharon's house, almost as if the person
wasn't familiar with the neighborhood. He said there were two
white men in this vehicle, the driver and then someone

(11:39):
in the back seat, and then Sharon had gotten into
the front passenger seat. He described the vehicle as dirty
and old, with a loud muffler and possibly a covering
over the rear window. He described the men as white
and in their late teens or early twenties. Unfortunately, he's
not able to describe the car any better or give

(12:02):
any other details, or if he did, for whatever reason,
police haven't released that, like the color, make anything. Still,
this was huge because now we know there is more
than one person who likely committed this crime, or at
least a secondary person who has information. Police shared that

(12:23):
they had followed up on many potential suspects, though they
wouldn't name any, They did believe that the killers were
young in nineteen eighty two, were people that Sharon knew
and went with willingly and were local to the area.
Something that sticks out to me is that this was
the pre cell phone days. You couldn't just be sitting
in your car and call from out front and say

(12:45):
and waiting outside, so for her to hop off the
phone and jump into a vehicle with someone tells me
that a third person, the caller, has to be involved too.
This whole thing seems like a setup where Sharon was
clearly lured outside of her home at this same time.

(13:06):
In two thousand and nine, police revealed that they were
revisiting old evidence and reinterviewing people. There was some promise
in the air, but it seemed like their quest to
pursue DNA based answers at that time fell flat. Based
on an interview that was done by the paper with
retired police chief Don Levac, it sounds like there is
evidence with potential for forensic testing. And I say that

(13:29):
just because in his interview he said he hoped with
DNA advancements they could get some answers. So my guess
would be that in two thousand and nine they re
evaluated the evidence and there was just either not enough DNA,
or it wasn't the right type or quality, or they
were just limited with the testing available at the time.
Sharon's niece Sam runs social media accounts that help push

(13:52):
for answers in Sharon's case, and I did see her
comment with one barrier police have faced because this was
a popular hangout spot testing things like the cement or
the wood, which are thought to be the murder weapons
for DNA, that isn't a home run. Even if they
can isolate who the DNA belongs to, they couldn't prove

(14:13):
in court beyond a reasonable doubt that the person was
the killer without any other evidence or testimony, because that
person could just say that they hung out there and
partied there and it would be a reasonable explanation. So
that really complicates things. In twenty twenty three, Franklin Police
Department's Citizens Academy ran a course that businessman Frank Paul

(14:37):
Resta attended. He learned about Sharon's case, being one of
the oldest cold cases in Somerset County. He has lived
in the area his whole entire life and remembered thinking
then and many times over the years, I can't believe
they've never caught who did this to her. Resta used
what influence he had in a way to motivate for answers.

(14:59):
He put up a five hundred dollars reward for information
and posted a video to Facebook. It gained traction and
his customers joined in on the reward and more than
doubled it. Someone who came across the video was a
woman named Marie Fiorello. She was involved in the local
theater scene and was friends with a playwright named Nick

(15:20):
Polino Junior. Nick was one of Sharon's neighbors growing up
and was deeply haunted by what happened to her. Marie
Fiorello was working at what was called The Villagers Theater
in nineteen ninety six, and when she arrived there, she
met Nick Polino, who was about to be the managing director,

(15:40):
and she said that in one of their first conversations,
he talked about his neighbor Sharon and how it had
really haunted him growing up. Marie recalled that Nick had
turned to law enforcement for updates in two thousand and
three and learned that they were running into dead end
after dead end. He decided to channel his grief and
frustration about the case into a play called Remembering Sharon. Sadly,

(16:04):
Nick died of a brain tumor in twenty fourteen, but
he had given Marie a copy of the script. Marie
told the Central New Jersey Home News quote he said
to me before he passed away, if I ever do
one of his shows, please let it be Remembering Sharon.
So at his memorial we did do a reading of
the play, but it was not a public event. The

(16:27):
visibility of Sharon's case popping up in twenty twenty three
inspired Marie to contact Frank Paul Resta, and there a
newfound advocacy effort was launched. The play would be performed
locally at twenty five dollars a ticket. All proceeds would
go to a reward fund for information in Sharon's case.

(16:48):
Resta said quote, the play is so powerful because it's
a true story, and it's unsolved, and it's a fifteen
year old girl. Frank Resta actually played Sharon Thorp's brother
in the play. Marie, for her part, said quote, I
feel like I'm fulfilling a promise that I made to
him before he passed away, So that makes me feel good.

(17:08):
I'm glad that I could do that for him. Nick
Fiorello's family attended the performance, as well as members of
Sharon Thor's, including Sonya Thor. Her elderly mother. Frank Thor
died in two thousand and seven, also in October, leaving
Sonia heartbroken. She told the paper how she misses her

(17:29):
husband dearly. She spoke of her anger in a twenty
nineteen interview, saying quote, I want to know who killed Sharon.
I want for the person to feel the misery I
have for thirty seven years, so many years, I've gone
through hell day after day for thirty seven years. I
promised myself I will not die until I find who

(17:52):
killed Sharon, and God forbid, I would like to ask
permission to the judge to let me kill them, because
it's more than one the same way they killed Sharon.
End quote. It's currently twenty twenty five in Sonia is
in her eighties and still hoping for that answer before
she passes. So who lured Sharon into the woods that day?

(18:16):
And why was it a sexually motivated crime? Was it
a crime of jealousy or rage or something else? Her
family is still pushing for answers. I mentioned her niece Sam,
and Sam has a petition going on on change dot org,
and I'll have that linked in the show notes and
share it on our Instagram at simpler time Crime Pod,

(18:39):
I also linked Sam's social media accounts, so go follow
those as well. Please go and sign the change dot
org petition. Originally I believe it was put up to
get the case reopened, but then the case has been reopened,
so Sam kind of pivoted with the intent and just
shifted the focus onto making sure police can continue to

(19:00):
work on this hard and solve the case. On the
change dot org page, Sam provides an update, sharing that
there's no hostility with law enforcement, they just want the
case solved. She wrote, quote the FTPD in Somerset County
Prosecutor's Office has proven to me that they are working
diligently to get this case solved. There are many things

(19:22):
going on that not even I can know right now.
They have shown their support and love for my family,
and that's all I could ask for. Now. Let's focus
on the real task here, solving the case. I left
Sam a message on the Instagram and I had been
putting together this episode for a while and unfortunately only
stumbled across her page at the end. So I did

(19:44):
reach out to see if there was anything I could
share that would elevate the work that she and her
family are doing. And I haven't heard back yet, but
if I do, I will be sure to share updates,
either on social media or in the form of a
bonus episode. In the meantime, the most important thing is
that the people who hold information come forward. It seems

(20:04):
that police have some evidence and some ideas of who
may be involved, but like so many of these cases,
they can only go so far without corroborating evidence. Sonia
Thor has had to spend over half her life grieving
her daughter without answers. She still wears a heart pendant
in memory of her, and all she wants is for

(20:27):
those answers with what time she has left on earth.
If you have them, I imagine it's been eating at you.
And I'm sure you follow any of the media coverage
that comes out about this, so if you're listening, it's
never too late to do the right thing. Crime Stoppers
is offering a nine thousand dollars reward for information that

(20:49):
leads to the arrest of a killer or the killers
in Sharon's case. Contact them at one eight eight eight
five seven seven tips. Also, the money that was raised
for the reward involving the theater production that went on
of the play that is still available for a few

(21:11):
more years, because in twenty twenty three when it came out,
they said it would be held in that reward fund
for five years before being donated to the nationwide organization
Parents of Murdered children. This has been another episode of
a Simpler Time True Crime. If you appreciate the work

(21:31):
I'm doing, please leave a five star review and follow
the podcast on your preferred listening platform. Word of mouth
helps me grow tremendously. Please consider supporting the show by
joining my supporters Club. You can join for five dollars
a month and it's right in the bottom of the
show notes. In addition to supporting me as a small podcaster,
I'm also going to be adding in bonus episodes. I

(21:54):
just launched the supporters Club and I'm excited to keep
the progress moving. Case suggestions can be made to Simpler
timecrimepod at gmail dot com, and as always, thank you
so much for listening and join me for another episode
next Monday.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

Crime Junkie

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}I'll Be Right Back: The Unsolved Murder of Sharon Thor

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

Crime Junkie

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

I'll Be Right Back: The Unsolved Murder of Sharon Thor

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist