A woman from Pennsylvania cried and expressed regret about not being the one who died as she was given two life sentences for killing her father and his long-term partner.
Sherry Lee Heffernan was convicted in February for the deaths of John “Jack” Enders, 87, and Francoise “Frenchie” Pitoy, 75, on September 29, 2021. as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Prosecutors claimed that Heffernan drove her RV to her father’s home that night and shot and stabbed Enders and Pitoy many times, because she was upset about not receiving what she wanted from her father’s will. Heffernan has maintained her innocence from the beginning and asserted that she was “framed.”
“I really wish I was the one who was killed, that I was the one who died,” she said, crying, just before the sentencing, the Asbury Park Press reported. “This is horrible pain.
“… It’s horrible to lose people you love and then be blamed for it. They were priceless people, both my dad and Francoise. I will forever miss them. That’s all I can say. Just sad.”
Michael Weatherstone, the lead trial attorney from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, then laid out what happened on that night. Heffernan began the murders at around 5 a.m., stabbing the victims as they slept. Then she shot them both in the mouth, Weatherstone said, so they would suffer more as she stabbed them again and again.
Enders was stabbed 51 times, and Pitoy was stabbed 39 times.
Weatherstone said that Heffernan was upset that her father was selling his waterfront home in Ocean County, a property she had wanted for herself. As for Pitoy, the prosecutor said, Heffernan believed she interfered in her life.
“This act was committed with extreme depravity,” Superior Court Judge Kimarie Rahill said before giving the sentence.
Relatives of the victims applauded when Rahill handed down the sentence.
Heffernan must serve 63 years, nine months, and three days before parole can be considered.
[Featured image: John “Jack” Enders and Francoise “Frenchie” Pitoy/Handout]