Man pleads guilty to killing mom inside her apartment

EDGEWATER PARK, NJ – Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina announced that a 54-year-old man pled guilty in Superior Court to killing his mother inside of her residence at the Courtyard Apartments in Edgewater Park late last year.

Under an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office, Brian K. Templeton pled guilty to Aggravated Manslaughter (First Degree) in exchange for a 25-year term in New Jersey state prison. He will not be eligible for parole for more than 21 years. The plea was entered yesterday before the Hon. Philip E. Haines, J.S.C., who scheduled sentencing for October 23.
The investigation began on November 11, 2019, after an employee of the apartment complex asked police to check on 77-year-old Doris Templeton because she had not been seen nor heard from in more than two weeks.

The investigation revealed that on or about October 24, 2019, Templeton, who had been staying with his mother at her unit in the complex, killed Doris Templeton inside of her apartment, put her body into a chest and loaded it into the back of his car.

The vehicle, with the body inside, was discovered by investigators in the parking lot of Templeton’s employer on November 12, 2019. An autopsy performed by Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head.

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