New Jersey man allegedly caught his mom’s ex-husband urinating on her grave

In April, when Michael Andrew Murphy went to the Tappan Reformed Church Cemetery in Orangetown, New York, to grieve his mother, he was shocked to find a deli bag containing human waste on her grave.

Initially, he believed it may have originated from a dog walker. But when a second and then a third appeared in the weeks that followed, he realized something was up.

Murphy stated that when he reported the incidences to the Orangetown Police Department, he was asked if he had any idea who would be leaving the bags of human waste. During a phone interview with Insider, he stated, “We said we didn’t know anyone who truly despises my mother.”

However, the New Jersey man was desperate to discover who was responsible for vandalism of his mother’s grave.

A deli bag and trail camera were important in solving the mystery.

Murphy’s sister requested that the cemetery, located about a half-mile from the New Jersey border, install CCTV cameras to assist in identifying the individual. Murphy placed in July a trail camera that he had purchased online.

Murphy stated, “Without a doubt, we began to see blurry images of an approaching individual.” The images were blurry, but he stated he could make out the man’s face and movements as he unzipped his pants to urinate.

According to him, the face was recognizable. It resembled the man his mother, Linda Torello, who passed away in 2017, had separated from in 1974.

Murphy reported that he expressed his thoughts to a cousin, who informed him that his mother’s ex-husband worked at a deli in the neighboring town.

A deli bag of feces is left next to the grave of Linda Torello.

Michael Andrew Murphy

Murphy had a thought. He visited that deli and purchased a little quantity of cheese. He stated that the bag it arrived in was identical to ones that had been packed with faeces and placed on his mother’s grave.

Murphy stated, “As we began to connect the dots, we knew it was him.”

Murphy, intent on establishing the man’s identity, began a closer examination of the black-and-white footage captured by the trail camera. The timestamps on the surveillance tape revealed that the suspect visited the tomb daily between 6:14 and 6:18 a.m. “Every morning, he arrived religiously,” he added.

A guy approaches the grave of Linda Torello in grainy footage captured by a trail camera.

Michael Andrew Murphy

They placed an iPhone atop a second tombstone to record footage.

Then, early on the morning of September 18 at approximately 6 a.m., Murphy and his older sister decided to visit the cemetery in an attempt to acquire incriminating film.

He set his iPhone to record and placed it against the gravestone of another individual. He prayed before concealing the phone with sticks. He set it to Airplane mode so that a notification wouldn’t derail their plans.

Murphy returned to his vehicle, where he and his sister awaited the man’s arrival with bated breath. The man’s vehicle arrived shortly after 6 a.m. Murphy asserts that the vehicle included his mother’s ex-husband.

“As he approached the grave of my mother, I’ve never felt more outraged,” he added.

Murphy had never met the man, and neither had his mother. According to Murphy, all he knew about him was that his parents had a “difficult” divorce five years before to his birth and that he was an absent father to his older sister.

“We’ve got this motherf*cker,”

Murphy stated that he and his sister were crying while waiting for him to leave the cemetery. They then hit the play button on the video.

Murphy exclaimed with elation as he watched ten minutes of tape of someone urinating on his mother’s grave.

Murphy and his sister promptly reported to the police and displayed the video. That day, the Orangetown Police Department filed a case of public urinating against a 68-year-old man from Bergenfield, New Jersey.

The police department stated in a statement to Insider that a suspect had been identified with the assistance of Murphy. The incident is being investigated by the police department’s detective bureau, according to the statement.

But Murphy believed the misdemeanor charge was insufficiently severe. “I questioned, “Public urination?” And then I completely lost it “Murphy revealed. “Thus, I utilized social media. I remarked, “That’s it. I will embarrass this man by exposing him to his own community.”

Murphy’s video, which was posted on Facebook, gained widespread attention. The subject was covered by Newsweek, Daily Mail, and the New York Post. “My objective was to obtain justice,” he stated.

While Murphy was able to identify the offender, he has yet to determine why someone would do such a crime.

“It’s a mess,” he stated. My mum was a good individual.