New Jersey Psychotherapist and Mother Found Dead in Affluent Neighborhood

A close-knit New Jersey community has been shaken after a well-known psychotherapist and mother was found stabbed to death inside her home, while questions continue to swirl about her husband’s absence from public view.

Brooke Haggerty Hanlon, 35, the daughter of prominent pharmaceutical industry attorney Joseph Haggerty, was discovered dead on June 6 at the Chester Township residence she shared with her husband, Conor Hanlon, and their young daughter, Avery.

Since the discovery, authorities have released few details about the case, declining to confirm even basic information about the investigation, including the victim’s identity. Hanlon’s grieving family has also said little publicly, including about the whereabouts of her husband.

The lack of information has unnerved residents in the affluent horse-country township, located about 90 minutes from Manhattan, particularly as detectives have continued visiting homes in the area to ask questions weeks after Hanlon’s death.

“It’s hard to put into words what a wonderful woman and mother she was,” her father, Joseph Haggerty, said when the Daily Mail visited his $1.6 million estate, roughly 10 minutes from the home where his daughter was killed.

“She was remarkable in every way. She was also very, very good at her job. She was a child therapist and really helped people,” he said.

Haggerty, who previously served as a top general counsel for major drug companies including Mylan and Aventis, said his family has been devastated by the loss. Still, he declined to discuss specific details surrounding his daughter’s death.

He was similarly guarded when asked about the current location of his 36-year-old son-in-law.

Haggerty said the couple’s toddler was fine. However it wasn’t immediately clear who was caring for her in the wake of her mother’s death.  

Meanwhile, details of the actual crime also remain vague. 

The victim, who cops have so far just described as a ’35-year-old resident’, had apparently been stabbed to death. But authorities haven’t confirmed if a knife was used, only saying the victim suffered ‘multiple sharp-force injuries’. 

The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office repeatedly declined to give further details, saying the case was still under investigation. 

Multiple concerned neighbors told the Daily Mail they all texted Conor immediately after seeing swarms of police cars and officers at the family’s home on the afternoon of June 6.

The husband has never responded and has not been seen at the house since, they said.

The Daily Mail made repeated calls to Conor and his large family but they all went unanswered. 

Cops were stationed outside the home 24/7 for at least two weeks after Hanlon’s body was discovered, neighbors said.  

When the Daily Mail visited the home, the outside lights remained on despite no one being inside what neighbors called a ‘messy’ and ‘cluttered’ abode.

Both Conor’s and Brooke’s cars were still parked in the driveway, with neighbors saying the vehicles hadn’t moved since the killing. 

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Less than 24 hours after the Daily Mail visited the home and spoke to neighbors, two detectives visited and started asking residents their own questions.

‘At first they told us there was no danger to the public but detectives are still coming around asking questions two weeks later,’ one local said. 

‘Nothing makes any sense,’ another neighbor said. ‘Why aren’t they telling us anything?’ 

Brooke Hanlon, who grew up in Chester, was most recently a licensed professional counselor and psychotherapist who worked with children, adolescents and families. 

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wake Forest University and got her master’s in counseling psychology at Northeastern University in Boston. 

She held various counseling jobs in the Boston area before moving back to her hometown around 2024. 

Her bio at LifeStance, a website for therapists and psychiatrists in nearby Bernardsville, was scrubbed not long after her death and the person who answered the phone said there was no one who could comment about her. 

The Hanlons, who tied the knot in June 2021, moved into their $550,000 home two years ago. 

Neighbors said they saw much more of Conor than his wife. 

Hanlon’s family have been tight-lipped about her death.

Her younger sister, Paige Haggerty, 28, broke her silence on Wednesday with an Instagram tribute that read:  ‘Jesus replied, “I promise that today you will be with me in paradise…” I will see you again in Paradise sister. Rest in the sweetest peace, Brooke.’

Friends, meanwhile, were shocked to hear of her death since no one had notified them. 

‘I have the chills,’ Catherine Taing, 46, who knew the couple for years when they were regulars at her diner in Brighton, Massachusetts, said. 

‘This is a complete shock,’ Taing added. ‘They were a cute couple. I knew them as far back as 2018. There was nothing about them that would make me think something like this would happen to Brooke.’ 

Jennifer Payne, who met Brooke at Northeastern in 2013 and was her close friend and roommate for several years in Boston, told the Daily Mail that she was ‘sweet’ and ‘great at her job’ but she never liked Conor. 

‘He used to flake on her a lot, he wasn’t reliable,’ Payne said. ‘I even said to her once I think you could do better but she wanted to get married and I think she was invested in him. She did not have great self-esteem. 

‘His personality was blah and he didn’t seem to have much motivation or ambition. 

‘I always felt Brooke could have done better. But I never saw him act violent or aggressive to her or anyone else.’ 

Edward Piekarz, CEO of TriCon, the construction company where Conor works, told the Daily Mail he was ‘not allowed’ to say anything about Hanlon per authorities.

Police, for their part, declined to comment.