The Murdered Joseph Hoopengardner

The Murdered
Joseph L. Hoopengardner
NJ Cold Case
Ocean County

   Joseph Hoopengarder was a 44 year old plumbing business owner from Dover township New Jersey in 1981. On Saturday, January 26, his body was found in the woods of the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area. Joseph was found with 3 gunshot wounds.

He was last known to have been engaged in a conversation with a former associate during an afternoon meeting that same day.

His pickup truck was found the next day, January 27, parked in the Playdrome bowling lanes parking lot at Route 37 and Conifer Street, Toms River. The truck appeared to be wiped clean, no fingerprints were found.

The Ocean County medical examiner’s office states that Joseph had been dead only a few hours before the body was found at 2:30pm by a hunter near the intersection of Route 539 and Mule Road. His cause of death was a “laceration and hemorrhage of the brain.” He was shot three times in the head and body but the police have not determined the type of weapon used.

No motive has been publicly suggested.

Unfortunately, this is all the information that was available.

📞 If you have any information concerning the murder of Joseph Hoopengardner, please contact the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-929-2027.

Sources:

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29326154/asbury-park-press/

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1083933532:61253

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/588923578:61843

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78418985/joseph-l-hoopengardner

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/399556%3A61260

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2610437%3A61632