Daughter Was Sentenced for Killing Dad, His Girlfriend After Being Cut Out of Will: Here’s What She Told the Judge

Sherry Lee Heffernan, 57, shot and stabbed her father and his girlfriend in their N.J. beachfront home

A 57-year-old Pennsylvania woman was sentenced to two life sentences in prison for the vicious murders of her father and his girlfriend at his New Jersey beach house for cutting her out of his will, say prosecutors.

Just before she was sentenced Friday, Sherry Lee Heffernan, 57, of Landenberg, broke down in tears while professing her innocence in the violent slayings of her father, John "Jack" Enders, 87, and his girlfriend, Francoise "Frenchy'' Pitoy, 75.

"I really wish I was the one who was killed, that I was the one who died,'' she said, the Asbury Park Press reports. "This is horrible pain.”

It’s “horrible to lose people you love and then be blamed for it,'' she continued. "They were priceless people, both my dad and Francoise. I will forever miss them. That's all I can say. Just sad.''

In February, a jury found Heffernan guilty of two counts of murder and weapons charges in connection with the Sept. 29, 2021, deaths of her father and his girlfriend, Francoise Pitoy, 75, at their waterfront home in Surf City, on Long Beach Island, N.J., the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said in a release at the time.

She was also convicted of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose for using a handgun and a knife in the commission of the murders, which Superior Court Judge Kimarie Rahill said were committed “with extreme depravity,” the Asbury Park Press reports.

Related: Woman Angry She’d Been Cut Out of Father’s Will Killed Him and His Girlfriend at N.J. Beach House

In the early morning hours of the day of the killings, surveillance footage from Heffernan’s father’s neighborhood showed someone jumping over a fence, then entering and leaving the oceanfront home, court records show, PennLive reported.

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The footage showed that person driving a large RV to the area at the time of the murders, which authorities later confirmed was owned by Heffernan, court records show.

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At about 5 a.m., Heffernan attacked her father and his girlfriend while they were sleeping, shooting them both in the mouth to injure them and not kill them, so they would suffer while she stabbed them, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office’s Chief Trial Attorney Michael Weatherstone said, the Asbury Park Press reports.

Calling the murders a crime of hatred, the Asbury Park Press reports, Weatherstone said Heffernan put her father in a recliner and stabbed him again and again while staring at him, face to face.

She stabbed her father 51 times and stabbed Pitoy 39 times, according to the Asbury Park Press.

Related: Pa. Woman Charged with Murdering Her Dad and His Girlfriend in N.J. Claims She's 'Being Framed'

Heffernan and her sister had recently been removed from their father’s will, according to an affidavit written by Surf City Police Detective Sgt. Victor Rice, NJ.com reported.

Enders argued frequently with Heffernan and was estranged from her sister, according to interviews with relatives and neighbors, court records show.

He refused to allow Heffernan, a realtor, to list the beach home for sale, court records show, PennLive reports. The home was ultimately sold for 1.7 million in Jan. 2022, according to Zillow.

On October 4, 2021, Heffernan was taken into custody by the Pennsylvania State Police at her home in Landenberg, a day after police performed a welfare check at Ender’s home when his girlfriend’s relatives were unable to reach her.

“This defendant will spend the rest of her life in prison. This is an appropriate sentence and we are hopeful that this brings some measure of closure to the family and friends of John and Francoise,” Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said in a statement.

Ender's grandson, Andrew Vero, told the judge the crime was unimaginable. "This was his daughter, a daughter he adored, someone he loved unconditionally," the Asbury Park Press reports.

One of Pitoy's daughters, Valerie Lewis Evans, told the court that her mother "lit up every room she walked into,'' the Asbury Park Press reports.

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