Lakewood murder victim’s son pleads guilty, awaits sentencing

The son of the Lakewood woman found dead in her bed in June 2013 awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to her murder.

Brian Keith Cassidy, 43, entered his plea to the first-degree charge Monday in Ocean County Superior Court for the killing of Gail Conway, 61, according to information from the office of County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato.

A source close to the investigation said that Cassidy offered no concrete rationale, but simply admitted in court that he struck her with an axe.

Conway was employed at a CVS Pharmacy in Toms River. Her failure to report for work on June 25, 2013, and a lack of response by phone, prompted her supervisor to call Lakewood police.

Officers, getting no response at about 8 AM at the Sumac Court home where Conway and her son lived, entered and found her already deceased, authorities said. Blood and the condition of her remains indicated that it was a homicide, authorities said.

Investigators found a Nissan Sentra registered to Brian Cassidy in the driveway, and later established that Conway's Honda was missing.

A Lakewood detective spotted the Honda on Lakewood-Allenwood Road in neighboring Howell at about 5:29 PM. The driver, identified by police as Cassidy, stopped the car in a parking space in Deerwood Park and walked a dog near the wood line. He was arrested without incident, authorities said.

The medical examiner's finding of death by head trauma, combined with other evidence, allowed investigators to reassemble events leading to Conway's death and confirm Cassidy's involvement, authorities said.

Cassidy has been held in the Ocean County Jail on $1 million bail since his arrest on June 26, 2013. His sentencing is scheduled for November 6. The terms of his plea agreement call for 30 years in prison with no parole consideration until the time is served.