Sharon Marie Thor was a 15-year-old girl with beautiful blue eyes who moved through the world with a dancer's grace. Growing up in Franklin Township, New Jersey, as the only daughter among four brothers, she was strong, protective of her younger siblings, and devoted to her family. Her greatest passion was dance, a love she had nurtured since she was four years old. Sharon attended three different dance schools, studying ballet and jazz, and dreamed of one day becoming a professional and opening her own studio. Her family remembers her constantly dancing around the house, making her older brother watch her practice her routines. Friends described her as a "light," and one kept a photo of Sharon on her desk for decades after her death.
On the evening of October 26, 1982, just two days before her 16th birthday, Sharon was getting ready to leave for her weekly ballet class in nearby Bound Brook. Around 5:30 p.m., the phone rang at her family's home on John E. Busch Avenue.
After the call, which seemed to please her, Sharon told her mother she would be right back and rushed outside without her coat or purse. A young neighborhood child later told police he saw Sharon climb into the passenger side of a car that had pulled up. Inside the vehicle were two young men with dark hair, believed to be in their late teens or early 20s.
When Sharon didn't come home, her parents reported her missing. Her mother, Sonia, told reporters she didn't believe her daughter had run away, as she took nothing with her. Family and friends began a desperate search. Three days later, on October 29, a search party of about 50 police, firefighters, and first aid squad members found Sharon's body in a wooded area off a dirt road, only a quarter-mile from her home.
An autopsy revealed Sharon had been brutally bludgeoned to death around 6:30 p.m. on the day she disappeared. She had suffered multiple fractures to her ribs and head, as well as internal hemorrhaging. Investigators found her partially nude, indicating a possible sexual assault. A cinderblock and a piece of a 2-by-4 found near her body were believed to be the murder weapons. Sharon's mother later said she believed two people had to have been involved, as her daughter, raised with four boys, would have been able to fight off a single attacker.
The homicide investigation has been carried on for decades by the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office and the Franklin Township Police Department. Over the years, detectives interviewed numerous people but were unable to make an arrest. The case was reopened in 2009 in an attempt to use DNA evidence, but it did not lead to a suspect's conviction. In March 2023, with the support of Sharon's family, investigators exhumed her body to conduct new tests with modern DNA technology.
The murder has left a permanent scar on Sharon's family and the Franklin Township community. Her mother, Sonia, wears a heart-shaped pendant with her daughter's image every day. Sharon's niece, Sam Thor, who was born years after the murder, began researching the case for a high school forensics class and has become a passionate advocate for her aunt, hoping to bring her grandmother closure. "Her biggest thing is, 'I want to know who did it before I pass away,'" Sam said. In August 2023, the Villagers Theatre in Franklin Township staged a reading of "Remembering Sharon," a play written by her former neighbor, Nicholas Pelino Jr., to raise money for a reward fund.
As of January 2026, the murder of Sharon Thor remains an active and unsolved investigation. Crime Stoppers of Somerset County has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, which has been supplemented by funds raised by the community and the theater production. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Franklin Township Police Department at (732) 873-5533 ext. 2020 or the anonymous TIPS hotline at (732) 873-7277.
