N.J. man committed suicide in Camden County jail one day after being convicted of murdering his wife, prosecutors find
Shawn Lichtfuss, 53, had a history of sexual violence and mental health struggles, and was found guilty of first-degree murder last month for the 2021 slaying.
A Voorhees man convicted of murdering his wife last month committed suicide in the Camden County jail one day after his conviction, prosecutors said Wednesday.
On Sept. 18, a Camden County Superior Court jury found Shawn Lichtfuss, 53, guilty of first-degree murder in the fatal 2021 strangling of his wife, Stefanie Caraway.
Prosecutors said Lichtfuss confessed to putting Caraway, 38, in a chokehold at home after police were called to check on Lichtfuss’ welfare. Officers found him hours later parked at a nearby convenience store across from the Voorhees Township Police Department station.
Lichtfuss’ trial lasted six days, and jurors took around 45 minutes to deliver the conviction, Camden County prosecutors said. He was returned to the county jail to await sentencing.
But shortly after 11 p.m. the next day, corrections officers discovered Lichtfuss unresponsive in his cell, prosecutors said. Emergency lifesaving measures were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at 11:39 p.m.
A county medical examination on Sept. 22 found that Lichtfuss died by asphyxiation and that the manner of death was suicide.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office tasked the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office to conduct an independent investigation into Lichtfuss’ death that, in line with its policy on deaths in custody, is overseen by the state prosecutor’s Integrity and Accountability Office.
A spokesperson for Camden County, which oversees the jail, referred questions to the prosecutor’s office.
Caraway’s murder was not Lichtfuss’ first run-in with the law.
Court documents detailed a history of sexual violence, mental health struggles, and an extremist bent that saw Lichtfuss vandalize homes with white supremacist slogans and spray-paint pro-Palestinian messages on several Bucks County synagogues.
For the latter crimes, Lichtfuss turned himself in to police and professed a wish to return to jail to assist his recovery from mental health issues; previously he had served an eight-to-23-month sentence for statutory rape for assaulting a 13-year-old girl at a Warrington house party.
Lichtfuss eventually met and married Caraway, a manager at a local Pet Valu store. Shortly before her death, coworkers and friends took to social media to seek help in finding the couple’s whereabouts. Some expressed worries over a “concerning” post Lichtfuss had recently made online.
Later, learning she was dead, one friend commented that Caraway was “genuinely one of the most caring people I have ever met.”