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More insight into rich fmr. Princeton soccer player, 31, charged with killing his brother, ripping out his eye, and eating it

February 27, 2025 | | Print Article

A 31-year-old former college soccer player has been charged with killing his brother, ripping out his eye, and then eating it.

Suspect Matthew Hertgen allegedly killed his brother, 26-year-old Joseph Hertgen, last Saturday at their apartment in Princeton, New Jersey, by slashing and beating him to death with a knife and golf club.

(Source: Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office)

Hertgen then called 911. When the police arrived, they found his brother’s mutilated body, in addition to a bloody knife, fork, and plate. Worse, they also found the charred remains of their cat. It turns out Hertgen had both killed his brother and the cat.

“It was gruesome,” a police source told the New York Post. “It was way overboard.”

Another local cop told the Post that the “brutality of the homicide — and in an Ivy League town — shocked most detectives.”

“It’s incredibly tragic,” a third police source said. “Matthew Hertgen came from what appeared to be a perfect, all-American family. No one could have predicted something like this would happen.”

The Post notes that both brothers were high school soccer stars and later went on to play the game in college — Matthew at Wesleyan University and Joseph at the University of Michigan.

The family was reportedly also filthy rich.

“The three Hertgen boys — Matthew, Joseph and eldest brother David, Jr. — were born into a privileged life built by their mom, Debra, and their father, wealthy tech exec David,” according to the Post.

“For decades, David has worked at WiLine Networks — a high-tech Princeton firm with annual revenue between $25 million to $100 million — where he currently serves as president and chief financial officer, according to his LinkedIn. The family originally lived in a $1.1 million home in the Jersey Shore town before moving blocks away from Princeton University,” the Post’s reporting continues.

According to those who knew the family, they were “good people.”

“The Hertgens are good people,” Joseph Mahon, who formerly coached both brothers in high school, said. “His mom and dad are great. They treated me very well. They were great to me and the boys, anything I would ask for them to do, they would do — on and off the field.”

But despite coming from a terrific background, Hertgen eventually began to lose his mind, as evidenced by the bizarre poetry he began to publish to Facebook.

“What have you created? Why have you created it? Who are you trying to strangle?” one poem he wrote reads. “And what god are you serving? I can see the knives sharpening. I can hear the arrows whizzing. I can feel my heart beating. But can he?”

“Someone sits alone in that room. That room where the walls shake. He still has a pulse. Blood still flows through his veins. But something is wrapped around him. Squeezing him. Choking him. Suffocating him,” the same poem continues.

Also, a day before the murder, Hertgen posted a selfie to Facebook showing himself lying on the floor next to one of the now-deceased cat’s toys.

Look:

His deceased brother Joseph’s social media posts differed from his like night and day.

“Meanwhile, his little brother’s social media images gave a glimpse into his as he was seen posing in front of the Eiffel Tower with friends in 2017 and enjoying ice cream on a bridge in another,” the Daily Mail notes. “Joseph was seen in another image surrounded by his University of Michigan soccer teammates.”

Hertgen has since been charged with first-degree murder, animal cruelty, and several weapons offenses. If convicted, he faces life in prison.

Prior to this incident, he was arrested for drunk driving in February of 2017 and reportedly lost his license for three months.

Vivek Saxena
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