Charge: Pizza delivery driver killed mom, kept her body in car

Jim Walsh | The Courier-Post

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EDEGWATER PARK — A pizza deliveryman is accused of killing his 77-year-old mother here and putting her body in a car before driving to his workplace, authorities say.

Brian Templeton, 53, allegedly parked the vehicle in the parking lot of a Willingboro pizza shop, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday.

It said Templeton "began utilizing his mother’s car for transportation," but that no evidence at this time shows he used the vehicle for food deliveries.

Templeton is accused of killing his mother, Doris Templeton, in her home at the Courtyards apartment complex, the prosecutor's office said.

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An investigation began Monday when an employee of the apartment complex asked police to check on the elderly woman, noting he had not seen her in more than two weeks.

Investigators on Tuesday afternoon found the victim's body in the car parked outside the pizza shop, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The body was inside a chest in the back of the car, the statement said.

An autopsy determined Doris Templeton died from blunt force trauma to her head.

Brian Templeton, who had been staying at his mother's home on the 100 block of Cornwall Court, was charged with murder Tuesday night.

He's also accused of desecration of human remains.

Templeton is being guarded at a medical facility, "where he is being treated for an ongoing condition," the prosecutor's office said.

"Upon release, he will be scheduled for a detention hearing in Superior Court," it added.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post. His interests include crime, the courts, economic development and being first with breaking news. Reach him at jwalsh@gannettnj.com.

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