EWING — More than a year after College of New Jersey freshman John Fiocco Jr. was found dead in a landfill after disappearing from his dorm in 2006, a mentally ill TCNJ graduate admitted to several people that he had killed Fiocco, attorneys for the dead student's parents alleged in civil court yesterday.

Attorneys for Susan and John Fiocco Sr. made the bombshell revelation as they argued against TCNJ’s motion to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the school by the couple.

The attorneys said the graduate, who was never charged and was identified in court only as John Doe, sneaked into Wolfe Hall dormitory through lax security measures and killed Fiocco, 19, of Mantua, who had gone to sleep drunk. The attorneys accused TCNJ of gross negligence and asked a judge to send the case to trial.

“John Fiocco did what every freshman in college does. He went to a party and got drunk,” said Christine O’Hearn, an attorney for the Fioccos. “Then he did the responsible thing and went back to his dorm room to sleep. That night, doors in the dorm were propped open for at least a 1½-hour window. John Doe admitted to more than one person that he went into the dorm and killed him.”

Fiocco’s body was found in a landfill in Bucks County, Pa., in April 2006, a month after he vanished from the Ewing campus. It has long been speculated by authorities that he was killed somehow by the trash compacting system at the bottom of Wolfe Hall, where police found his blood in the days after he disappeared. Yesterday was the first time anyone has named a suspect in the case.

The State Police, who have led the investigation of Fiocco’s death, would not comment on whether they have identified any suspects.

“We interviewed close to 100 people in the case,” spokesman Lt. Stephen Jones said. “Many of them supplied information but no charges have been filed against anyone at this point.”

Jones said one of those interviewed was John Doe, but refused to elaborate on the nature of the interview.

The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office would not comment on the John Doe allegations. The case remains open.

In court yesterday attorneys for The College of New Jersey sought to have the Fiocco’s lawsuit dismissed.

The lawyers from the Attorney General’s Office who are defending the state institution argued the school is protected from civil suits under New Jersey’s Tort Claims Act and its Charitable Immunity Act.

Even if those immunities don’t apply in this case, the college is not responsible for Fiocco’s death because it is not clear how he died, Deputy Attorney General Karen Jordan argued.

“We don’t know if he walked out himself. We don’t know if someone walked in and did something,” she said.

“There needs to be a link between the alleged negligence” and Fiocco’s death.”

She further argued that security at Wolfe Hall is adequate and that the school cannot be held responsible if students prop open security doors that are supposed to remain locked, a fact that the school disputes.

“There’s no evidence that those doors were propped open when this person could have gained entrance,” Jordan argued.

The Fioccos’ lawsuit alleges that TCNJ was well aware that dorm doors were routinely propped open, compromising the safety of students.

While there was not enough evidence to charge John Doe with Fiocco’s death, there is plenty to link him to the crime, the lawsuit argues.

He had a history of mental illness, was on campus the night Fiocco disappeared and has no alibi for the late night hours in which Fiocco disappeared, according to the complaint.

Weeks before Fiocco’s disappearance, John Doe had been committed to a mental health facility where he was diagnosed with manic depressive and bipolar disorders, the suit says.

On the weekend Fiocco disappeared John Doe was not taking his medication and was acting “manic and bizarre” according to family members, it alleges.

Two days after Fiocco disappeared John Doe was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital for a second time, according to the suit.

John Doe allegedly confessed to at least two people, one of whom contacted police, O’Hearn said.

During an interview with attorneys for the Fiocco family, John Doe’s mother allegedly said her son routinely left the house at all hours of the night and was regularly on the TCNJ campus, according to O’Hearn.

The woman said that when she heard about Fiocco’s disappearance and learned that blood was found in the garbage bin she wondered where her son had been that night.

Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez is expected to issue a ruling on the motion to dismiss the lawsuit at a later date.

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