A former New Jersey high school soccer star who was allegedly murdered and mutilated by one of his brothers was remembered by his other sibling as a “friend to all” whose death has brought “quite a bit of pain, anger, emptiness” during his tear-jerking funeral Saturday.
Mourners filled St. Luke Roman Catholic Church in Toms River for the funeral of Joseph Hertgen, 27, whose brother, Matthew, 31, allegedly beat and stabbed him to death with a golf club and knife on Feb. 22 — before ripping out one of his eyes, eating it and setting the family cat ablaze.
Sobs rang out as the eldest Hertgen brother, David Jr., delivered a moving eulogy, reminiscing on Joseph beating him “nearly all the time” in ping-pong and their shared love of the Yankees.
“Joe was a friend to all,” David, 34, said. “Joe had a smile that really was like sunshine — and warmth and comfort radiated from him.
“There’s not one person on earth that I would be prouder to call my brother,” he added.
David, who remained stoic but whose voice broke at times, said his brother’s death was a “tremendous loss” that came “too soon.”
“There’s quite a bit of pain, anger, emptiness, sadness and confusion,” he said. “I’m sure many of you here feel the same. We lost a very great man — and a far better person — all too soon.”
The horrific case shocked all who knew the well-heeled “all-American” family, who lived in a $1.1 million home in Toms River before moving to the Ivy league town.
Matthew tore out his brother’s eyeball and ate it and set fire to the family cat at the family’s ritzy Princeton apartment, which is blocks from the university, police sources said.
Police described the horrific scene as “gruesome” and “way overboard.”
Matthew appeared in a virtual court hearing Thursday wearing a suicide vest and tried to hang himself at Mercer County Correction Center, where he is being held later that night, a law enforcement source told The Post Friday night.
Joseph was one of three boys born to David and Debra Hertgen.
He graduated from Toms River North High School in 2016 and earned his bachelor’s at the University of Michigan.
“He played on many sports teams, loved traveling with his friends, and always enjoyed a good game of ping-pong or chess,” according to an obituary.
Joseph even competed in the Little League World Series, his brother David said in his stirring eulogy.
Joseph and Matthew were soccer stars in high school, and both played in college. Matthew attended Wesleyan University.
At the funeral, David, a minor league golfer who graduated from Coastal Carolina University with a bachelor’s degree in finance, described his youngest brother’s competitive spirit, which he said “propelled him toward success in everything.”
“Joe’s goals were set, and Joe figured out a way to achieve those goals,” he said.
Joseph went on to work as an analyst for Locust Point Capital in Red Bank, where he started in 2023.
Aside from a drunk-driving arrest that resulted in a suspended license in 2017, Matthew, who now faces life in prison, did not have any run-ins with the law.
But in the months leading up to the grisly murder, he posted lengthy, creepy poems to Facebook that described blood oozing out of eyes and “knives sharpening.”
The day before his brother’s death, the accused preppy Princeton fratricide suspect shared an eerie photo of himself laying on the floor with a cat toy.
If convicted of the heinous crimes, Hertgen faces 30 years to life in prison.
He is due back in court this week.
Joseph will be buried at Saint Gabriel’s Cemetery.
